‘No Kings Day’: Protesters Denounce Trump and Musk
Demonstrators from New York to Atlanta to San Francisco have taken to the streets Monday in the largest mass-protests since the beginning of the second Trump administration.
The Presidents’ Day protests — branded, cheekily, as “No Kings Day” — are evidence of a growing public backlash against the authoritarian executive orders issued by Donald Trump, as well as the havoc Elon Musk and his tech-bro minions are unleashing in federal agencies, through the so-called Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE.
The demonstrations were organized by a loose-knit coalition calling itself 50501 — short for “50 protests. 50 states. 1 movement.” The group’s website calls on the public to counter the “anti-democratic and illegal actions” of the Trump administration “and its plutocratic allies.”
The billionaire mega-donor Musk, even more than Trump himself, was the primary target of demonstrators’ ire. On Monday afternoon, social media sites were flooded with images and videos of the far flung protests, with many chanting, “Hey, hey. Ho, ho. Elon Musk has got to go!”
In Washington, D.C., thousands of demonstrators, some hoisting large American flags, gathered around the reflecting pool in front of the Lincoln Memorial. They raised their voices against the overreach of DOGE, which Musk has wielded with powers typically reserved for the legislative branch, including blocking outgoing federal payments and attempting to shutter entire federal agencies — as the Republican-controlled House and Senate have passively stood by. “Hey Congress,” the protesters chanted: “Grow a spine!”
While the D.C. protest appeared to be the largest, another huge crowd gathered in New York City’s Union Square, denouncing a “fascist coup.” Thousands more braved frigid temperatures to protest in the snowy streets of Boston. In San Francisco, outside city hall, a crush of protesters gathered toting signs with slogans like, “No One Elected Elon,” and “Democracy Not DOGEbags” as they chanted “The people united, will never be defeated.”
The first Trump administration was met with vigorous street protests, from the Women’s March, the day after Trump’s 2017 inauguration, to the George Floyd protests that roiled cities nationwide in the spring and summer of 2020.
While citizen activists have been overwhelming the phones of their representatives in Congress in recent weeks, street protests had been relatively muted under Trump 2.0, despite executive orders seeking to write millions of trans Americans out of existence, and another attempting to strip citizenship rights of children born to undocumented immigrants.
The lack of street protests has been attributed to a gutting sense of resignation that Trump managed to win re-election despite his felony convictions, as well as to a real sense of fear that protesters could be targeted for retribution. But the growing protests Monday are a sign that many Americans believe there’s little safety in staying quiet — and that it may be time to do as demonstrators in Atlanta chanted: “Stand Up. Fight Back.”
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