Hundreds of protests were expected across the nation Saturday, amid a growing wave of discontent over President Donald Trump’s gutting of the federal workforce and sweeping tariffs that pummeled the stock market this week.
The rallies — planned in scores of cities across the U.S., including more than 50 cities across Northern California — add to the drumbeat of demonstrations that included repeated “takeovers” last month of Tesla dealerships owned by billionaire and senior presidential advisor Elon Musk. They cap a week that saw Wall Street post its most devastating losses since the lead-up to the coronavirus pandemic in 2020, as Trump unveiled his most punishing round of tariffs yet in a moment he coined as “Liberation Day.”
Saturday’s protests — stretching from the Maine hamlet of Presque Isle to the Southern California coastal city of San Diego — aim to “fight back” against Trump and Musk’s attempts at “taking everything they can get their hands on,” according to one organizer’s website.
“We are looking at a crisis,” said Nancy Latham, an organizer with the group Indivisible East Bay, which is planning a protest Saturday afternoon at Frank H. Ogawa Plaza in downtown Oakland. “We are already in a constitutional crisis. If you ask me, there’s already been an authoritarian breakthrough.”
“We are saying, ‘Listen, Trump and Musk are coming for our health care, our Social Security, our lands, our schools, our rights, our voting rights,’ ” she added.
Sporadic, siloed protests in February and early March snowballed in recent weeks into increasingly widespread and coordinated demonstrations of disgust and anger at Trump’s administration. Last weekend, protesters swarmed Tesla dealerships across the nation in a bid to picket outside all of the company’s 275-plus showrooms, often while holding signs declaring “Honk if you hate Elon” and “Fight the billionaire broligarchy,” the Associated Press reported.
In the Bay Area, protesters in Walnut Creek, Palo Alto, Santa Clara and Berkeley beat drums and hurled invectives at Musk outside his dealerships.
Attacks also have been reported at some Tesla dealerships, at times in the form of torched Cybertrucks, the AP reported. Last month in Palm Beach County, Florida, a man drove through a crowd of protesters at a Tesla dealership demonstrating against Trump and Musk, but did not injure anyone.
Saturday’s rallies appear less focused on Tesla dealerships, and more so on city centers across the nation.
They come amid a particularly tumultuous week that ended with Trump introducing a flat 10% tariff on all imports while singling out about 60 countries for even harsher fees, many of which topped 40%. Investors reacted with dismay, sending the S&P 500 tumbling more than 10% in two days, while the Nasdaq finished the week more than 20% below its record high in December.
Oakland resident P. David Pearson voiced fears Friday of being unable to pay rent in the coming years if the losses continue. The 84-year-old retired UC Berkeley professor of education said he planned to host a modest rally Saturday at Piedmont Avenue and 41st Street with other retirees, all of whom have watched their 401k holdings take a beating.
“We’re losing money every day while he’s going off on this tyranny of tariffs,” said Pearson, adding that his own retirement accounts have declined 25% in recent months.
Organizers across the country voiced other concerns. Paul Osadebe, a federal union steward and a member of The Federal Unionists group, said he planned to attend a protest in Washington D.C. on Saturday where his colleagues at the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development have faced near-daily threats to their jobs.
“We know we have to organize and speak out,” said Osadebe, recalling how coworkers have been encouraged to resign or unexpectedly fired, all while remaining employees in their trial division have been told to stop accepting new cases.
“I’ve seen a nonstop attack in the name of efficiency,” Osadebe added. “It’s been every attack you can think of, to try to demoralize and get rid of us.”
Latham viewed the growing fervor and tempo of protests as a means to lay the groundwork for ending Republican control of the U.S. House of Representatives in 2026. In the short term, she voiced hope that the rallies would build momentum for universities and law firms to stand up to Trump and avoid striking more deals with the White House to avoid punishing sanctions and executive orders from the president.
“If we have more and more of the country saying, ‘No, we reject this,’ then that will get easier for those institutions to fight back against him,” Latham said. “And the more we have people in the street saying ‘This is not OK with us,” the stronger everybody else is going to get.”
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
