New York: Streets in many areas across the United States filled with demonstrators protesting against Donald Trump and his ally Elon Musk. The movement, branded as “Hands off!” starting from the US, has spread to many parts of Europe including Canada, Britain, Germany, Mexico, France, and Portugal. The protests were held in over 1400 locations, including in city halls, public parks, and federal buildings, where the protesters expressed their concerns about authoritarian overreach and diminishing freedom and rights under the government led by Trump.
The “Hands off!” protests are being coordinated by a collaboration of more than 150 pro-democracy, progressive, labour unions, environmentalists, LGBTQ+ supporters and faith-based groups. The demonstrators protested against several administrative policies including the newly introduced tariffs, substantial cuts to government agencies and the federal workforce driven by Trump’s ally and CEO of Tesla, X and SpaceX Elon Musk.
The Saturday protest was the biggest protest against the government after the 2017 Women’s March when thousands of gatherers flocked to Washington during Trump’s first term and the Black Lives Matter protests which started after the individual named George Floyd died in custody of police in Minneapolis in 2020.
Many protesters voiced their support for public services like national parks, education, small businesses, and veteran health care. Many advocated for the right to abortion and fair elections. They opposed several controversial decisions taken by the Trump administration including trade tariffs, secret political funding, wealthy business interests, climate and immigration policies.
In an AFP report, a protest said, “We are here to stop, honestly, fascism. For stopping a leader from jailing his opponents, random people and immigrants.” The places like Salt Lake City, St Augustine and Frankfort Kentucky witness huge public gatherings as posted on Social media.
