Anti-Trump protesters plan mass Labor Day demonstrations: "Enough is enough"

Story by Khaleda Rahman

AUGUST 27, 2025

NEWSWEEK


An aerial view shows demonstrators marching toward downtown protesting the policies of President Donald Trump and showing their support for union labor on May 1, 2025 in Chicago, Illinois.© Scott Olson/Getty Images

Protests against President Donald Trump and his administration—billed as "Workers Over Billionaires"—are set to take place across the country on Labor Day.

Jackson Potter, the vice president of the Chicago Teachers Union who is among the organizers, told Newsweek that organizer May Day Strong teamed up with the American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL-CIO) to "bring a Labor Day that's representative and reflective of best parts of our tradition.


He said the day of action is aimed at "fighting against the oligarchs and challenging the militarization of our cities while working people are falling further behind and billionaires are getting windfalls."

Why It Matters

The protests are to be the latest nationwide demonstrations against the Trump administration.

On June 14, millions rallied in cities across the country for "No Kings" protests while a military parade rolled through Washington, D.C, marking the Army's 250th anniversary, which coincided with Trump's 79th birthday. More recently, "Rage Against the Regime" demonstrations took place in hundreds of cities across the U.S. on August 2.

What To Know

Potter said more than 900 events are planned in all 50 states and Washington, D.C.

He said that hundreds of thousands, or even millions, of people could take to the streets across the country.

Potter believes Trump's threats to deploy the National Guard to cities including Chicago and his attacks on Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson could motivate more people to turn out.

"We suspect this could become a much more massive and historic as a result of his threats, the attack on our Black mayor," he said.

Potter said Labor Day celebrations have been "largely apolitical" in the past, but "this year is very different."

"I'm an educator, I'm a Chicagoan. I've been going to Labor Day since I was a kid, and it's been beer and barbecues and, you know, maybe one rousing speech from the Labor Federation president," he said.

"Well, this year is very different. We have bricklayers, dockworkers, carpenters, teachers, service workers, health care workers, university professors coming together and saying, enough is enough. The message is clear and consistent, and it's not all fun and games, and it is solidarity in the best sense of our history."

What People Are Saying

A statement posted on the May Day Strong website says: "Labor and community are planning more than a barbecue on Labor Day this year because we have to stop the billionaire takeover. Billionaires are stealing from working families, destroying our democracy, and building private armies to attack our towns and cities.

"Just like any bad boss, the way we stop the takeover is with collective action. We are May Day Strong, working people rising up to stop the billionaire takeover—not just through the ballot box or the courts, but through building a bigger and stronger movement. On September 1st we will continue the movement we launched on May 1st. Thousands of communities across the country are taking a stand on Labor Day, join us!"

Trump told reporters on Friday: "Chicago is a mess. You have an incompetent mayor, grossly incompetent."

Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson told CNN's Anderson Cooper on Monday that what Trump "is proposing is a military occupation of the city of Chicago and cities across America. Our city is not calling for that... This is clearly unconstitutional. It's illegal, and it's costly. The fact of the matter is, is that we're doing really a good work in the city of Chicago. Community safety is my top priority, and that's why I've worked hard to bring people together to drive violence down in Chicago."


He added: "This president has demonstrated that he is not willing to cooperate with cities in America to ensure that the federal government actually shows up for working people. That's what we're doing in Chicago. That's what many of our mayors are doing across this country. The President really should be working with us to develop safe communities and affordable communities."

What's Next

The protests are set to take place on September 1.

Jackson Potter Full Interview

Can you tell me about your role in organizing the protests planned for Labor Day?

I'm part of the national coordination team. I currently serve as vice president of the Chicago Teachers Union. And in March, we initiated this effort to bring together labor and community to fight attacks on workers rights, immigrant rights and civil rights, and promote the interests of workers over billionaires for May Day '25 and that led to the largest number of May Day protests in American history. And now we have teamed up with the AFL-CIO to bring a Labor Day that's representative and reflective of best parts of our tradition. And you know, fighting against the oligarchs and challenging the militarization of our cities, while working people are falling further behind and billionaires are getting windfalls. So you know this Labor Day is going to emphasize those dynamics and really see a much greater representation of workers and their unions and their community alliances coming out in full force.


Tell me more about what the demonstrations are protesting against?

Definitely labor is seeing that despite the Trump regime's promises to center the needs and interests of working people, the opposite is happening. Despite record highs of support for unionization, this administration has started an unprecedented attack on the unionized federal workforce and eliminated rights for a million workers to have a union.

So that runs directly against his promises, kicking 17 million people off Medicaid. And we're a movement that fights for the human rights, health care for all, having a living and adequate wage, having access to paid parental leave, childcare. Those things are slipping away from most people that can't afford the rising cost of living, rising cost of health care and don't have access to a deferred pension plan and need one. So that's what we are fighting for.

And we are also going after the billionaires who make up Trump's kitchen cabinet, like Elon Musk, Antonio Gracias [CEO of Chicago-based growth equity firm Valor Equity Partners]. We're going after Target that has eliminated its DEI programs while blocking the ability of its workforce to unionize. So we see them as part of the billionaire cabal trying to dismantle democracy and destroy the basic rights that we have.

How many demonstrations are planned across the country at the moment?

We are now at 905 total events. There are the top five states are states that are being targeted by Trump, like California. New York, Illinois, and then we've got Florida and Ohio that are also running up the score in terms of the number of events.

How many people do you think will take to the streets on Labor Day?

I think it will be hundreds of thousands, and perhaps millions, depending on conditions. So Trump has said that he wants a direct confrontation with the Chicago Teachers Union, our former union member and educator Brandon Johnson, who's the mayor, on Labor Day. So we suspect this could become a much more massive and historic as a result of his threats and the nature of the attack on a Black mayor.

You think that more people are likely to come out to protest because of these threats against Chicago and other cities?

I think that will motivate people to defend our rights, to fight against bad bosses like Trump and his billionaire buddies. You know, we are not willing to relinquish our First Amendment rights, our right to organize. Those are really fundamental. And why be in a union if we are just going to sit down or stand on the sidelines?

And what we have found, too, is when you look at the last 100 years, when there are authoritarians trying to get rid of democratic rights and impose their will on the population that the resistance, without a labor movement mobilized, is only successful at fighting back that effort 29 percent of the time, but with the labor movement, that goes up to 83 percent success rate. This is from Jonathan Pickney and Claire Trilling, who wrote a piece in 2024 about this.

So what we're seeing like me personally, I'm an educator, I'm a Chicagoan. I've been going to Labor Day since I was a kid, and it's been beer and barbecues and maybe, you know, one rousing speech from the Labor Federation president. But apart from that, it's been largely apolitical. Well, this year is very different. We have bricklayers, dockworkers, carpenters, teachers, service workers, health care workers, university professors coming together and saying, Enough is enough. The message is clear and consistent, and it's not all fun and games, and it is, you know, solidarity in the best sense of our history. So I do think it's waking up a sleeping giant in many ways, that it's starting to get mobilized again.

What else do you want people to know ahead of these protests?

Well, that they can join one near their town, village or city, and they can go to maydaystrong.org and there's a map that will show you the AFL-CIO sponsored events, in addition to ones that different labor leaders and activists have decided to host. And if they don't see one and would like to host something that's certainly welcome. It's organized similar to the Indivisible model in no kings. And my understanding is that, Indivisible, and many of the organizations, you can see all the partnering organizations on the website that were responsible for "Hands Off" and "No Kings" and "May Day" have joined forces again to make sure that this Labor Day is one to remember.