Angry with the way US President Donald Trump is making quick changes and running the country after assuming office earlier this year, crowds of people took to the streets, marched, and rallied in scores of American cities on Saturday.
The latest agitation comes as a part of the biggest day of demonstrations yet by an opposition movement trying to regain its momentum after the shock of the Republican’s first weeks in office.
So-called Hands Off! demonstrations were organised for more than 1,200 locations in all 50 states by more than 150 groups, including civil rights organisations, labour unions, LBGTQ+ advocates, veterans and elections activists. The rallies appeared peaceful, with no immediate reports of arrests.
Thousands of protesters across American cities, including Midtown Manhattan, Anchorage, Alaska, and multiple state capitols assailed the US President and billionaire Elon Musk’s actions on government downsizing, the economy, immigration, and human rights.
On the West Coast, in the shadow of Seattle’s iconic Space Needle, protesters held signs with slogans like “Fight the oligarchy.” Protesters chanted as they took to the streets in Portland, Oregon, and Los Angeles, where they marched from Pershing Square to City Hall.
Demonstrators voiced anger over the administration’s moves to fire thousands of federal workers, close Social Security Administration field offices, effectively shutter entire agencies, deport immigrants, scale back protections for transgender people, and cut funding for health programs.
Musk, a Trump adviser who runs Tesla, SpaceX, and the social media platform X, has played a key role in the downsizing as the head of the newly created Department of Government Efficiency. He says he is saving taxpayers billions of dollars.
On being questioned about the protests, the White House said in a statement that President Trump’s position is clear: he will always protect Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid for eligible beneficiaries. Meanwhile, the Democrats’ stance is giving Social Security, Medicaid, and Medicare benefits to illegal aliens, which will bankrupt these programs and crush American seniors.”
Kelley Robinson, president of the Human Rights Campaign advocacy group, criticized the administration’s treatment of the LGBTQ+ community at the rally at the National Mall in Washington, D.C., where Democratic members of Congress also took the stage.
“The attacks that we’re seeing, they’re not just political. They are personal, y’all,” Robinson said. “They’re trying to ban our books, they’re slashing HIV prevention funding, and they’re criminalizing our doctors, our teachers, our families, and our lives.” “We don’t want this America, y’all,” Robinson added. “We want the America we deserve, where dignity, safety, and freedom belong not to some of us, but to all of us.”
In Boston, demonstrators brandished signs such as “Hands off our democracy” and “Hands off our Social Security.” Mayor Michelle Wu said she does not want her children and others’ to live in a world in which threats and intimidation are government tactics and values like diversity and equality are under attack. “I refuse to accept that they could grow up in a world where immigrants like their grandma and grandpa are automatically presumed to be criminals,” Wu said.
(With PTI Inputs)
