With Nationwide Actions on Saturday, Anti-Trump Protests Show No Sign of Slowing Down
Events on Saturday included marches as well as direct community-oriented actions, including neighborhood cleanups and food drives.
People take part in a protest against President Donald Trump's policies on April 19, 2025 in New York City.
(Photo: Adam Gray/Getty Images)
Julia Conley
Apr 19, 2025
COMMON DREAMS
Two weeks after millions of people attended "Hands Off" protests across the United States, expressing outrage over President Donald Trump's unlawful deportation operation, abandonment of due process for hundreds of migrants, and spending cuts in the interest of enriching the wealthiest Americans, organizers with the "50501" movement called for 11 million people to take to the streets again on Saturday—and early reports suggested the public remains mobilized against the administration.
With Trump intensifying his attacks on federal workers, the environment, freedom of speech, and migrants in recent weeks, organizers said hundreds of events were planned on Saturday—and the protests reflected the wide array of policies that have left Americans angry and fearful about who could be victimized next by the administration.
Signs at a rally outside the Ohio Statehouse in Columbus read, "Ban the fascists, not the books" and "Trump and Vance are traitors," referring to Vice President JD Vance.
Karen Kasler of the Statehouse News Bureau reported the Columbus protest drew the "largest crowd I've seen here since the protest following the U.S. Supreme Court's Dobbs decision overturning the right to abortion in 2022."
Major gatherings also took place in Chicago, New York, and Washington, D.C.
Hunter Dunn, a spokesperson for the 50501 movement—which grew out of a post on Reddit with a call for "50 protests in 50 states on one day"—toldThe Washington Post that the demonstrations are the actions of a "pro-democracy, pro-Constitution, anti-executive overreach, nonviolent grassroots movement."
In addition to protests, organizers called for participants to take part in actions to serve their communities, such as food banks and neighborhood cleanups.
"It's all about actions that support your community against the Trump administration—strengthening your community so that they can weather these assaults on democracy," Dunn toldNPR.
The expulsion of Maryland resident Kilmar Abrego Garcia—a migrant sent by the administration to a super-max prison in El Salvador under a deal with President Nayib Bukele—was a focus for many protesters, following a week of news about his situation. Administration officials have repeatedly claimed Abrego Garcia is a "convicted gang member" and have refused to return him to the U.S. despite a Supreme Court order.
"We are not angry people, we are loving people, but that situation is enraging to us," North Carolina resident Chris Gilbert told The Washington Post at a rally in the nation's capital. "We felt called to come up here to put pressure on the Trump administration. He runs for law and order but then his actions are the opposite."
Organizers say that as Trump has broadened his attacks—overseeing a deportation campaign in which international students have been abducted by plainclothes immigration agents, some wearing masks, in unmarked vehicles—the 50501 movement has grown considerably since its first call to action in early February.
The movement's first day of protests on February 5 included about 80 events in 88 cities, and Dunn said organizers were expecting close to 1,000 events Saturday.
Another round of anti-Trump protests hits US cities
Agence France-Presse
April 20, 2025
A person shouts next to an image of US President Donald Trump as Nazi dictator Adolf Hitler, as people take part in a protest organized to 'Protect Migrants, Protect the Planet' on April 19, 2025 in New York City. (Adam Gray/Getty Images/AFP)
Thousands of protesters rallied Saturday in New York, Washington and other cities across the United States for a second major round of demonstrations against Donald Trump and his hard-line policies.
In New York, people gathered outside the city's main library carrying signs targeting the US president with slogans like "No Kings in America" and "Resist Tyranny."
Many took aim at Trump's deportations of undocumented migrants, chanting "No ICE, no fear, immigrants are welcome here," a reference to the role of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency in rounding up migrants.
In Washington, protesters voiced concern that Trump was threatening long-respected constitutional norms, including the right to due process.
The administration is carrying out "a direct assault on the idea of the rule of law and the idea that the government should be restrained from abusing the people who live here in the United States," Benjamin Douglas, 41, told AFP outside the White House.
Wearing a keffiyeh and carrying a sign calling for the freeing of Mahmoud Khalil, a pro-Palestinian student protester arrested last month, Douglas said individuals were being singled out as "test cases to rile up xenophobia and erode long-standing legal protections."
"We are in a great danger," said 73-year-old New York protester Kathy Valy, the daughter of Holocaust survivors, adding that their stories of how Nazi leader Adolf Hitler rose to power "are what's happening here."
