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Thousands of demonstrators gathered outside City Hall in a protest against the Trump Administration in Los Angeles on Saturday.<\/span>Jill Connelly\/ZUMA<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n Massive crowds of<\/span> Americans took to the streets this weekend. In large cities and small towns, online<\/a>, and even around the world<\/a>, people voiced their discontent with President Donald Trump and Elon Musk\u2019s takeover of the federal government. <\/p>\n My colleagues <\/span><\/a>and I<\/a> were there to report<\/a> on the action.<\/p>\n To Musk and other Trump allies, though, the mass mobilization<\/a> was evidence of something else: paid dissent.<\/p>\n Both Musk and former New York City mayor and (since-disbarred<\/a>) Trump attorney Rudy Giuliani, for example, think they found smoking guns when they shared videos of protesters who struggled to articulate their thoughts about Trump.<\/p>\n \u201cANTI-TRUMP & ANTI-MUSK PROTESTERS EXPOSED!\u201d Giuliani wrote<\/a> on X, alongside a video interview with a protester in DC. \u201cWoke-Left protesters UNABLE to explain why President Trump is a Facist, pulls out a paper handout he was given with talking points AND still can\u2019t explain himself!\u201d In reality, the protester simply appeared uninterested in being on-camera, saying, \u201cI am not really into interviews,\u201d before adding Trump \u201cdoes everything he wants without following laws.\u201d <\/p>\n Meanwhile, the protester\u2019s friend seemed more comfortable engaging, accurately telling the interviewer\u2014who appears to be someone by the name of Ted Goodman<\/a>, an intern for the right-wing Daily Caller website\u2014Trump is \u201ctrying to control the media<\/a>,\u201d and that his policies are tanking American tourism<\/a>. At that point, the interviewer quickly replies, \u201cI don\u2019t want to get into a tourism debate,\u201d and then pans back to the protester who appears uncomfortable on-camera.<\/p>\n Musk chimed in<\/a> on the same video: \u201cThe problem is the puppetmasters, not the puppets, as the latter have no idea why they are even there,\u201d he wrote. \u201cHe had to read the paper he was given to understand the sign he was holding,\u201d Musk wrote<\/a> over a video of a protester explaining what his sign\u2014which said \u201cEnd the kakistocracy\u201d\u2014meant. Musk also shared<\/a> several posts from the Wall Street Apes account on X, which has more than 929,000 followers, and right-wing influencer Mario Nawfal, who has more than two million followers, alleging<\/a>\u2014without evidence\u2014that the protesters were paid.<\/p>\n Conspiracy theorist and journalist cosplayer Laura Loomer also alleged<\/a> that \u201cthe radical left is BUSSING IN PROTESTERS FROM AROUND THE COUNTRY TO CAUSE CHAOS IN WASHINGTON DC\u201d who she claimed were \u201cpro-Hamas<\/a>,\u201dan apparent reference to the fact that some were holding Palestinian flags and wearing keffiyehs.<\/p>\n Characterizations of Saturday\u2019s protesters as bumbling and lacking any conviction could not be further from what I saw in my hometown<\/a> of Marshfield, Massachusetts. With a population of about 25,000, organizers say about 500 people turned out to protest, a notable size for a town that\u2019s more red than the reliably blue state.<\/p>\n The dozen or so people I spoke to they all clearly explained their concerns about how Trump and Musk\u2019s chaos would affect their daily lives and those of other Americans. Jim Carson told me he was worried about how he would live if Musk cut Social Security. Christine, a protester who declined to provide her last name, said she was worried Trump\u2019s tariffs<\/a> would jack up the costs of gloves and masks she uses for her work in the medical field. Others were disturbed by the administration\u2019s attacks on scientific and medical research<\/a>; mass firings at the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS)<\/a>; and the dismantling of USAID<\/a>. One protester said she had historically been a conservative Independent before registering as a Democrat on Friday.