THE WASHINGTON POST: Thousands rally in D.C. as Trump protesters gather across U.S.

Thousands of people crowded in front of the Washington Monument on Saturday to protest President Donald Trump and top adviser Elon Musk’s dismantling of federal agencies, alleged circumvention of due process and introduction of tariffs.

Rallygoers dressed in Statue of Liberty costumes, waved anti-Trump flags flags, and had their canines wear “dogs against doge” collars. They carried signs decrying the administration’s deportation efforts, defunding of public health and what they viewed as all-out attacks on democracy.

The gathering was part of what organisers said were at least 1300 more “Hands Off” rallies planned by more than 150 groups in all 50 states. Photos and videos on social media showed crowds gathered in public squares or marching through the streets Saturday in Boston, Chicago and other cities throughout the country.

By about 1:30 p.m. the crowd in Washington swelled as far as the eye could see from all sides of the stage. A jolt of energy surged through the crowd when Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Maryland) got up to speak. Raskin attacked the Trump administration for the stock market downturn, coming after law firms and aligning with international dictators.

“No moral person wants an economy-crashing dictator who knows the price of everything and the value of nothing,” Raskin said.

Organisers said they hoped Saturday’s events would be the largest Trump protests since he returned to office in January. In their permit application to the National Park Service, rally organisers in D.C. said they anticipated a crowd of 10,000. By Friday night, though, the organizers said they expected at least 20,000. Saturday afternoon, they were estimating the crowd was five times as big as they predicted.

The White House postponed spring garden tours scheduled for Saturday because of the potential size of the protest. Police began closing streets around the National Mall on Saturday afternoon as the crowd swelled beyond the figures predicted by organisers.

Political protesting was a new experience for Jac Behrends, a 28-year-old livestock farmer from New York’s Hudson Valley. She drove down at 4:30 a.m. to be there. She’s never been particularly political, but seeing Musk mimic a “Nazi salute” and seeing Trump’s rhetoric sway her mom into fearing immigrants spurred her to action, she said.

“I wanted to be at the heart of it, and D.C. is definitely the heart of it,” Behrends said. “I really hate that billionaires and the rich are in control of our political system. That is not what this country was founded on.”

People gathered in response to what they see as the administration’s overreach on a variety of issues: NATO; schools; libraries; courts; veteran services; fair elections; and, organisers said, “our jobs, our wallets, our bodies.”

Britt Jacovich, a spokesperson for the liberal group MoveOn.org, which was one of the organisers, said people not only want Trump to get his “hands off” abortion rights and civil rights issues, they want his hands off Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, the federal workforce, the value of their 401(k), the broader U.S. economy, and much more.

Jacovich said the breadth of the groups organising reflects the growing opposition to Trump, Musk and the Republican Party in Washington.

She recalls how she’s in group chats with friends and family in which “everyone was watching their 401(k)s plummet in real time.”

“If you’re worried about Donald Trump or Elon Musk or the Republican Party, this rally is for you,” she said.

During Trump’s first term, protests tended to concentrate in Washington but organisers want to spread the rallies out around the country, Jacovich said. Many of smaller rallies are forming organically among neighbours and friends, she said, reaching people who may not have protested last time he was president.

“We are rallying to demand an end to Trump’s craven power grab and his acting like the law does not apply to him,” said Rachel O’Leary Carmona, executive director of Women’s March, a group that is helping organise the rallies.

Carmona said she is seeing a broader array of people who want to rally against Trump. The rallies that Women’s March has organised, she said, have focused more on abortion rights and women’s issues. The rallies on Saturday were more wide-ranging in scope.

“It’s hard to get narrow in opposition when his attacks are so broad,” Carmona said.

She said that core progressive groups are growing. Women’s March, she said, has added 600,000 members just this year.

Howard Bass, 77, a retired Smithsonian Institution employee, arrived at the rally Saturday from Arlington, Virginia, with a sign listing 11 Hands Off subjects. Among them: the Smithsonian, academic freedom, Greenland, free speech and Social Security. Bass is no stranger to protests.

“I was out in the streets when Nixon was president,” Bass said. When he heard about the rally, Bass said, he decided to come in “two seconds, maybe less.”

Bass, a musician who plays the lute and guitar, said about half his income comes from Social Security. He also draws a pension from his Smithsonian employment. He said he’s concerned about the future of both.

And he worries about his friends still at the Smithsonian: “I know they’re under a lot of pressure,” Bass said.

Bass described his central emotion of these days as “fear.” And he compared his protests against Nixon with those against Trump.

“It many ways it was a simpler time,” he said of the Nixon days. “There was one big target: Vietnam. Now there are hundreds of targets to protest against.”

Janice Benton, 68, and Martin Benton, 77, took Metro trains from their home in College Park, Maryland, and headed to the rally in D.C. - Janice on foot, Martin on his mobility scooter. He was born with cerebral palsy and in recent years has developed stenosis of the spine.

“We can’t give up,” said Martin, wearing a T-shirt that read “Make Orwell Fiction Again.”

On the front of the scooter was this sign: “Denying History is ‘Anti-American Ideology.’” On the back: “Resist.”

Janice held a sign reading: “Chose Empathy Not Vindictive Revenge. People are Dying and Suffering.”

Martin, a native of Monticello, Georgia, spent his career a federal employee. He worked at the IRS, the Library of Congress and, lastly, 22 years at the Department of Education, where he monitored and audited grants used for special education. He worries that cuts or abolition of the Education Department will diminish funding and attention to children with disabilities.

“He was doing what Musk is supposed to be doing,” Janice quipped about her husband of 44 years.

She’d spent her career in disability advocacy and ministry. Janice said she had plans to spend Saturday with deaf friends at a retreat - an important event that she said gave way to the importance of supporting the “hands-off” message.

She and Martin worry about how many people could be affected by cuts to Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid. A graduate of the University of Georgia Law School, and wearing a Master’s golf cap, Martin also worries about law firms giving in to the Trump administration’s demands.

In a speech on Thursday, former president Barack Obama urged law firms, universities and people across the country to stand up for democratic values and resist Trump.

“It is up to all of us to fix this,” he said, including “the citizen, the ordinary person who says, no, that’s not right.”

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