Hundreds of Angelenos attended Rep. Brad Sherman’s town hall on April 26 on the CSUN campus. The two-hour event featured a speech from the congressman, live audience polling and a lively Q&A session during which community members expressed their thoughts and concerns on various topics ranging from fire recovery efforts and homelessness to education and the first 100 days of President Donald Trump’s administration.

Sherman represents California’s 32nd District, including Northridge and the surrounding areas in the San Fernando Valley and West Los Angeles. The native Angeleno has served in Congress since 1997 and currently sits on the House Committee on Foreign Affairs and the House Committee on Financial Services.

CSUN hosted the public event after Sherman personally reached out to the school.

“As a public university, CSUN is committed to First Amendment [sic] rights and holds an important history of hosting a broad range of speakers and viewpoints as part of our public education mission,” said Wendy Shattuck, CSUN’s interim associate vice president for strategic communication and brand management.. “Congressman Sherman’s event was organized to facilitate the expression of various voices, views and perspectives. Such facilitation is in alignment with CSUN’s commitment to foster dialogue and the open exchange of ideas, principles fundamental to our academic mission.”

Sherman and many of his constituents expressed alarm and unease over the Trump administration and the actions taken by the president since his inauguration. Others directed their frustration and anger at the congressman and the Democratic Party for what multiple speakers felt was inadequate and ineffectual problem-solving on various issues, including stopping the Trump administration from implementing the president’s agenda. Republicans currently control the White House, the Senate and the House of Representatives, and conservative justices hold a 6-3 advantage on the Supreme Court.

“If Trump were to retire next week, we would have [Vice President] J.D. Vance as president, and that would not necessarily be an improvement,” Sherman said. “The 2026 elections are so important. Because either [Democrats] lose the House and we have Trump 2.0 on steroids, where he says ‘I can do anything,’ or we take back the House of Representatives and show the country that there’s another way. I don’t think we can take back the Senate, I know we can take back the House.”

One speaker expressed concern that Trump might enact martial law before the next election to maintain power.

“First, it’s important that we don’t torch the Telsas, so that we do not provide the atmosphere in which anybody can think that martial law should be declared,” Sherman responded. “Second, in order to have martial law, you need the U.S. military to impose it, and I am confident that the military will follow what the courts say.”

Sherman criticized Trump for his haphazard economic moves and a herky-jerky tariff war, which have largely soured the public’s view of the president’s economic acumen. According to a CNN/SSRS poll released earlier this week, roughly six in 10 Americans believe that the president’s policies have worsened economic conditions in the country over the past few months.

“Chaos is bluster. This idea that you can announce a tariff on a Monday, withdraw it on Wednesday, do something else on Friday, announce on Saturday that you didn’t need to do any of it at all and therefore no harm, try this in your marriage,” Sherman said. “Go home and tell your spouse that you’re leaving, that the marriage is over. Then come back the next day and see whether no harm, no foul.”

Education was particularly important for those in the Matador community who attended the town hall. Trump has followed through on many of his campaign promises regarding colleges and public education, including issuing multiple executive orders targeting diversity, equity and inclusion policies, student loan programs, college accreditation and curriculum standards.

The president has threatened to withhold federal funding to colleges and K-12 schools that “indoctrinate their children in radical, anti-American ideologies” and promote “DEI and wokeness.” Last month, Trump issued an executive order instructing his Secretary of Education, Linda McMahon, to close the Department of Education.

“The effort to abolish the Department of Education … immediately cuts aid to our local school districts — but that’s the intent. The intent is to not just not have the Department of Education, but to not provide aid to local school districts,” Sherman said. “The battle now is to keep the Department of Education. But the real battle is to make sure the federal government [continues to] fund local schools.”

Federal agents from Immigration and Customs Enforcement have detained numerous college students and faculty members over the past several weeks, including Columbia graduate Mahmoud Khalil and Tufts University graduate student Rümeysa Öztürk. Officials from the Trump administration have alleged that many of those detained engaged in activities supporting Hamas, which the U.S. has long designated as a terrorist organization, without providing evidence.

