On a cold and rainy Saturday afternoon, as many as ten thousand New Yorkers gathered in Midtown Manhattan to take part in the Hands Off! protests against the Trump administration. More than 1,200 such protests have been planned across the country through a coalition of over 150 groups, with hundreds of thousands RSVP’ing online across all the events. In Saturday’s event, protesters took up the entirety of 5th Avenue, with the crowd stretching at least ten blocks as they marched south down 5th Avenue from Bryant Park to Madison Square. Along the way, many drivers going crosstown in side streets honked approvingly and waved as they passed, eliciting cheers from the crowd.
The website dedicated to organizing and finding local Hands Off! events features rhetoric reflecting a general urgency over Trump’s policies since taking office less than three months ago. “This is a nationwide mobilization to stop the most brazen power grab in modern history. Trump, Musk, and their billionaire cronies are orchestrating an all-out assault on our government, our economy, and our basic rights—enabled by Congress every step of the way,” it reads. “If we don’t fight now, there won’t be anything left to save.” The broad call to action has thus brought out activists and concerned citizens over a number of issues, coalescing their varied grievances against the Trump administration into a general rejection of the president’s policies.
One major target of the Trump administration and Republicans more broadly is Social Security. President Trump’s close advisor Elon Musk has called the program, which keeps two thirds of seniors out of poverty, “the biggest Ponzi scheme of all time.” Liberal activists with Common Cause chose to carry the literal banner for the program, measuring at least 20 feet across. “If that’s a Ponzi scheme then every form of insurance is a Ponzi scheme,” says Susan Lerner, the executive director of the organization’s New York chapter. “If there were no income limits on social security contributions, the fund would be incredibly healthy for decades to come, so Elon Musk should pay his fair share.” Like many billionaires, Elon Musk elects to be paid almost exclusively in stock options, which he pays taxes on only when he exercises them, and even then, only being taxed at the lower capital gains rate without contributing Social Security.
Others protested the Trump administration’s new extremist policy on immigration, executing deportations through Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE) with no due process, leading to errors that have landed at least one legal asylum seeker in CECOT, a notoriously abusive prison in El Salvador where alleged gangsters are being deported. “There are legal residents who are being disappeared for less than what we’re doing here today, and I stand with them,” says Robert Boscacci, who carries a sign with a picture of Mahmoud Khalil, a native Palestinian green card holder married to an American citizen who was detained by ICE for deportation, based solely on his activism over the war in Gaza and without even the pretense of criminal charges. Robert sees Khalil’s situation as the foot in the door for broader abuses: “I want people to understand that they’re coming for citizens next.”
For all the opposition to Trump among New Yorkers, faith in the party that opposes him has remained consistently low according to polls, with some calling for a change in Democratic leadership in Congress. The perceived vacuum has brought out more overtly oppositional groups to Saturday’s rally, seeking to harness the grassroots energy on display for what they claim is a more effective channel for defeating the president’s agenda. “The Democratic party is in freefall right now,” says Hazel, a fulltime organizer with Socialist Alternative, an international leftist grassroots organization that has set up a tent in Madison Square Park to reach new members from the march. “[Democrats] have shown they’re beholden to the same corporate donors as the Republicans are and they’ll cave really easily.” Chuck Schumer recently faced the ire of constituents and elected officials alike for his vote to pass the Republican continuing resolution on the budget, a moment that many hoped he would have used to block the president’s agenda.
According to Hazel, her organization has gained a lot more interest as Trump has returned to office, and at the rally on Saturday, a line was forming in front of Socialist Alternative’s tent for people to join. “I think the inauguration really jolted a lot of people into activity, and it’s been good to see.”
