Live updates: Anti-Trump protesters set to gather at hundreds of locations nationwide
Thousands of people have begun gather across the country to voice concerns over President Donald Trump's actions since taking office.
The "Hands Off" protests, scheduled to begin at noon on the East Coast, are expected to be the largest and most numerous gatherings since Trump's second term began. Nationwide more than 500,000 people have RSVP'd to attend one of 1,000 rallies marches or protests organized by grassroots groups. The protests will be livestreamed here.
For months, large and small activist groups have held protests across the country, protesting at congressional town halls, outside federal office buildings and on street corners over the changes Trump has made since taking office in January.
They've protested how Trump has rolled back protections for immigrants and transgender people and laid off tens of thousands of federal workers. Some protests have focused specifically on supporting federal employees, LGBTQ rights, immigrant rights, Palestinian self-determination or Ukraine, while others have demonstrated against Trump’s agenda generally.
The White House has dismissed the protests, with Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt telling USA TODAY this week that "protests, lawsuits, and lawfare" will not sway Trump "from delivering on the promises he made to make our federal government more efficient and more accountable."
The biggest protest was expected to be in D.C.. Luella Jaslowski, 59, of Twin Lakes, Wisc. said she and her sister jumped to buy plane tickets to Washington when they learned about the Hands Off protest two weeks ago. She said it was important to be there in person, even if President Donald Trump is not in Washington.
"I want to be here. I know he's not here, but I want to be here because this is where democracy starts," she told USA TODAY.
She said she hopes people see the size of the opposition to Trump and opposition to Elon Musk, who has led the Department of Government Efficiency, which has cut tends of thousands of federal jobs.
Across the country ‒ and the world
More than 1,200 other protests are planned across the country. Organizers said they wanted to have protests that are not only accessible for people wherever they are in the country, but also highly visible to show that opposition exists in every part of the country. Protesters also gathered Saturday in Berlin, Paris and London to rally against Trump and Musk.
Hosting organizations in the U.S. include longstanding groups like Indivisible, Women’s March, MoveOn, Working Families Power, and Public Citizen and grassroots groups like 50501 that have formed since Election Day.
“I don't care if I'm on the record as being in the town square with three people, or 300,000 people, or 3 million people protesting it, I want to be on the record. I want the story to say that people protested this and fought it every step of the way, even if the story includes the places where we didn't win,” said Rachel O'Leary Carmona, executive director of Women’s March.
In February alone, more than 2,085 protests took place nationwide, according to the Crowd Counting Consortium, a joint project of Harvard Kennedy School and the University of Connecticut.
That's an increase from 937 protests in February 2017, the first full month of the first Trump administration. But many of the protests in the early months of Trump's first term were much larger than the nation has seen so far in 2025, and there has been less frequent media coverage of protests this year.
MoveOn Executive Director Rahna Epting said the goal is to concentrate all of those protests into one day to show how many Americans oppose cuts to critical services and benefits they've earned like Medicare.
"Hands Off is like hands off on all these things, not just our services and benefits, but our rights and our freedoms, all of which are being threatened right now, and we're seeing it every single day,” she said.
Motivating protesters: voting rights and firing of federal workers
CC Kay of Silver Spring, MD said she came to the Washington monument protest because "either I do this or I stay in bed depressed."
The issue she was there to raise was voting rights.
"Protesting is the way I can scream. And I just feel that voting underscores everything. Everything. Without the vote, we get nothing. We have to make voting the number one priority," she said.
Former federal employee Lisa Gibbon used to work in HR and said Trump violated proper procedures for laying off federal employees.
"I know the right way to do these things and the wrong way, and this was the wrong way," she said.
She traveled into the city from Frederick County, Maryland.
"I'm here to do my little part, because I don't have a lot of power, but I want to join those who do to save our country from those who are trying to destroy it," she said.
(This is a developing story and will be updated.)