Activists organized more than 1,000 demonstrations across the country on Saturday to protest President Donald Trump’s second-term agenda, including the Republican administration’s approach to immigration, transgender issues, and downsizing the federal government.
Over 150 groups, including labor unions, transgender activists, and civil-rights organizations, coordinated at least 1,200 protests in all 50 states. Demonstrations occurred at state capitols and in large cities as activists brandished signs criticizing Trump and Department of Government Efficiency czar Elon Musk, some of which read “Grab him by the teslacles,” “The only minority destroying this country are the billionaires,” “Morons Are Governing America,” and “Fascism will fail.”
Pro-Hamas protesters in Washington joined in on the national day of demonstrations as well, flying Hamas flags, vandalizing Department of Homeland Security vehicles, and displaying murals glorifying terrorists, the Washington Free Beacon reported.
One bystander in Washington, D.C., told National Review that he saw a crowd of keffiyeh-clad anti-Israel protesters pack up their signs into a U-Haul van at the end of Saturday’s protest.
Democratic members of Congress expressed support for activists’ causes at the Washington, D.C., protest.
“No moral person wants an economy-crashing dictator who knows the price of everything and the value of nothing,” Rep. Jamie Raskin (D., Md.) said, addressing the Trump administration’s latest round of sweeping tariffs, that went into place last week.
Demonstrators mainly spoke out against Trump’s effort to downsize federal programs and decrease the size of the federal workforce, enact tariffs, reform Social Security and Medicaid, and remove illegal aliens from the U.S.
“Congratulations to all those who took to the streets on this Hands off Day of Action,” Senator Bernie Sanders (D., Vt.) said. “Americans will stand tall against Oligarchy, Authoritarianism and Kleptocracy. We will not allow billionaires to get huge tax breaks while Medicaid and other programs are cut. And we will win.”
Human Rights Campaign president Kelley Robinson spoke on behalf of LGBTQ+ activists at the D.C. demonstration.
“The attacks that we’re seeing, they’re not just political. They are personal, y’all,” Robinson said. “They’re trying to ban our books, they’re slashing HIV prevention funding, they’re criminalizing our doctors, our teachers, our families and our lives.”
“We don’t want this America, y’all,” she continued. “We want the America we deserve, where dignity, safety, and freedom belong not to some of us, but to all of us.”