Hands Off!

Ava Cai

April 25, 2025

On April 5, hundreds of thousands of protestors stood in the Daley Plaza in Chicago, chanting “Hey ho, Trump’s gotta go” and “Hands off” over and over again to demonstrate their concerns and disapproval of the Trump Administration’s and Elon Musk’s recent advances. The same thing happened at Bryant Park in New York, the National Mall in Washington, DC, and various European cities such as Paris and London. 

Planned by a pro-democracy movement, the protest was one of 1,400 demonstrations that occurred simultaneously in big cities across the nation, with millions of participants. The movement collaborated with a spectrum of groups, encompassing a broad coalition of civil rights advocates, military veterans, labor organizations, women’s advocacy groups, and LGBTQ+ rights supporters—it became the most extensive nationwide demonstration of public dissent occurring in a single day during the second term of President Donald Trump. 

As President Trump and his administration take charge of the country, they continue to execute their long and controversial agenda, leaving many Americans confused and unhappy. The protestors marched through thousands of streets throughout the country, hoping to achieve the same three goals: “an end to the billionaire takeover and rampant corruption of the Trump administration; an end to the 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.” Additionally, demonstrators rallied in favor of causes such as preserving national parks, fighting for reproductive rights, protecting public education, preserving veteran health care, supporting small businesses, and ensuring fair elections. They also rallied against authoritarianism, corporate influence on politics, the expulsion of immigrants, unregulated political spending, and controversial government reorganization proposals. 

While all of these protests were unfolding, President Trump was reportedly playing golf and appeared unbothered by the widespread protests directed at his administration. Saturday saw President Trump’s 2024 Democratic opponent, and former Vice President Kamala Harris, weighing in during the mass protests. In a post on X, she said: “Today in every state across our nation, Americans are standing up to the administration as they implement Project 2025 at full speed.” Harris proceeded to express appreciation to protesters for voicing their concern and standing to preserve critical programs and individual freedoms such as Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, federal school programs, and much more. She concluded her statement by saying, “The voices of working people will always be louder than the unelected billionaires.”