"The one thing is that Trump is a lot more stupid than Hitler or than the other fascists," she said. "He's being played... and his own team is divided."
- 'Science ignored' -
Daniella Butler, 26, said she wanted to "call attention specifically to the defunding of science and health work" by the government.
Studying for a PhD in immunology at Johns Hopkins University, she was carrying a map of Texas covered with spots in reference to the ongoing measles outbreak there.
Trump's health chief Robert F. Kennedy Jr., a noted vaccine skeptic, spent decades falsely linking the measles, mumps, and rubella (MMR) jab to autism.
"When science is ignored, people die," Butler said.
In deeply conservative Texas, the coastal city of Galveston saw a small gathering of anti-Trump demonstrators.
"This is my fourth protest and typically I would sit back and wait for the next election," said 63-year-old writer Patsy Oliver. "We cannot do that right now. We've lost too much already."
On the West Coast, several hundred people gathered on a beach in San Francisco to spell out the words "IMPEACH + REMOVE," the San Francisco Chronicle reported.
Others nearby held an upside-down US flag, traditionally a symbol of distress.
Organizers hope to use building resentment over Trump's immigration crackdown, his drastic cuts to government agencies and his pressuring of universities, news media and law firms, to forge a lasting movement.
The chief organizer of Saturday's protests -- the group 50501, a number representing 50 protests in 50 states and one movement -- said some 400 demonstrations were planned.
Its website said the protests are "a decentralized rapid response to the anti-democratic and illegal actions of the Trump administration and its plutocratic allies" -- and it insisted on all protests being non-violent.
The group called for millions to take part Saturday, though turnout appeared smaller than the "Hands Off" protests across
Agence France-Presse
April 20, 2025
A person shouts next to an image of US President Donald Trump as Nazi dictator Adolf Hitler, as people take part in a protest organized to 'Protect Migrants, Protect the Planet' on April 19, 2025 in New York City. (Adam Gray/Getty Images/AFP)
Thousands of protesters rallied Saturday in New York, Washington and other cities across the United States for a second major round of demonstrations against Donald Trump and his hard-line policies.
In New York, people gathered outside the city's main library carrying signs targeting the US president with slogans like "No Kings in America" and "Resist Tyranny."
Many took aim at Trump's deportations of undocumented migrants, chanting "No ICE, no fear, immigrants are welcome here," a reference to the role of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency in rounding up migrants.
In Washington, protesters voiced concern that Trump was threatening long-respected constitutional norms, including the right to due process.
The administration is carrying out "a direct assault on the idea of the rule of law and the idea that the government should be restrained from abusing the people who live here in the United States," Benjamin Douglas, 41, told AFP outside the White House.
Wearing a keffiyeh and carrying a sign calling for the freeing of Mahmoud Khalil, a pro-Palestinian student protester arrested last month, Douglas said individuals were being singled out as "test cases to rile up xenophobia and erode long-standing legal protections."
"We are in a great danger," said 73-year-old New York protester Kathy Valy, the daughter of Holocaust survivors, adding that their stories of how Nazi leader Adolf Hitler rose to power "are what's happening here."
"The one thing is that Trump is a lot more stupid than Hitler or than the other fascists," she said. "He's being played... and his own team is divided."
- 'Science ignored' -
Daniella Butler, 26, said she wanted to "call attention specifically to the defunding of science and health work" by the government.
Studying for a PhD in immunology at Johns Hopkins University, she was carrying a map of Texas covered with spots in reference to the ongoing measles outbreak there.
Trump's health chief Robert F. Kennedy Jr., a noted vaccine skeptic, spent decades falsely linking the measles, mumps, and rubella (MMR) jab to autism.
"When science is ignored, people die," Butler said.
In deeply conservative Texas, the coastal city of Galveston saw a small gathering of anti-Trump demonstrators.
"This is my fourth protest and typically I would sit back and wait for the next election," said 63-year-old writer Patsy Oliver. "We cannot do that right now. We've lost too much already."
On the West Coast, several hundred people gathered on a beach in San Francisco to spell out the words "IMPEACH + REMOVE," the San Francisco Chronicle reported.
Others nearby held an upside-down US flag, traditionally a symbol of distress.
Organizers hope to use building resentment over Trump's immigration crackdown, his drastic cuts to government agencies and his pressuring of universities, news media and law firms, to forge a lasting movement.
The chief organizer of Saturday's protests -- the group 50501, a number representing 50 protests in 50 states and one movement -- said some 400 demonstrations were planned.
