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.
Protesters form a human banner on Ocean Beach, San Francisco.Credit: AP
“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.
Roger Broom, 66, a retiree from Delaware County, Ohio, was one of hundreds who rallied at the Statehouse in Columbus. He said he used to be a Reagan Republican but has been turned off by Trump.
“He’s tearing this country apart,” Broom said. “It’s just an administration of grievances.”
Hundreds of people also demonstrated in Palm Beach Gardens, Florida, a few miles from Trump’s golf course in Jupiter, where he spent the morning at the club’s Senior Club Championship. People lined both sides of PGA Drive, encouraging cars to honk and chanting slogans against Trump.
Demonstrators gather in Civic Center Plaza in San Francisco.Credit: AP
“They need to keep their hands off of our Social Security,” said Archer Moran of Port St Lucie, Florida.
“The list of what they need to keep their hands off of is too long,” Moran said. “And it’s amazing how soon these protests are happening since he’s taken office.”
The president planned to go golfing again on Sunday, according to the White House.
Asked about the protests, the White House said in a statement: “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.”
John Vesey listens to speakers during a Hands Off! rally at Rosa Parks Circle in Grand Rapids, Michigan.Credit: AP
Activists have staged nationwide demonstrations against Trump and Musk multiple times since Trump returned to office. But before Saturday, the opposition movement had yet to produce a mass mobilisation like the Women’s March in 2017, which brought thousands of women to Washington after Trump’s first inauguration, or the Black Lives Matter demonstrations that erupted in multiple cities after George Floyd’s killing by police in Minneapolis in 2020.
In Charlotte, North Carolina, protesters said they were supporting a variety of causes, from Social Security and education to immigration and women’s reproductive rights.
“Regardless of your party, regardless of who you voted for, what’s going on today, what’s happening today is abhorrent,” said Britt Castillo, 35, of Charlotte. “It’s disgusting, and as broken as our current system might be, the way that the current administration is going about trying to fix things – it is not the way to do it. They’re not listening to the people.”
AP
Get a note directly from our foreign correspondents on what’s making headlines around the world. Sign up for our weekly What in the World newsletter.
