LOS ANGELES — Tens of thousands of people took to the streets across the country on Saturday to protest President Donald Trump and a wide range of his administration’s actions, including government downsizing, attacks on the rights of immigrants and transgender people, and tariffs that are roiling economies across the globe.
More than 500,000 people nationwide RSVP’d to attend one of the 1,200 protests organized by Hands Off!, Indivisible, MoveOn and other organizations, many tied to progressive politics.
They took to the streets in New York, Washington, Boston, Atlanta, San Francisco and dozens of other cities from coast to coast. Demonstrators in Sonoma County wine country sang along to Woody Guthrie folk songs. Drumbeating activists in the conservative heart of Orange County drowned out the shouts of a smattering of Trump supporters who waded into a Huntington Beach rally.
By late afternoon, thousands of demonstrators turned out in Pershing Square in downtown Los Angeles to protest both the Trump administration and the role of billionaire advisor Elon Musk. The messages on demonstrator’s placards ranged from outrage to humor as speakers rallied the crowd for a march to City Hall. The political street theater included an Uncle Sam, a woman costumed as a skeleton wearing a dress emblazoned with an image of Trump, and a speaker who identified himself as a trillionaire for Trump. Floating overhead, a giant Humpty Dumpty balloon sported a Trump hairdo.
“This is amazing. I’m crying now because when we came in February, we only covered one corner,” said Oxnard resident Katherine Clark Goldman at a Ventura demonstration with some 1,000 attendees who lined the street for two blocks.
In Los Angeles, several hundred people with signs lined two busy intersections in Los Feliz.
“We the people are pissed,” one sign read. “Canada not for sale,” read another. Sporadic chants punctuated a steady stream of tambourines, car horns, applause and cheering.
Dunbar Dicks, 47, helped organize the protest. He has volunteered with Indivisible Hollywood since 2016 and said that the group came back to life and “started organizing soon after the inauguration.”
The coordinated “Hands Off!” protests were the first big demonstrations in opposition to Trump’s second term.
“We feel like we have a duty to exercise our First Amendment rights and we are just doing this in between our day job and picking our kids up from day care,” Dicks said.
Behind him, dozens chanted, “This is what democracy looks like.”
Dicks, of Studio City, said that Republicans “are counting on us not to show up.”
His main concerns: the “dismantling of the social safety net and governing by fiat.”
“This mass mobilization day is our message to the world that we do not consent to the destruction of our government and our economy for the benefit of Trump and his billionaire allies,” according to the event description for the “Hands Off” protest. “Alongside Americans across the country, we are marching, rallying, and protesting to demand a stop [to] the chaos and build an opposition movement against the looting of our country.”
In Washington, home to the biggest swath of employees whose agencies have been gutted by Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency, a sea of people swarmed the National Mall, chanting “Hey hey, ho ho, Musk and Trump have got to go!”
Others carried signs reflecting their status as federal workers, including “I took an oath to defend the Constitution” and “Feds’ Jobs Matter.”
“It does give me hope to see this many people here making this protest,” said Terry Manzo, 86, who sported a hat covered in political pins. “In the D.C. area, there are so many [federal employees] who are so afraid.”
Manzo handed out pink postcards she’d handmade to send to elected officials, blasting them for not curtailing the actions of Musk and Trump.
Musk’s DOGE has led the effort to drastically reduce the scope of the federal government through large-scale job cuts and mass layoffs of tens of thousands of employees.
This week, the Trump administration announced that it would impose sweeping tariffs on imports from all countries on Saturday, tanking the stock market, stoking fears of a U.S. recession and raising questions about whether businesses would pass on the higher costs to consumers.
Trump also announced Friday that his administration isn’t moving forward with a Biden-era proposal that aimed to expand eligibility for anti-obesity drugs to millions of Americans on Medicaid or Medicare.
The White House rescheduled spring garden tours intended for Saturday, “out of an abundance of caution and to ensure the safety of all within proximity to public demonstrations planned near the White House,” according to a news release.
“It’s because of protests across the country that we have voting rights, that we have civil rights … and it’s protests like this across the country that got my ass home from Vietnam,” Rep. Mike Thompson, D-Calif., a recipient of the Purple Heart for combat injuries, exhorted several thousand rally attendees in Sonoma Plaza, according to the Press Democrat. “You are on the right side of history!”
Whitney Sherman, 38, who traveled from Philadelphia to Washington for the protest, said she has been despairing over Democrats, who have largely failed to assemble a coordinated response to Trump and the Republican-controlled Congress. She pointed to Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., who have toured the country in recent weeks for rallies they’ve dubbed “Fighting Oligarchy.”
While their events have drawn thousands, they’re only “independent voices,” Sherman said.
“For all the bad things you can say about [Republicans], they have rallied around a single person. Not saying falling in line is a good thing … but it’s effective,” she said. “We need our own Project 2029.”
In Atlanta, thousands marched toward the Georgia State Capitol, holding signs that read, “Trade war makes us poor” and “Honk if you hate Elon Musk.”
David Williams, 79, who attended the rally, told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution that he had built up his retirement savings for more than 45 years. He called the Trump administration’s handling of the economy and “attack on Social Security nothing but outrageous.”
“They’ve gone way, way too far,” he said. “It’s so obvious he’s destroying our basic rights with no regard for the rule of law. He’s a train wreck.”
