WASHINGTON (AP) — Opponents of President Donald Trump and billionaire Elon Musk plan to rally throughout the U.S. on Saturday to protest the administration’s actions on authorities downsizing, the financial system, human rights and different points.
Greater than 1,200 “Hands Off!” demonstrations have been deliberate by greater than 150 teams, together with civil rights organizations, labor unions, LBGTQ+ advocates, veterans and fair-elections activists.
The protests are the Nationwide Mall in Washington, D.C., state capitols and different places in all 50 states, together with a number of in New York Metropolis.
Protesters are assailing the Trump administration’s strikes to fireplace 1000’s of federal staff, shut Social Safety Administration subject workplaces, successfully shutter whole companies, deport immigrants, cut back protections for transgender individuals and minimize federal funding for well being packages.
Musk, a Trump adviser who owns Tesla, SpaceX and the social media platform X, has performed a key position in authorities downsizing as the top of the newly created Division of Authorities Effectivity. He says he’s saving taxpayers billions of {dollars}.
Activists have staged nationwide demonstrations towards Trump or Musk a number of occasions for the reason that new administration took energy. However the opposition motion has but to provide a mass mobilization just like the Ladies’s March in 2017, which introduced 1000’s of girls to Washington, D.C., after Trump’s first inauguration, or the Black Lives Matter demonstrations that erupted in a number of cities after George Floyd’s killing in 2020.
Organizers say they hope Saturday’s demonstrations would be the largest since Trump returned to workplace in January.
