Presidents Day, Feb. 17th, turned into a day of protests against President Donald Trump and Elon Musk in dozens of cities across the United States.
The “Not My Presidents Day” and “No Kings on Presidents Day” gatherings on Monday were mainly organized by the 50501 Movement, which planned demonstrations in all 50 states to protest what the group called “the anti-democratic and illegal actions of the Trump administration and its plutocratic allies.” More than 75 protests had been scheduled for Monday.
Demonstrators marched to state capitols in California, Minnesota, Michigan, Texas, Wisconsin, Indiana and Pennsylvania to denounce Trump, Project 2025, billionaire Elon Musk and the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), an outside-government organization designed to slash federal spending.
The major group organizing the protest, the 50501 movement, is a grass-roots effort to push back against what it views as Trump’s second-term “overreach” in reshaping the government. Sarah Parker, the executive director of 50501’s member organization Voices of Florida, said the nationwide protests were fueled by a post on Reddit. The conversation on Reddit gained traction as more people who were looking for ways to act on their frustrations about the Trump administration joined the conversation, she said.
Some other protesters also blamed Congress for not doing enough to check the Trump administration. Nadya Downs, who led the chant “Where is Congress? Do your job,” said lawmakers needed to better challenge unilateral actions of the Trump administration. “I’ve seen a lot of people mad about it in Congress,” she said. “But where’s the action?”
Similar rallies of varying sizes and names, some billed as “Not My Presidents’ Day” and others called “No Kings’ Day,” took place across the country, including at Union Square in New York; a post office in Nantucket, in Massachusetts; the Poff Federal Building in Roanoke, Va.; and the California State Capitol in Sacramento.
Northeast
In New York City, thousands of people marched from Union Square to Washington Square Park on Monday afternoon. Under the arch, they held up American flags and handwritten signs like “Stop the Coup” and “No Billionaire Kings,” alluding to the role of the tech billionaire Elon Musk in Mr. Trump’s efforts to shrink and remake the federal work force.
Dominic Santiago, 29, an artist from Flatbush, Brooklyn, said he came to show solidarity with other New Yorkers who opposed the Trump administration. “I have faith because of these demonstrations,” he said. “I have faith that we can change things.”
Lillian Bacon, 25, a college student majoring in political science, said, “I’m here today to fight for democracy and fight for the liberty and dignity of all people.” It was her first time participating in a public protest. She said she had become furious and disappointed with Mr. Trump, Mr. Musk and Republican leaders over what she saw as their violation of the constitutional separation of powers. “I’m hoping there will be solidarity among all American people even if they did vote for Trump,” she said.
In Washington, DC, thousands of protesters gathered in the morning outside the US Capitol and at the National Mall. It was a “No Kings Day” protest on Presidents Day in support of federal workers and against recent actions by President Donald Trump and Elon Musk.
Nearly 1,000 people marched in the snow from the Statehouse in Boston to City Hall, chanting “Elon Musk has got to go” and other slogans. The temperature was below freezing, with wind chills in the teens. Boston protesters, some dressed in Revolutionary War-style clothing, carried signs saying such things as “This is a Coup” and “Cowards Bow to Trump, Patriots Stand Up.” One sign had a depiction of Uncle Sam saying “I Want You to Resist.”
“I thought it was important to be here on Presidents Day to demonstrate for what America stands for,” said Emily Manning, 55, a Boston engineer who came to the rally with her two teenage sons. “American values are not the values of the plutocracy or the limited few rich people.”
Protesters in Philadelphia waved signs denouncing President Donald Trump; billionaire Elon Musk, the leader of Trump’s new Department of Government Efficiency; and Project 2025, a hard-right playbook for American government and society.
Southeast
They assembled in Atlanta’s Centennial Olympic Park for a march to Georgia’s state Capitol and a crowd gathered chanting: “Hey, hey, ho, ho. Elon Musk has got to go.”
In Austin, outside the Texas Capitol, a video from a local CBS affiliate showed a woman, who identified herself as Kristin Jenn, taking the microphone while wearing a placard saying “Donald Trump stole my job.” “The National Park Service was hit very hard on Friday,” she told the crowd. “A number of my co-workers lost their jobs. They cannot take away my job, force me to get a government handout and then call me a parasite.”
Ms. Jenn said she was middle-aged and earning less than $50,000 a year in her federal job. Organizers in Austin said their aim was to push back against Project 2025, a conservative think tank’s plan for a Republican presidency that has been mirrored in a series of Mr. Trump’s executive orders.
In Alabama, several hundred people gathered outside the Statehouse to protest actions targeting LGBTQ+ people. On Tuesday, Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey promised to sign legislation declaring that there are only two sexes, male and female — echoing Trump’s recent executive order for the federal government to define sex as only male or female. “The president thinks he has a lot of power,” the Rev. Julie Conrady, a Unitarian Universalist minister, told the crowd. “He does not have the power to determine your gender. He does not have the power to define your identity.”
Protesters also gathered on the steps of the Arkansas State Capitol. Among them was Tanya Hollifield, an artist in Little Rock. “I took my sign that said ‘Fight Fascism Everywhere,’” she said. “I think they’re tearing down the whole system of checks and balances, and the Elon Musk coup, or takeover, is one of the current things I’m really upset about,” she said.
Midwest
“I’m appalled by democracy’s changes in the last, well, specifically two weeks — but it started a long time ago,” Margaret Wilmeth said at a protest outside the Statehouse in Columbus, Ohio. “So I’m just trying to put a presence into resistance.”