Its website said the protests are "a decentralized rapid response to the anti-democratic and illegal actions of the Trump administration and its plutocratic allies" -- and it insisted on all protests being non-violent.
The group called for millions to take part Saturday, though turnout appeared smaller than the "Hands Off" protests across
The Tide Is Turning Against Trump’s Big Steal
Our population has been shocked and awed, just as intended. Yet we are waking up to great effect, beginning to fight back.
Thousands of protesters gather for the Hands Off rally on the National Mall in Washington on Saturday, April 5, 2025.
(Photo: Bill Clark/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images)
Our population has been shocked and awed, just as intended. Yet we are waking up to great effect, beginning to fight back.
Thousands of protesters gather for the Hands Off rally on the National Mall in Washington on Saturday, April 5, 2025.
(Photo: Bill Clark/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images)
Joan Steinau Lester
Apr 19, 2025
Apr 19, 2025
Common Dreams
“Someday the wealthiest people, deprived of their ability to extract super-profits from developing countries, will turn their attention inward and gobble up the middle and working classes here in the U.S.”
So predicted my economics professor in 1962 at New York’s New School. These words were unbelievable to my 22-year-old ears. Picket fences were springing up all across America, accompanied by paid vacations, job security, and pensions. Expansion of our rights was the only vision on my horizon.
Riding a postwar economic boom, young people like myself were tearing down entry barriers to the middle class. Legal segregation was about to fall, women were gaining access to traditionally “male” jobs, and unions flourished. We enjoyed complete freedom of speech. No way could we be gobbled up.
Now every sector of public life is on the verge of privatization, with our hobbled Post Office the latest target. While not entirely new, this is an upleveling of the plunder.
“The independence movements exploding in Africa, in India, all over the world, will force the wealthiest Americans to seek the predatory profits they are used to at home,” my professor declared. “They will pauperize the U.S. working and middle classes.”
His words lingered, smoldering in the back of my mind. Could this ever come to pass in “the home of the free”? I knew about our blemished past, with its human slavery and genocide of Indigenous nations, yet still I held fast to our promise of democracy for all. The rule of law would never allow oligarchs to plunder our country the way we had plundered others.
In 1964, when the shockingly conservative Barry Goldwater became the Republican candidate for president, I wondered about the predication. Could this be the moment we began to tumble? In the early morning hours I voted, praying (and I was not then a praying woman) that Lyndon Johnson, the Democratic incumbent, would prevail. He did in a landslide, winning 61.1% of the popular vote. “That was a trial balloon,” my professor said. “They haven’t gathered enough strength yet.”
Republicans went to work winning local elections, then state level. In 1980, when President Ronald Reagan broke the air controller’s strike, I worried again. And union strength—that hold-the-line power—did decline, but enough folks didn’t fold and we retained our democracy.
Yet today the government disappears people without due process; threatens to cut benefits for working people while installing tax cuts for the wealthy; and demands oversight of universities, our bastions of free thought. What is this but the super-profit power grab my professor predicted so long ago?
Republicans have already narrowed our rights—reproductive and voting—to erase 20th-century gains. They’ve gutted public programs, underfunding education and offering for-profit and nonprofit charter schools instead. Our highly efficient public Medicare program has had to compete with private plans for the last 28 years.
(I always understood that a government plan, without profit, would be more cost-effective. I did not know how much better its coverage was until I needed open-heart surgery and my cardiologist asked, “Do you have original Medicare or an Advantage plan? Oh good, original. I can get you right into the hospital. With Advantage it takes weeks.” The private plans, I learned, often deny prior authorization, knowing that only 11.7% of people reapply despite the vast majority of reapplications gaining approval. In my 20 years with traditional Medicare no physician-requested treatment has ever been denied.)
Now every sector of public life is on the verge of privatization, with our hobbled Post Office the latest target. While not entirely new, this is an upleveling of the plunder.
Our population has been shocked and awed, just as intended. Yet we are waking up to great effect, beginning to fight back: Witness the 5.2 million demonstrators in April 5 Hands Off protests. Hundreds of grassroots organizations, taking root in local communities, have been preparing for this moment.
The president of Harvard University, Dr. Alan Garber, has just added the strength of that venerable institution to those holding the line. “The university will not surrender its independence or relinquish its constitutional rights,” he wrote, refusing a federal government demand for oversight. Other respected universities and colleges are rushing to support Harvard, even creating mutual defense pacts to support in each in case of government attack.
