"Hands Off!": Trump's critics organize more than 1,200 demonstrations across the country to protest against the government's adjustments

This Saturday, April 5, more than 150 political groups and civil rights organizations, labor unions, LGBT advocates, veterans and electoral activists organized more than 1,200 demonstrations across the U.S. under the slogan of 'Hands Off!', with the aim of expressing their discontent against President Donald Trump's policies and the federal government's austerity led by the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), led by tycoon Elon Musk.

In particular, demonstrators protested against the federal government cuts, including mass layoffs of federal employees and agency closures. They also took a stand against President Trump's deportation plans, executive orders against DEI policies, the closing of local Social Security Administration offices and other issues mentioned on signs and slogans throughout the day.

According to AP, protesters rallied on the National Mall in Washington D. C., state capitols and hundreds of other points in all 50 states across the country. Some media outlets, such as CNN, said the protests mobilized millions of people across the U.S..

While the protests were generally peaceful, there were even videos of people insulting both President Trump and Elon Musk, who was perhaps the most under-appreciated figure of the day, with protesters in the capital even throwing objects at a photo of him in the middle of a demonstration.

Lead organizers of the protests pointedly raised three broad demands: to "end to the billionaire takeover and rampant corruption of the Trump administration; an end to slashing federal funds for Medicaid, Social Security, and other programs working people rely on; and an end to the attacks on immigrants, trans people, and other communities."

"The attacks that we’re seeing, they’re not just political. They are personal, y’all," said Kelley Robinson, the president of the group Human Rights Campaign, who spoke at the D.C. rally.

"They’re trying to ban our books, they’re slashing HIV prevention funding, they’re criminalizing our doctors, our teachers, our families and our lives. This is Donald Trump’s America and I don’t want it y’all. We don’t want this America, y’all. We want the America we deserve, where dignity, safety and freedom belong not to some of us, but to all of us."

Videos on social networks showed how thousands of people rallied not only in Washington DC, but in major cities across the country, including New York, Boston, Chicago, among others.

For example, a major rallying point was Boston Common park in Massachusetts, where protesters displayed banners with the slogans “Hands off our democracy,” “Hands off our Social Security” and “Diversity equity inclusion makes America strong. Hands off!”; according to an AP report.

While Saturday's protests were the most massive protests against the Trump administration to date, they still fall far short of the impact of other historic mobilizations during his first term, such as the massive 2017 Women's March or the race riots that followed the death of George Floyd in the summer of 2020.