<\/p>\n “I came because I don’t want them to take away the Social Security,” #HandsOff<\/a> rally-goer Jim Carson told our reporter @JulianneMcShane<\/a>. “That’s stealing it\u2014we all paid already!” <\/p>\n Julianne returned to her small hometown of Marshfield (pop. 25,000) which votes more red than\u2026 pic.twitter.com\/KPr4uX5yjw<\/a><\/p>\n \u2014 Mother Jones (@MotherJones) April 5, 2025<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n To the extent that they were \u201cbussed in,\u201d as Loomer claimed, some drove over from the nearby towns of Pembroke, Norwell, and Cohasset, because those towns lacked organized protests of their own. They came out because they felt that they had no other choice; as Carson told me, \u201cI was happy until Trump and Musk came along, and now, we gotta stand up and fight.\u201d<\/p>\n Similarly, my colleagues spoke to protesters of all ages who knew exactly why they were spending their Saturday protesting Trump and Musk. Take Grant, the 15-year-old who my colleague Michael Mechanic talked to<\/a> at the Princeton, New Jersey protest. He told Mechanic he came out because of \u201cEverything: Doge destroying the government, cutting international aid to everyone, tariffs that help nobody, getting rid of all the DEI programs.\u201d <\/p>\n Wow. Grant, a 15-year-old protester at a “Hands Off” rally in Princeton, New Jersey, just eloquently (and modestly) dismantled Team Trump. pic.twitter.com\/R7m0cswaS9<\/a><\/p>\n \u2014 Mother Jones (@MotherJones) April 5, 2025<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n \u201cI\u2019ve never done this before\u2014if you can believe that!\u201d rallygoer Pam Eberle told my colleague Laura Morel in St. Petersburg, Florida. \u201cI\u2019ll be 71 this year\u2014that\u2019s how important this is to me,\u201d she said, adding she was most concerned about \u201cthe dehumanization of people\u201d under Trump.<\/p>\n “I’ve never done this before\u2014if you can believe that!” rallygoer Pam Eberle told reporter @lauracmorel<\/a> in downtown St. Petersburg, Florida, on Saturday. “I’ll be 71 this year. That’s how important this is to me.” Watch Laura’s video dispatch: pic.twitter.com\/1KONIahcTx<\/a><\/p>\n \u2014 Mother Jones (@MotherJones) April 5, 2025<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n Disabled protesters who attended virtual events, as my colleague Julia M\u00e9traux reported<\/a>, were worried about how the administration\u2019s attacks on\u00a0Medicaid<\/a>,\u00a0Social Security<\/a>, and\u00a0disability education services<\/a> could affect them. Protesters in New York City told<\/a> my colleagues they were terrified of Trump\u2019s deportation of immigrants<\/a> and detaining of student protesters<\/a> without due process. <\/p>\n “I thought when Bush was president that that would be the height of insanity. But I was so wrong.”<\/p>\n Longtime New Yorker Daniel Wapner, 57, turned out to the massive anti-Trump rally in Bryant Park.@joshsanburn<\/a> talked to him and others about the terror of deportation w\/o due\u2026 pic.twitter.com\/QAH1A5YCjn<\/a><\/p>\n \u2014 Mother Jones (@MotherJones) April 5, 2025<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n Notably, some of Trump\u2019s typically most vocal mouthpieces\u2014White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt, Communications Director Steven Cheung, Vice President JD Vance, and Donald Trump Jr.\u2014all appeared to be silent on social media about Saturday\u2019s protests. But as my colleague Tim Murphy wrote in a must-read piece<\/a> about what the protests mean, Trump and his allies ignore or dismiss them at their own peril; they are proof that the mass opposition is everywhere, and that he does not, in fact, have a \u201cmandate\u201d for any of this<\/a>:<\/p>\n Ultimately the big story is not what the signs said, but the deep groundswell of anger and unrest that brought so many people in so many places out into the streets and other public spaces of their communities. The message is: crowd large. A lot of politicians and administrators and business leaders, in bowing to Trump, have drawn confidence and comfort from the perceived vibe shift. Events like this puncture that delusion. They are an unavoidable illustration of outrage. Trump may have gotten a lot undone in the last three months, but the opposition never went away, and it may finally be emboldened.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote><\/div>\n\n
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