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) and Sen. Bernie Sanders’ (I-Vt.) Fighting Oligarchy tour is drawing massive, unprecedented crowds, like the 30,000 who lined up for three miles this week, awaiting a rally in conservative-leaning Folsom, California.
The tide is turning, with brave judges, educators, lawyers, courageous fired government whistleblowers, and countless others in every occupation stepping up.
Once more, people are holding the line. Once more, my old professor’s doomsday prophecy will not manifest. Not now. Not on our watch.
We’ve held off the Big Steal this long. We can do it again.
“Someday the wealthiest people, deprived of their ability to extract super-profits from developing countries, will turn their attention inward and gobble up the middle and working classes here in the U.S.”
So predicted my economics professor in 1962 at New York’s New School. These words were unbelievable to my 22-year-old ears. Picket fences were springing up all across America, accompanied by paid vacations, job security, and pensions. Expansion of our rights was the only vision on my horizon.
Riding a postwar economic boom, young people like myself were tearing down entry barriers to the middle class. Legal segregation was about to fall, women were gaining access to traditionally “male” jobs, and unions flourished. We enjoyed complete freedom of speech. No way could we be gobbled up.
Now every sector of public life is on the verge of privatization, with our hobbled Post Office the latest target. While not entirely new, this is an upleveling of the plunder.
“The independence movements exploding in Africa, in India, all over the world, will force the wealthiest Americans to seek the predatory profits they are used to at home,” my professor declared. “They will pauperize the U.S. working and middle classes.”
His words lingered, smoldering in the back of my mind. Could this ever come to pass in “the home of the free”? I knew about our blemished past, with its human slavery and genocide of Indigenous nations, yet still I held fast to our promise of democracy for all. The rule of law would never allow oligarchs to plunder our country the way we had plundered others.
In 1964, when the shockingly conservative Barry Goldwater became the Republican candidate for president, I wondered about the predication. Could this be the moment we began to tumble? In the early morning hours I voted, praying (and I was not then a praying woman) that Lyndon Johnson, the Democratic incumbent, would prevail. He did in a landslide, winning 61.1% of the popular vote. “That was a trial balloon,” my professor said. “They haven’t gathered enough strength yet.”
Republicans went to work winning local elections, then state level. In 1980, when President Ronald Reagan broke the air controller’s strike, I worried again. And union strength—that hold-the-line power—did decline, but enough folks didn’t fold and we retained our democracy.
Yet today the government disappears people without due process; threatens to cut benefits for working people while installing tax cuts for the wealthy; and demands oversight of universities, our bastions of free thought. What is this but the super-profit power grab my professor predicted so long ago?
Republicans have already narrowed our rights—reproductive and voting—to erase 20th-century gains. They’ve gutted public programs, underfunding education and offering for-profit and nonprofit charter schools instead. Our highly efficient public Medicare program has had to compete with private plans for the last 28 years.
(I always understood that a government plan, without profit, would be more cost-effective. I did not know how much better its coverage was until I needed open-heart surgery and my cardiologist asked, “Do you have original Medicare or an Advantage plan? Oh good, original. I can get you right into the hospital. With Advantage it takes weeks.” The private plans, I learned, often deny prior authorization, knowing that only 11.7% of people reapply despite the vast majority of reapplications gaining approval. In my 20 years with traditional Medicare no physician-requested treatment has ever been denied.)
Now every sector of public life is on the verge of privatization, with our hobbled Post Office the latest target. While not entirely new, this is an upleveling of the plunder.
Our population has been shocked and awed, just as intended. Yet we are waking up to great effect, beginning to fight back: Witness the 5.2 million demonstrators in April 5 Hands Off protests. Hundreds of grassroots organizations, taking root in local communities, have been preparing for this moment.
The president of Harvard University, Dr. Alan Garber, has just added the strength of that venerable institution to those holding the line. “The university will not surrender its independence or relinquish its constitutional rights,” he wrote, refusing a federal government demand for oversight. Other respected universities and colleges are rushing to support Harvard, even creating mutual defense pacts to support in each in case of government attack.
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) and Sen. Bernie Sanders’ (I-Vt.) Fighting Oligarchy tour is drawing massive, unprecedented crowds, like the 30,000 who lined up for three miles this week, awaiting a rally in conservative-leaning Folsom, California.
The tide is turning, with brave judges, educators, lawyers, courageous fired government whistleblowers, and countless others in every occupation stepping up.
Once more, people are holding the line. Once more, my old professor’s doomsday prophecy will not manifest. Not now. Not on our watch.
We’ve held off the Big Steal this long. We can do it again.
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