#HandsOff Protests Draw Massive Crowds Nationwide

April 5, 2025 Trump Corruption, Trump Lies

The Associated Press reports:

Opponents of President Donald Trump and billionaire Elon Musk rallied across the U.S. on Saturday to protest the administration’s actions on government downsizing, the economy, human rights and other issues.

More than 1,200 “Hands Off!” demonstrations were planned by more than 150 groups, including civil rights organizations, labor unions, LBGTQ+ advocates, veterans and elections activists. The protest sites included the National Mall in Washington, D.C., state capitols and other locations in all 50 states.

Thousands of people marched in New York City’s midtown Manhattan. In Massachusetts thousands more gathered on Boston Common holding signs including “Hands off our democracy,” “Hands off our Social Security” and “Diversity equity inclusion makes America strong. Hands off!”

The Washington Post reports:

Thousands of people crowded in front of the Washington Monument on Saturday to protest President Donald Trump and top adviser Elon Musk’s dismantling of federal agencies, alleged circumventing of due process and introduction of tariffs.

By around 1:30 p.m. the crowd swelled as far as the eye could see from all sides of the stage. A jolt of energy surged through the crowd when Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Maryland) got up to speak. Raskin attacked the Trump administration for the stock market downturn, coming after law firms and aligning with international dictators.

Organizers said they hoped Saturday’s events would be the largest Trump protests since he returned to office in January. In their permit application to the National Park Service, rally organizers in D.C. said they anticipated a crowd of 10,000. By Friday night, though, the organizers said they expected at least 20,000. Saturday afternoon, they were guessing the crowd was five times as big as they predicted.

The New York Times reports:

They came out in defense of national parks and small businesses, public education and health care for veterans, abortion rights and fair elections. They were against tariffs and oligarchs, dark money and fascism, the deportation of legal immigrants and the Department of Government Efficiency.

While crowd sizes are difficult to estimate, organizers said that more than 600,000 people had signed up to participate. On Fifth Avenue in Manhattan, the protest stretched for nearly 20 blocks. In Chicago, several thousand people flooded Daley Plaza and adjacent streets, while in the nation’s capital tens of thousands surrounded the Washington Monument. In Atlanta, the police estimated the crowd marching to the gold-domed statehouse at over 20,000.

Some demonstrators waved American flags, occasionally turned upside down to signal distress. Many, especially federal workers and college students, were afraid to speak on the record for fear of retaliation.

CNN reports:

Organizers say they have three demands: “an end to the billionaire takeover and rampant corruption of the Trump administration; an end to slashing federal funds for Medicaid, Social Security, and other programs working people rely on; and an end to the attacks on immigrants, trans people, and other communities.”

During the Hands Off! protest in Washington, DC, multiple representatives took to the podium to speak about the Trump administration, including Democratic Rep. Jamie Raskin of Maryland, who said there is no future with a president who has “the politics of Mussolini and the economics of Herbert Hoover.”

“Our founders wrote a Constitution that does not begin with ‘We the dictators,’ the preamble says ‘We the people,’” Raskin said in front of a crowd of hundreds holding signs slamming the administration. “No moral person wants an economy-crashing dictator who knows the price of everything and the value of nothing.”

If you attended today, please share your own photos and videos in the comments.



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