“This is what democracy looks like!”
This chant could be heard from the Atlantic to the Pacific on Saturday, April 5—a nationwide day of protest. In over 1,300 locations spanning across all 5o states, Americans rallied against President Donald Trump and his senior advisor Elon Musk. These “Hands Off!” demonstrations “appeared to be the most widespread to date of Trump’s second term,” according to NPR.
Hands Off! is not an organization itself, but rather a broad coalition of 197 organizations. Prominent partners include the ACLU, Indivisible, and 50501, along with dozens of national and local groups advocating for civil rights, women’s rights, LGBTQ+ rights, veterans, unions, and climate action. The organizers listed three key demands for their protests: “an end to the billionaire takeover and rampant corruption of the Trump administration; an end to slashing federal funds for Medicaid, Social Security, and other programs working people rely on; and an end to the attacks on immigrants, trans people, and other communities.”
Since taking office in January, President Trump has signed 124 executive orders, including one that established the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). The department’s purpose is to severely reduce federal spending. Trump named Musk—the CEO of Tesla and SpaceX, as well as the owner of Twitter—as head of the department. So far, Musk’s actions have resulted in 56,230 federal employees being cut from their jobs.
The Department of Education, as well as several agencies dedicated to science and health, have experienced some of the most significant cuts. These two fields are also under fire from Trump. The Department of Justice is investigating Ivy League universities where pro-Palestinian protests occurred last spring, accusing them of facilitating anti-Semitism. As a result, the president has frozen billions of dollars in funding and grants for universities, crippling the institutions’ ability to conduct research and finance their programs.
In addition, Trump has been ordering mass deportations under a 1798 wartime law called the Alien Enemies Act. Migrants and asylum seekers are the main targets, taken away in ICE raids and, in the case of alleged gang members from Latin American countries, sent to El Salvador’s CECOT maximum security prison without due process. The administration has also gone after legal immigrants, tourists, international students on green cards, and activists—specifically pro-Palestinian activists such as Mahmoud Khalil.
The president has focused on the LGBTQ+ community as well. Most controversially, Trump signed an executive order on February 5 barring transgender athletes from women’s and girl’s sports. If a school allows transgender athletes to play, the federal government may find them to be violating Title IX and withdraw their federal funding.
These are just some of the reasons people joined the demonstrations on April 5.
In major cities like New York, Washington DC, and Chicago, aerial views showed entire streets packed with people. Although these shots received the most media attention, there were several protests right here in New England.
In Massachusetts, tens of thousands gathered on the Boston Common, where they were joined by Mayor Michelle Wu, Lieutenant Governor Kim Driscoll, Representative Ayanna Presley, and Senator Ed Markey. On an even more local scale, around 200 people demonstrated in front of the Dartmouth Mall. The crowds lined the sidewalks along Route 6, waving signs, dancing to music, and ringing bells. State auditor Diana DiZoglio spoke at the event.
Nine counter protestors were also in attendance. Those individuals, such as Rochester resident Ross Mello, expressed their support for the president and his policies. He told Dartmouth Week, “[Trump’s] making changes. [The protestors] think the world is going to end, but it’s not.”
Dartmouth Week also reported that the Dartmouth Police “set up cones to give each side their own space and escorted away individuals who were getting confrontational.”
Moving south, between 6,000 and 8,000 people assembled in downtown Providence. Protestors marched from Hope High School to Kennedy Plaza, where local organizers gave speeches on the steps of Providence City Hall.
Under a steady rain, the crowd—accompanied by Providence’s own Undertow Brass Band—made their way down Thayer and Angell streets. Along the route, people cheered from the windows of their apartments or honked their car horns. Shop owners stood on the sidewalk to record the march with their phones, trying to read the signs.
And there were plenty. As explained, the demands of Hands Off! invited a wide range of causes to join the movement. People flew American flags, Ukrainian flags, Palestinian flags, pride flags. “Protect our Constitution,” some signs read, while others called for due process for all, which is enshrined in both the Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments. Other demonstrators were concerned about federal agencies and services being slashed, whether it be Social Security, Medicaid, OSHA, the National Parks Service, or the Environmental Protection Agency. Chants told “billionaires to beware” and called for “no total immunity,” referencing the landmark Trump v. US case. Speakers from local organizations tackled issues such as fair housing, bodily autonomy, and the US sending aid and weapons to Israel. As one attendee wrote on a piece of cardboard, “I can’t fit everything on one sign!”
