Demonstrators from Alaska to New Hampshire flooded the streets in protest of President Donald Trump’s second term to mark a “National Day of Action.”
Americans in all 50 states on Saturday participated in 900 events, which were largely organized by the decentralized 50501 movement. The demonstrations took different forms — some were marches, others were food drives, and others still were voter registration events — but all focused on the same purpose: to rise against what organizers call “authoritarian threats, political overreach, and the erosion of democracy.”
It’s not immediately clear how many people participated in Saturday’s protests but photos captured swaths of Americans’ discontent with the administration’s dismantling of government agencies, treatment of immigrants, and attitude toward the rule of law.
A day earlier, demonstrations across the country cropped up near Tesla dealerships in a statement about the involvement of Elon Musk, the world’s richest person and Trump’s senior adviser. The tech billionaire has been tasked with slashing government contracts, shrinking the federal workforce, and reducing the federal government’s real estate footprint. Saturday’s protests come just two weeks after the nationwide “Hands Off” protests when millions took to the streets to denounce the efforts of Trump and Musk.
Teri Lenfest, a 79-year-old docent at California Academy of Sciences and San Francisco Zoo, showed up to the San Francisco protest dressed as Captain America with “punch Nazis” written on a shield.
“I've been protesting for 60 years…There has never been anything like this in my life. Never,” Lenfest told The Independent. “It’s horrifying and terrifying. I'm watching my country be destroyed really fast and I feel hopeless,” she said.
Lenfest, who served in the Women’s Army Corps, said: “This is my country, I fought for this country, I was in the service, I put my life on the line for this country and the Trump administration has dismantled everything – they ignore the laws, they flaunt their criminality, they're disgusting, rude, vulgar.” Trump has not been formally accused of committing a crime related to the policies implemented during his second term.
Protesters in Chicago, New York and Washington D.C. held up signs calling to “Free Kilmar,” a reference to Kilmar Abrego Garcia, a wrongfully deported Salvadoran father living in Maryland whom the Trump administration has labeled as a MS-13 gang member. Abrego Garcia’s family and his attorneys have denied these claims.
He was sent to a brutal mega-prison known as CECOT in El Salvador last month. The administration admitted it made an “administrative error” and judges — as well as the Supreme Court — have ordered the administration to “facilitate” his release, but Trump and El Salvador President Nayib Bukele have refused to commit to do so. This week during a trip to El Salvador, Maryland Senator Chris Van Hollen learned that Abrego Garcia had been moved from CECOT to a different facility; he remains in the country while his attorneys fight for his return.
Some demonstrators held up signs saying “due process is for everyone” while others carried signs boasting the names of international students who have been detained by immigration enforcement authorities. Columbia graduate student Mahmoud Khalil, Tufts University doctoral student Rumeysa Ozturk, and Columbia senior Mohsen Mahdawi were among the names plastered on signs. Mahdawi, a student activist and green card holder, was arrested this week when he arrived for a citizenship interview. Some protesters held up signs saying they were “kidnapped” by Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
“Rule of law is America!” one sign held by a New York City protester read. In recent weeks, Trump officials have been accused of making “likely unconstitutional" moves, removing U.S. residents to be held in foreign prisons “without due process”, and defying court orders In one case, a judge said he found probable cause to hold the administration in criminal contempt of court.
Paul Wermer, a retired 70-year-old, marched in San Francisco while carrying a sign that said: “Honor the Constitution.”
Wermer told The Independent: “My dad was a refugee from the Nazis and what I see happening here is in many ways similar to what I heard him talking about as a child.”
“People being disappeared, picked up off the street…The strange relationship between Trump and Putin and Trump and Netanyahu is vaguely reminiscent of Hitler and Mussolini, or Hitler and Stalin before they turned on each other,” Wermer continued.
Others also made comparisons to dictators, including citing Trump’s own declaration that he is a “king.”
“No kings, no dictator, no Trump!” one demonstrator’s sign read just outside the White House gate. Another sign nearby depicted Trump with a Hitler-esque mustache along with the words: “Mein Trumpf.”
Meanwhile, the president spent the day at the Trump National Golf Club in Potomac Falls, Virginia.
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