By Parisa Burton
Nation & World Editor
A series of mass anti-Trump protests emerged in cities nationwide on April 5 in response to Social Security, healthcare, tariffs and education slashes, as well as crackdowns on immigration. Organizations including the grassroots movement Indivisible and public policy advocacy group MoveOn spearheaded the “Hands Off” protests, according to the The New York Times.
The protest marked the first major demonstration since Trump regained office, with about 1,200 demonstrations across the United States, Canada and Mexico, Reuters reported.
“President Trump is threatening health care, Social Security and education, making life harder for the average American, while benefiting his richest friends” is the message that New York Times reporters gathered from organizers.
The Hands Off protest in some ways resembled the mass protests that surfaced during Trump’s first time in office, such as the Women’s March in Washington, D.C. in 2017, which advocated for gender equality, civil rights and other social justice issues.
The takeover of the House of Representatives by Democrats during the 2018 midterm elections can be attributed to protests like these. However, such protests were not successful in overturning Roe v. Wade or compelling Congress to pass police reform laws, according to The New York Times.
“The protests were effective in the short term, but in the longer term, unless there is some kind of resounding defeat politically, movements like Trump’s are able to reconstitute and, in this case, win,” said Erica Chenoweth, a political scientist, to The New York Times.
Approximately half a million people pledged to participate in the recent national protests, with the majority attending those closest to home. Jason Stanley, former philosophy professor at Yale University, told The New York Times that in order to make a lasting difference, protests must occur “beyond protest-friendly environments like liberal cities and college campuses.”
Notably, hundreds of people protested outside of the Social Security Administration headquarters, a top target of Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency, which has already eliminated 200,000 jobs from the federal workforce. They protested against the agency’s cuts, including those that benefited the disabled and elderly.
Stanley emphasized that while protests by themselves may not put an end to Trump’s actions, they still “help propel the opposition.”
Thousands of protesters marched at the Capitol, flowing onto the lawn bordering the Washington Monument. Terry Klein, a retired biomedical scientist from Princeton, New Jersey, was among those gathered there. Klein told Reuters that she was driven to attend because “our whole country is under attack, all of our institutions, all the things that make America what it is.”
Many protesters were concerned about the long-term negative economic impact Trump’s widespread, hefty tariffs will bring.
“It's going to cost people their jobs — certainly their 401Ks,” Wayne Hoffman, a retired money manager from Cape May, New Jersey, told Reuters. “People have lost tens of thousands of dollars.”
According to Reuters, Paul Kretschmann, a retired attorney from Connecticut, never attended a protest in his life until this one, noting that he is worried that his Social Security benefits will be stripped and that Trump’s executive actions resemble a “larger plan to dismantle the government” and “maintain power.”
In New York City, protesters flooded subway cars, heading toward Bryant Park with cardboard signs and making their way to Madison Square Park. Business Insider reporters that were assigned to cover the New York protests were surprised that middle-aged individuals dominated the crowd, a stark contrast to pandemic protests made up of mostly Gen Z. They also noted that the majority of signs focused on economic issues over social ones.
“It makes sense since many Americans are watching their retirement savings dwindle in the face of crashing markets and worry that staff cuts to the Social Security Administration could threaten their benefits,” Business Insider stated.
Protest signs ridiculed Elon Musk, in addition to Trump, with statements like “hands off democracy,” “hands off Social Security,” “human not corporate greed,” “stop the Dodge” and “no one voted for Musk.”
"There are so many issues," Kelley Laird, an attendee of the Washington protest, told NPR. "They're coming after education, coming after health care, coming after the arts, coming after the press."