The protests were a result of a movement that has organized online under the hashtags #buildtheresistance and #50501, which stands for 50 protests, 50 states, one day. Websites and accounts across social media issued calls for action, with messages such as “reject fascism” and “defend our democracy.”
Outside the state Capitol in Lansing, Michigan, a crowd of hundreds gathered in freezing temperatures. Catie Miglietti, from the Ann Arbor area, said Musk’s access to Treasury Department data was especially concerning. She painted a sign depicting Musk puppeteering Trump from his outraised arm — evoking Musk’s straight-arm gesture during a January speech that some have interpreted as a Nazi salute.
Thousands protested in St. Paul, Minnesota, where 28-year-old Hallie Parten carried a Democratic presidential campaign sign, revised to read “Harris Walz Were Right.” The Minneapolis resident says she was motivated by fear. “Fear for what is going to happen to our country if we don’t all just do something about it,” Parten said.
At Iowa’s Capitol in Des Moines, protesters who joined the anti-Trump movement went inside to counter a registered event by the conservative parental rights group Moms for Liberty. The anti-Trump protesters shouted over the speakers in the rotunda for about 15 minutes before law enforcement pushed them outside, removing four demonstrators in handcuffs.
Southwest
Demonstrators strode through downtown Austin, Texas. “We need to show strength,” said Laura Wilde, a former public school occupational therapist in Austin. “I think we’re in a state of shock.”
In Phoenix, hundreds of protestors gathered in front of the Capitol carrying signs reading “No Kings” and “Resist Fascism.” Security barred protesters from entering the building after a few tried to get inside. Demonstrators were seeking access to a state Senate committee hearing on legislation that would require law enforcement officers across the state to support federal immigration policy. Protesters chanted “deport Elon” and “no hate, no fear, immigrants are welcome here.”
In Denver, protests coincided with nearby operations by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents and an unspecified number of people detained.
Pacific
Protesters in Portland, Vancouver and Salem were part of a Presidents Day nationwide movement mobilized against the Trump Administration’s policies and executive orders. The “50501 Movement” — 50 protests, 50 states, 1 movement — brought thousands of people to the streets. In Portland, protesters gathered outside City Hall, wrapped around the block and then began to march in what organizers said are the anti-democratic and illegal actions of the White House.
A Presidents Day protest drew more than 1,000 people to downtown Portland, in one of the city’s largest demonstrations to date of the second Trump era, leaving police briefly scrambling to contain the crowd as it grew during a march across the Morrison and Hawthorne bridges. The demonstrators, part of a loosely organized national movement in honor of what organizers were calling “Not my Presidents Day” first gathered downtown around noon Monday before marching onto the Morrison Bridge about 1 p.m. The crowd then looped back down the Eastbank Esplanade across the Hawthorne Bridge to City Hall by about 2:15 p.m.
About 20 people briefly moved into a traffic lane on the Morrison Bridge, drawing a flurry of activity from police officers on bicycles, before organizers asked them to move back to the sidewalk. Demonstrators carried signs condemning the actions of President Donald Trump and his specially appointed liaison, the billionaire Elon Musk, who has been rapidly purging government employees from the federal payroll
Karen Wells was one of thousands who took part in a Portland protest of Trump policies.Many of those who protested, like Karen Wells and Jae Foy, felt compelled to take to the streets and make their voices known. “As long as we show up, stand up and speak up, we’ve got a fighting chance,” Wells said.
“If we’re not standing up as a people, if we are not making noise,” Foy said, “we are letting them get away with it.”
Protesters also gathered at Esther Short Park in Vancouver and outside the Oregon Capitol in Salem. Hundreds of protesters gather in Salem, Oregon for a ‘50501’ protest. Steven Wheeler, who has been to protests before, said, “When you get a chance to get out and stand up and have your voice counted, do it every time.”
Tyler was a first-time protester in Vancouver, but felt “now is the time to speak up if there is ever a time to speak up.” Jana Whitworth, the associate rector at Church of the Good Shepard in Vancouver, felt protesting is the responsible thing to do. “We live in a democracy and it is our responsibility to be paying attention to what’s happening and what our government is choosing to do,” Whitworth said.
California
Even in conservative Shasta County, 400 people protested in the town of Redding.
Protesters in Oakland and San Francisco decried the mass deportations and the moves by Elon Musk to gut federal agencies. Demonstrators gathered outside California’s Democratic-dominated Legislature in Sacramento. The Sacramento Police Department estimated the crowd size at the Capitol at 1,200 to 1,500.
In Los Angeles County, police said a permitted demonstration formed at the steps of LA City Hall and a large crowd gathered in front of Long Beach City Hall.
The Long Beach Post reported that the demonstrators were occupying the eastbound lanes of Ocean Boulevard and marching east from the Civic Center.
In San Diego, protesters gathered in downtown San Diego and made their voices heard at the county Administration Center’s Waterfront Park Monday morning.
“If you don’t show up and you don’t actively voice your concern about what’s going on, you’re complicit to the violence, and I don’t want to look back at my life and watch the world burn,” rally participant Joanna Rose Benavidez said. “I want to say I actually tried to do something.”
Sources
KOIN Oregon
Editordude, you left out a source: Shasta Scout, an independent truthtelling online newsmagazine in Shasta County was the source of info on the rally in Redding, CA/
Ah, but the link I included goes to Shasta Scout.
Did I read right? 200 locally here, a half of what was in Shasta County?
More like 500 to 1,000 here.