Demonstrators filled streets across the United States on Saturday in a sweeping display of dissent against the Trump administration, staging more than 1,300 rallies under the banner “Hands Off!”

While protesters were animated by a wide range of grievances—cuts to education, threats to reproductive rights, fears over veterans’ benefits—the unified message was one of resistance to what many described as an authoritarian shift intensified by the influence of billionaire Elon Musk in federal affairs.

Participants carried signs such as “Hands off public schools,” “Hands off our unions,” “Hands off our freedoms,” and “Hands off our Constitution."

In Portland, Oregon, thousands marched against what organisers called an “illegal, billionaire power grab.” In Washington, D.C., demonstrators waved placards near the Washington Monument, demanding protection for the press, social security, and healthcare.

HAPPENING NOW: A MASSIVE protest is taking place in downtown Chicago for the "Hands Off!" movement against Elon Musk and Donald Trump pic.twitter.com/NVEiTFi8Iy

— Marco Foster (@MarcoFoster_) April 5, 2025

“There are so many issues,” said Kelley Laird of Rockville, Maryland. “They're coming after education, coming after health care, coming after the arts, coming after the press.”

The scale of the protests appeared to mark the most expansive mobilization since Trump’s second term began in January—an administration critics say has moved aggressively to dismantle key institutions and social protections.

The wider context

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Saturday’s events followed months of mounting unrest over mass federal layoffs, intensified immigration raids, and Musk’s growing role in public policy and infrastructure—particularly his controversial contracts with federal agencies.

In Boston, demonstrators condemned research funding cuts and the arrest of Tufts University doctoral student Rumeysa Ozturk by plainclothes federal agents. In Sylva, North Carolina, more than 300 people turned out to decry reductions in national park services, education funding, and veterans’ care.

I am The Union Activist. And I will not let this be silenced.

Rümeysa Öztürk—a student, a writer, a truth-teller—has been detained by ICE for exercising one of the most basic rights this country promises: freedom of speech.

All she did was write.
She spoke up for the equal… https://t.co/awtWV0vzUQ

— TheUnionActivist (@1UnionActivist) April 5, 2025

“We need to form community to bolster each other up because we have to be in this for the long run,” said Emily Peck, who founded a protest group chat, “Sisters of the Resistance,” shortly after Trump resumed office.

Patty Kim, a retired federal worker, said she was driven to act after feeling powerless for months. “This is the first time that I am trying to regularly participate,” she said. “I felt so frustrated and paralyzed by the bunch of things that are going on that undermine human rights and humanity in this country that I love, that I had to do something.”

Veterans Colleen Boland and Sonia Lundy say their activism stems from a continuing sense of duty.

“We took an oath long ago to protect against all enemies foreign and domestic,” said Boland, a former Army and Air Force service member. “I don’t think either Sonya or I ever imagined that we would have to kick in on the domestic piece of our oath, but we have, we are, and we will.”

Despite administration claims that Social Security remains untouched, plans to shutter dozens of offices, slash jobs, and introduce stricter ID requirements have sparked fear among those who rely on it.

“I was going to rely on this money. Is it going to be there?” asked Lundy, also a veteran.

Among the crowd in D.C. were Al and Bev Mirmelstein, both 77, who travelled from Charlottesville, Virginia, aboard a bus caravan organized by Indivisible Charlottesville. Their signs read: “Hands off our Constitution, rule of law, Social Security, free speech, health care,” and “Save our democracy.”

Reflecting on their absence from Vietnam-era protests, Al said, “I didn’t participate in that, and I feel like I’m making up for it now.”