Trump claimed in an executive order that colleges have failed to prevent anti-Jewish discrimination amid “an unprecedented wave of vile anti-Semitic discrimination, vandalism, and violence against our citizens, especially in our schools and on our campuses.”

Sherman released a statement last week criticizing the Trump administration’s arrests of anti-Israel student protesters. He also expressed concerns regarding some of the protests that have taken place on college campuses following the Hamas-led attack on Israel on October 7, 2023, including at many local universities here in the Los Angeles area.

“We’ve seen a shocking wave of antisemitism on campus — including violence, destruction of property, taking over buildings, and support for designated terrorist organizations,” Sherman said in the press release. “We’ve also seen students expressing support for ideas that I personally find reprehensible — but are not in any way illegal.”

The congressman, who is Jewish, sponsored the 2004 U.S.-Israel Energy Cooperation Act, cosponsored legislation to provide funding for Israel’s Iron Dome defense system, and is currently sponsoring the “Accountability for Terrorist Perpetrators of October 7th Act.” According to his website, Sherman has been “a tireless advocate for the defense of Israel in Congress” for years.

Sherman’s continued support for Israel and his voting record in favor of U.S. military aid drew roughly two dozen protesters outside the Premier America Credit Union Arena during the town hall. These included individuals from both within and outside the CSUN community. Among those Matadors voicing their disapproval was Joshua Dullano, a member of the Pilipino Youth Kollective.

“Brad Sherman is a part of the [House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on East Asia and the Pacific, and] they want to send $5.5 billion of our U.S. tax dollars to fund bases, install missile systems and nuclear weapons in the Philippines, heightening tensions between the U.S. and China,” Dullano said.

He voiced concerns about unexploded ordnance from military exercises, environmental damage, displacement of Indigenous populations and a loss of local jobs.

“We want to call Brad Sherman out, and all of these military agreements. Because at the end of the day, that $5.5 billion that our taxes are paying for could be used to make our tuition cheaper here in California,” Dullano said. “Students are working two jobs, they’re living in their cars and they deserve an education here in the San Fernando Valley.”

Former CSUN mathematics professor David Klein was also among those who showed up to protest the event.

“Brad Sherman is the biggest supporter of the genocide in Palestine. He votes for every weapons transfer,” Klein said. “He sponsored a bill back in 2018 that would make it a crime to promote boycott, divestment and sanctions, [with] a million dollar fine and 10 years in prison.”

Klein advocated for boycotting Israel over a decade ago as a CSUN educator. The congressman has been openly critical of the boycott, divestment and sanctions movement that has garnered support on many college campuses over the last 18 months, stating on his office’s website that the “movement calls for the destruction of Israel and the boycott of anyone of Israeli nationality — making it inherently discriminatory and antisemitic.”

The former Matador professor and ex-faculty adviser to CSUN’s Students for Justice in Palestine expressed his belief that Democratic politicians like Sherman were primarily to blame for Trump’s electoral victory last fall.

“We’re in for a horrible time with [Trump], but the Democrats didn’t offer much of an alternative. They were offering the status quo,” Klein said. “And the genocide in Palestine helped sink their electoral chances.”

Sherman’s office released a press release following the town hall that lauded “the district’s strong civic engagement and commitment to holding leaders accountable.” The congressman stated he was “proud to represent a district that cares deeply about the future of our democracy and isn’t afraid to speak out.” His office did not respond to requests for comment from The Sundial.

CSUN Associated Students President Katie Karroum attended the event and was pleased with the number of community members who showed up and participated.

“I think it’s important that CSUN highlights people that are in politics, so that the community has a more accessible way of getting that [face] time,” she said. “But then again, we have people in the community that don’t agree with them, and I think it’s important for them to also show up and make themselves present.”

Karroum said she hopes to see more events like Sherman’s town hall happen on campus. She stressed the importance of people continuing to participate regardless of whether they support the speaker.

“I’m glad that we have people who don’t support him here making their voices heard, because politicians should be hearing these things,” she said. “Everyone should be engaging in discourse like this.”