Tens of thousands of protesters mustered in cities and towns across the country on Saturday to sound off against the Trump administration’s cuts to the federal government and its polices.
Carrying homemade posters and chanting “Hands Off,” the protesters came out to the more than 1,200 rallies nationwide despite rain in many cities, according to organizers.
Several Democratic heavyweights, including some members of Congress, joined the protests and urged the public not to stand for what they called the administration’s mismanagement and breaking with constitutional norms.
“Our founders wrote a Constitution that did not begin with ‘We the dictators,’” Rep. Jamie Raskin, D-Md., told the crowd gathered on the National Mall in Washington, D.C.
He slammed the administration for several of its policies, including President Donald Trump’s implementing of tariffs on nearly every country.
“Their tariffs are not only imbecilic — they’re illegal, they’re unconstitutional, and we’re going to turn this around,” he said.
Paul Osadebe, a lawyer for the Department of Housing and Urban Development, spoke during the rally in Washington and said he’s been asked by the Trump administration and Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency to take a buyout offer.
Osadebe, a union steward with AFGE Local 476, told the crowd the oligarchs do not “value you or your life or your community.”
“We’re seeing that they don’t care who they have to destroy or who they have to hurt to get what they want,” he said.
Rep. Maxwell Frost, D-Fla., echoed his statement with a warning that it will get worse.
“They would have us believe if we gave them all of control, everything would be OK,” he said. “But breaking news, they have the control, and look at where we are now: massive inequality across the country.”
Similar energy and rhetoric were present at other “Hands Off” protests.
“The federal administration thinks this country belongs to them — and that they’re above the law,” organizers of the Boston rally said. “They’re taking everything they can get their hands on — our rights, our health care, our data, our jobs, our services — and daring the world to stop them.”
There were no reports of any major disturbances or arrests at any of the rallies.
The White House did not have any immediate comment about the events.
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