Dem
47
GOP
53
After months of not doing anything, opponents of the Trump regime demonstrated en masse at locations all over the U.S. on Saturday. Some reports said 1,200 locations while others put it as high as 1,400. The people were protesting dozens of administration policies and especially Elon Musk's (most likely illegal) efforts to single-handedly dismantle the U.S. government and fire hundreds of thousands of people in the process. Below are photos of the protests in six cities.
It you want to see many more photos, the Associated Press has a large collection of them. So does NPR. If you are interested in some of best signs people had, here is a collection.
If you prefer videos, here is one:
If you go to YouTube and search for "Hands Off" you will find dozens of them, as many local TV stations covered the action in their cities.
And it wasn't just in the U.S. There were protests in many foreign cities as well. Here's one from London:
The Hands Off! organizers said that 600,000 people signed up, but many more may have come without signing up. They issued a toolkit for planners to use in their own city, but for the most part, the events were organized locally without any central direction. The toolkit listed three key demands:
The protests took different forms in different cities. In some there were marches and in others there were rallies with speakers. People held signs with many different messages. Some people were defending education, health care, the press, the arts, science, veterans care, free speech, Social Security, and much more. Some people were protesting all the firings, without regard to the department. Some protested the way the administration picked people off the streets and disappeared them, a practice common in dictatorships. There were many signs blaming Elon Musk for the administration's actions.
At the National Mall in D.C., there were 100,000 demonstrators. Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-MD) told the crowd: "Our founders wrote a Constitution that did not begin with 'We the dictators.'" He slammed Trump for many policies, including the new tariffs: "Their tariffs are not only imbecilic—they're illegal, they're unconstitutional, and we're going to turn this around." Other speakers included Reps. Ilhan Omar (DFL-MN) and Maxwell Frost (D-FL).
There were no reports of disturbances or arrests at any of the protests.
Will over 1,000 protest events change Trump's plans? We doubt it, although Trump could speed up Musk's planned departure, since the head DOGEy is very unpopular. Republican representatives and senators up in 2026 will probably take note of the energy out there. Many of them will probably realize that if there is a recession, the opposition will only grow and some members in purple (or even purple-red) districts could be toast. We haven't reached a tipping point yet, but that could yet happen if things get worse.
Another thing the marches and rallies will do is give some people hope. They thought they were alone, but now they know there are millions of other people who think the same way they do. In any battle, especially a long one, morale is important and Saturday will be a morale booster for many people.
We have had reports (and sometimes pictures) from some readers about the protests, and we're going to run an item tomorrow. If anyone else has reports/pictures, please consider sending them to comments@electoral-vote.com. (V)