In what organizers anticipate will be the biggest single day of protest against President Donald Trump and his billionaire buddy Elon Musk since the administration began its rapid-fire attempt to impose a conservative imprint on government, 1,200 protests are scheduled to take place across the United States on Saturday.
As the protests began, thousands of people poured into downtown Washington under overcast skies and light rain. More than 20,000 people were anticipated to join the rally at the National Mall, organizers told Reuters.
Trump’s opponents will be able to express their disapproval of his numerous executive orders in large numbers thanks to the protests in the US. The event website states that about 150 activist groups have registered to take part.
Ezra Levin, co-founder of Indivisible, one of the organizations planning Saturday’s events, said, “This is a massive demonstration that is sending a very clear message to Musk and Trump and congressional Republicans and all the goose-stepping allies of MAGA that we don’t want their hands on our democracy, on our communities, on our schools, and our friends and our neighbors.”
In Washington, DC, protesters were waiting for busses to carry them downtown along Connecticut Avenue, a bustling route. They were holding signs that read, “Deport Musk” and “No Kings in the USA.”
Hundreds of people gathered early in front of the platform beneath the Washington Monument, including retired Princeton, New Jersey biomedical expert Terry Klein.
In protest of Trump’s policies on “everything from immigration to the DOGE stuff to the tariffs this week, to education,” she said she traveled down to the demonstration.
“I mean, everything that makes America what it is—all of our institutions—is being attacked,” she remarked.
In order to “demonstrate against the injustice that is dominating this country, the institutions that are being stolen from the American people, the confusion in the courts, the fact that we have a population that I believe is essentially racist,†75-year-old retired trial lawyer and Army veteran David Madden said he flew from Dayton, Ohio.
More than 200,000 of the 2.3 million federal employees have lost their jobs as a result of Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency team slicing through the government with Trump’s approval. The endeavor has occasionally been haphazard, necessitating the recall of necessary professionals.
Over 20,000 employees, or up to 25% of the Internal Revenue Service’s workforce, were laid off starting Friday.
In protest of cuts to the agency that provides benefits to the elderly and disabled, several hundred people gathered on Saturday outside the headquarters of the Social Security Administration, a major DOGE target, outside Baltimore.
Following the agency’s recent announcement of 7,000 personnel layoffs and the termination of phone services for millions of claimants, the atmosphere was one of defiance and rage.
For weeks, DOGE personnel have been inside the structure. Handmade signs with messages like “Where Has My Country Gone?” “FIRE DOGE!” “Send Musk to Mars!” and “Hands off Social Security!” were held by several of the largely seniors in the audience.
In front of the audience, Linda Falcao, who will turn 65 in two months, explained that she has been contributing to the Social Security fund since she was sixteen.
She remarked, “I’m scared, I’m mad, I’m furious, and I’m confused that this could happen to the United States.” “I’m devastated, but I do love America. I must have my money.
