Lessons From This Weekend’s Historic Rallies

The answer to stopping Trump and Musk is through collective action

This weekend marked something historic, compelling, and undeniable: the rise of people power. Millions of people across all 50 states poured out into the streets to protest the Trump and Musk administration through more than 1,300 Hands Off! rallies. Building off the dynamic town hall protests that erupted this spring, Hands Off! was the biggest activation since Trump’s election and the start of a rising tide of collective opposition to the Trump/Musk/Republican agenda.

These demonstrations have the power to remind us that no matter how frustrated, angry, and scared we may be about the Trump administration’s callous and cruel cuts, we are not alone.

While D.C., New York, Boston, Chicago, and other major cities brought out hundreds of thousands of people, the peaceful protests also inspired new, first-time protesters in rural and suburban areas.

As Newsweek reported, “A handful of Trump-supporting cities held ‘Hands Off!’ protests on Saturday, including Rome, Georgia, where 70 percent of county voters backed Trump's 2024 presidential bid, Midland, Michigan, where 56 percent supported him at the polls last November, and Little Rock, Arkansas, located in a county where 70 percent voted for Trump.”

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Don’t believe us? Take it from the attendees themselves. Here are some inspiring stories from people like you who attended “Hands Off!” rallies across the country:

• A resident of Yakima, WA, said they “expected 500 and had 1,300 in ruby red Yakima” at their demonstration where Yakima resident Ruby Marsh came out to fight for herself and her neighbors. She told the Yakima Herald, “It was a great cross section of Yakima all willing to stand shoulder to shoulder with other people for all our rights. Today’s turnout was really heartwarming. It gave me hope that our country's not dead yet, and that if we fight, we can get it back and make it a better world.”

• Amy, who attended a protest in her hometown in Newark, OH, shared that she “was shocked and amazed by the protest. We had well over 500 people there, in the cold rain. I have not seen that many people here in a political gathering ever, and I was born here.”

• Leslie and her family joined “in the tiny town of Cannon Beach, OR, (population 1,504). “We worried only a handful of folks would attend but were thrilled to see a crowd of about 70 people there at a prominent corner of the bustling tourist town. Small protests matter!”

• Nancy similarly shared that in “our little town of Murphys in Calaveras County, they had 300 people show up” in a predominantly Republican district in California as “people are really upset that Tom McClintock is absent from the town halls.”

• Nancy in Grand Rapids, MI, commented that “about 4,000 people came together to protest the current regime. It was uplifting and peaceful … and it felt good to be doing something constructive in these terrifying times.”

Washington, DC - Photo by Paul Morigi/Getty Images for Community Change Action

This remarkable show of dissent, from Utah to Alabama to all points in between, underscores that people are not OK with the direction of this country. The answer to stopping the Trump/Musk/Republican agenda is unlikely to come from within the halls of Congress. It’s going to come from people in communities from every corner of the country unifying with consistent, collective action in opposition to Trump.

Our job now is to keep encouraging Americans from all geographic and political backgrounds to stay engaged and stay in community. You can help grow our movement and make a difference by becoming part of MoveOn’s Action Community Training (ACT) Program. Through ACT, you’ll develop powerful skills and connect with a network of passionate people across the country and in your local community to help us keep the momentum and the impact going.

This is only the beginning.

- MoveOn