Millions of people took part in protests against President Donald Trump and Elon Musk across all 50 states and globally on Saturday, organized by a pro-democracy movement in response to what they call a “hostile takeover” and attack on American rights and freedoms.
Over 1,400 “Hands Off!” mass-action protests were held at state capitols, federal buildings, congressional offices, Social Security’s headquarters, parks and city halls throughout the entire country – anywhere “we can make sure they hear us,” organizers said. “Hands Off!” demands “an end to this billionaire power grab.”
“Whether you are mobilized by the attacks on our democracy, the slashing of jobs, the invasion of privacy, or the assault on our services – this moment is for you,” the event flyers state. “We are setting out to build a massive, visible, national rejection of this crisis.”
Nearly 600,000 people had signed up to attend the events, some of which took place in major cities like London and Paris, according to Indivisible, one of the organizations leading the movement in collaboration with a nationwide coalition that includes civil rights organizations, veterans, women’s rights groups, labor unions and LGBTQ+ advocates.
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.”
CNN has reached out to the White House for a statement.
State representatives speak at protests
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 thousands gathered at the Washington Monument, holding signs condemning the administration. “No moral person wants an economy-crashing dictator who knows the price of everything and the value of nothing.”
Rallygoers traveled from across the country in a show of force at the nation’s capital over concerns of the administration’s policies. Demonstrators on the National Mall chanted, “Hey ho, Trump’s gotta go,” while holding signs reading “Protect our Constitution” and “Hands off our rights.”
“If you want a country that still believes in due process, we have to fight for it,” said Minnesota Democratic Rep. Ilhan Omar at the Washington protest. “If you believe in a country where we take care of our neighbors, look after the poor and make sure our children have a future they can believe in, we have to fight for it.”
Florida Rep. Maxwell Frost also spoke, urging people to take action by protesting, donating to mutual aid, participating in direction action and focusing on legislative strategies.
“Throughout human history, authoritarians, they’re never satisfied with the power they have, and so they test the bounds, they push the limits, they break the law, and then they look at the public to see if they’re quiet or if they’re loud,” said Frost
In Los Angeles, protesters marched along a 1-mile loop toward City Hall, chanting “Power to the People” and wielding signs with messages like “Hands Off Education” and “Resist, Resist.”
Since Trump took office, his administration has been vocal about its efforts to cut federal spending, regardless of who it may harm. Thousands of federal workers have been laid off or issued immediate termination notifications as part of Trump and Musk’s plan to downsize the federal government.
And Musk, the world’s richest man, has aggressively pushed policies to reduce spending as the head of the so-called Department of Government Efficiency, all while repeatedly misleading the public about federal spending.
He has also boasted that he put USAID — an agency that feeds some of the world’s poorest, most desperate people and has saved millions of lives — “in the wood chipper.”
They dismantled foreign aid programs that support fragile democracies abroad and put on leave federal workers who protect US elections at home in a move that current and former officials say abandons decades of American commitments to democracy.
The Social Security Administration, responsible for monthly benefits to around 73 million Americans, is now in turmoil after a massive reorganization, including cutting thousands of employees.
Trump and his team have also taken extraordinary measures to crack down on immigration, aggressively pressuring ICE to pick up the pace of migrant arrests and touting mass deportation plans despite the administration making multiple missteps in recent weeks, including mistakenly deporting a Salvadoran man.
“They tell us that immigrants are stealing our jobs, but they’re the ones shipping jobs overseas and hiring corporate lawyers to go and union bust,” said Frost.
“They tell us that trans people are a threat to our children, but they’re the ones dismantling public education. They’re the ones denying the climate crisis. They’re the ones poisoning our planet. They’re the ones doing nothing about the national public health emergency of gun violence,” Frost added.
The Trump administration has frequently questioned climate science and said it will roll back major climate policies, including rules that target pollution from vehicles and power plants, in a major blow to America’s progress on clean air, clean water and climate action. Trump has also ordered the federal government to re-evaluate its gun policies and all ongoing litigation that could restrict Americans’ gun rights.
Frost called the current state of politics in America an “insidious rise of authoritarianism” fueled by “corrupt billionaires and mega corporations” who think they have a right to control all aspects of the lives of their citizens, including freedom of speech.
The arrest of Mahmoud Khalil, a Palestinian refugee whose green card was revoked over his involvement in demonstrations at Columbia University, has raised chilling questions about whether people can truly exercise their constitutionally protected right to free speech.
“Our communities are paying the price while the Trumps and Musks of the world cash in. It’s not just about money – it’s about power,” Hands Off! organizers wrote. “This administration is targeting everybody who isn’t part of the 1% – veterans, kids, seniors, farmers, immigrants, transgender people, and political opponents. All to consolidate power and reward their allies.”
Although protests across the country were largely peaceful, in downtown Lafayette, Indiana, a man took a long gun out of his car and approached the crowd.
Lafayette Police say the man attempted to make a lawful turn at an intersection near the Tippecanoe County Courthouse but was blocked by protesters in the street. The man got out of his truck and, according to the police statement, was headbutted by a protester after tensions escalated between him and the crowd of demonstrators.
The man then returned to the truck and got a gun from his vehicle, which he later described as an act of self-defense, before placing it back in his truck, the statement reads.
Lafayette police officers detained the man after receiving reports that he had pointed the weapon at protesters. However, police said that after investigating the incident, they determined he had not aimed the firearm at anyone and released him.
Labor union presidents speak out
Two federal employee union presidents spoke out on Saturday against Trump and his policies targeting federal workers at the protest in DC.
“(The) Trump administration is absolutely destroying public services in this country. That’s right. They claim to be making government more efficient,” said National Federation of Federal Employees President Randy Erwin. “That is a joke, people. That is a cruel joke. They’re doing the exact opposite.”
NFFE and the American Federation of Government Employees are a part of a coalition of unions that filed a lawsuit in the US District Court in San Francisco this week seeking to stop the Trump administration from ending collective bargaining rights for many federal employees.
“They thought we were easy targets. But let me tell you something about union members and veterans. We will not be intimidated. I’m a veteran myself. I’m an Army veteran. We will not be silenced. We will not bow down. We’ll stand up and say hands off our union. We’ll stand up and say hands off our contract,” AFGE President Everett Kelley said.
Erwin called the move by the Trump administration “the biggest assault on collective bargaining that we have ever seen in this country.”
“AFGE has been in the courts, in the media, in Congress, and here with you on the street. And not only are we in the court, but we are kicking their behind while we’re in the court, and we’re going to continue to kick their behind,” Kelley said.
Since taking office, Trump has sought to reshape the federal workforce. In one of his earliest moves, he ended remote work for government employees and agencies were provided guidance on how they can override union collective bargaining agreements on telework and remote work.
At least 121,361 workers have been fired from federal agencies so far, as of CNN’s latest tally on March 28.
CNN’s Julia Vargas Jones reported from Los Angeles. CNN’s Julianna Bragg and Sarah Dewberry contributed to this report.
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