For many of the protestors, Trump and Musk’s efforts have impacted their own lives.
Alex K., a senior at Woonsocket High School, said, “What Elon Musk is doing is directly affecting my future—as a student, as someone who wants to work in physics, as well as my identity as a trans man.”
Mackensie C. works in digital communications for a Rhode Island university. Her work is “almost completely funded by the NSF, NOAA, and USAID,” she said. “As faculty and students are getting their funding cut, a lot of our science can’t be done. People are looking for places outside of the US to potentially move.”
Michele C. attended the protest with Mackensie. She is a fundraiser for the Connecticut State Library. “The Trump administration just cut funding for the library based on their support of DEI efforts,” she explained. “Also, a lot of free services librarians get from the Connecticut State Library, services that patrons benefit from, have been cut. I’m really upset about that. I think libraries are one of the last holdouts for freedom in America. They provide equal access to information for everybody.”
“The administration’s dealing with the culture wars and things like that, but they’re not making things better for Americans,” she explained. “They’re actually tanking the economy and making things worse for people to live day-to-day. They just don’t care about the regular working person. It’s all about the oligarchs. It’s just not right. It feels good to be out here and see that there’s a lot of like-minded people who feel the same way.”
Audrey Hammond and Kyle Dacey of ABC6 Providence protested in support of their union. In February of 2024, workers at ABC6 voted to join the National Association of Broadcast Employees and Technicians (NABET), which is a branch of the Communications Workers of America (CWA).
On January 27, Trump dismissed Gwynne Wilcox from the National Labor Relations Board, the agency responsible for enforcing and protecting unions. This prevented the board from meeting their three person quorum requirements, rendering the agency unable to operate. Wilcox was reinstalled in March, though, after a federal judge ruled that Trump did not have the authority to terminate her from her position.
The president also signed an executive order preventing collective bargaining for federal workers working in a wide variety of agencies. “Whether or not that’s actually enforceable is up in the air,” Hammond said.
Dacey added, “NABET has a lot of NPR and PBS stations as well, which are under huge threat from the federal government right now, with defunding. A lot of those people are directly employed by the government, so they’ll lose their union membership and may be fired by the government.”
Hammond explained that NEBAT-CWA is “a private sector union, but the private sector follows the public sector in almost everything. Once they get that ball rolling, it’s hard to stop it.” Hammond is concerned that weakening unions will put workers’ rights in jeopardy.
Bridgette H. and Karen U. are 72 and 77 years old, respectively. “I protested during the Civil Rights Movement,” Karen said. “We thought back then that a lot of these issues had been covered, that we were moving forward. It looks like we’ve just taken 10 steps back with this sort of cult following of a person who has no intent to make a better country at all. Never mind he’s too old.”
Trump is 78. “I’m about his age,” Karen continued. “There’s no way that anyone in their seventies, whether it be [Joe] Biden or anyone, can run a country this complex. It’s not easy.”
“If [Trump] wants systems to be changed—There may be some good things about a new system,” she said. “But it takes time. We don’t do it with a sledgehammer. And you don’t do it with the richest person in the world funding campaigns. There were other methods he could have used to pare down the size of the government. Who doesn’t want a more efficient government?”
Bridgette added, “With the backing of the Heritage Foundation and the Supreme Court decision on his almost total immunity, he feels all-powerful.”
Karen, however, is not giving up the fight. “It’s a problem when people stand by and watch,” she said. She encouraged people to continue taking action beyond protesting, such as calling their representatives.
Although the demonstrators represented a variety of ages, the majority were older folks (and white, but that may be a reflection of Rhode Island’s 82.4% white population). “We want younger people to know it’s their future too,” Karen said. “You may think that you don’t have power because you don’t have a vote. Even if you’re not voting yet, there are things you can do.”
For example, Bridgette is volunteering with local groups in her own community. She also makes sure to prioritize her mental health. She reads the news every morning, but puts the papers away to have breakfast and read a novel. “I take my mind off of it and it makes me feel somewhat refreshed,” she said.
50501, a partner of Hands Off!, appears to be planning the next nationwide day of protest for Saturday, April 19. Jessica M., the mother of two students, wants to continue putting pressure on the Trump administration. She said, “We have to look at what the generations in the past did. We have to show up, and you have to make your voice heard or else there isn’t going to be any change.”
