"Hands Off!" protest in Boston draws nearly 100,000 people rallying against Trump, Musk
Nearly 100,000 of angry demonstrators gathered in Boston and other Massachusetts locations on Saturday for the so-called "Hands Off!" protest, one of many similar events across the country aimed to send a message to President Donald Trump and Elon Musk.
It's part of a growing movement calling on President Donald Trump's administration to walk back funding cuts and the blooming trade war. These demonstrations came on the heels of the latest Trump tariffs, which plunged the stock market into a two-day freefall and wiped out more than a year of gains.
"We are all under attack. So we wanted to make sure that this rally represented everyone," said Susan Labandibar of Swing Blue Alliance.
Nationwide "Hands Off!" protests
Crowds of people angry about the way President Trump is running the country marched and rallied in scores of American cities Saturday in the biggest day of demonstrations yet by an opposition movement trying to regain its momentum after the shock of the Republican's first weeks in office.
So-called Hands Off! demonstrations were organized for more than 1,200 locations in all 50 states by more than 150 groups, including civil rights organizations, labor unions, LBGTQ+ advocates, veterans and elections activists. The rallies appeared peaceful, with no immediate reports of arrests.
Thousands of protesters in cities dotting the nation from Midtown Manhattan to Anchorage, Alaska, including at multiple state capitols, assailed Trump and billionaire Musk 's actions on government downsizing, the economy, immigration and human rights. On the West Coast, in the shadow of Seattle's iconic Space Needle, protesters held signs with slogans like "Fight the oligarchy." Protesters chanted as they took to the streets in Portland, Oregon, and Los Angeles, where they marched from Pershing Square to City Hall.
Demonstrators voiced anger over the administration's moves to fire thousands of federal workers, close Social Security Administration field offices, effectively shutter entire agencies, deport immigrants, scale back protections for transgender people and cut funding for health programs.
Musk, a Trump adviser who runs Tesla, SpaceX and the social media platform X, has played a key role in the downsizing as the head of the newly created Department of Government Efficiency. He says he is saving taxpayers billions of dollars.
Asked about the protests, the White House said in a statement that "President Trump's position is clear: he will always protect Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid for eligible beneficiaries. Meanwhile, the Democrats' stance is giving Social Security, Medicaid, and Medicare benefits to illegal aliens, which will bankrupt these programs and crush American seniors."
Boston Hands Off! demonstrations
In Boston, demonstrators brandished signs such as "Hands off our democracy" and "Hands off our Social Security."
Mayor Michelle Wu said she does not want her children and others' to live in a world in which threats and intimidation are government tactics and values like diversity and equality are under attack.
"I refuse to accept that they could grow up in a world where immigrants like their grandma and grandpa are automatically presumed to be criminals," Wu said. "Boston is and always will be a home for everyone. And the Trump administration is focused on our city for one simple reason. We stand for everything that they seek to tear down."
Activists have staged nationwide demonstrations against Trump and Musk multiple times since Trump returned to office. But before Saturday the opposition movement had yet to produce a mass mobilization like the Women's March in 2017, which brought thousands of women to Washington after Trump's first inauguration, or the Black Lives Matter demonstrations that erupted in multiple cities after George Floyd's killing by police in Minneapolis in 2020.
Massachusetts GOP response
In a statement on Saturday in advance of the demonstrations, MassGOP spokesperson Logan Trupiano focused on Sen. Ed Markey's role in the event.
"Ed Markey and his group of like-minded Democratic leaders seem intent on stirring up trouble, eroding consumer confidence, and misleading the public," Trupiano said. "It's disheartening to witness a sitting senator actively working against American interests in an effort to advance his own political career. Senator Markey will likely suggest that the federal government is targeting Social Security, but this claim is simply false, as the administration has already clarified. Today, you'll hear numerous falsehoods from Democratic leaders, all of which can be easily debunked with a quick google search. We can only hope that Senator Markey refrains from encouraging illegal activity or urging his supporters to engage in unlawful actions under the guise of 'good trouble' for a false cause."
A Boston Police Department spokesperson said there were no arrests during the protest.
Demonstrators also gathered in Provincetown Saturday for a Hands Off rally. Hundreds showed up on Commercial Street with signs. Demonstrators say Trump and Musk are taking the country in the wrong direction.
