Hands Off protests: 1,200 demonstrations against Donald Trump and Elon Musk planned across all 50 US states

Demonstrations protesting President Donald Trump and billionaire Elon Musk are set to take place across America today. More than 1,200 Hands Off! protests across all 50 states are set to take place today (March 5).

Saturday’s demonstrations, organised by more than 150 groups, will protest the administration’s actions on government downsizing, the economy, human rights and other issues. Civil rights organisations, labor unions, LGBTQ+ advocates, veterans and fair-elections activists plan to make a stand.

The protests are planned for the National Mall in Washington DC, state capitols and other locations. Organisers say they hope Saturday’s demonstrations will be the largest since Mr Trump returned to office in January.

Activists have staged nationwide demonstrations against Mr Trump and Mr Musk multiple times since the new administration took power.

However, the opposition movement has yet to produce a mass mobilisation like the Women’s March in 2017, which brought thousands of women to Washington, DC, after Mr Trump’s first inauguration, or the Black Lives Matter demonstrations that erupted in multiple cities after George Floyd’s killing in 2020.

Mr Trump has promoted his policies as being in the best interest of the US. Protesters are assailing the Trump administration’s moves to fire thousands of federal workers, close Social Security Administration field offices, effectively shutter entire agencies, deport immigrants, scale back protections for transgender people and cut federal funding for health programs.

Mr Musk, one of the president’s advisers who owns Tesla, SpaceX and the social media platform X, has played a key role in government downsizing as the head of the newly created Department of Government Efficiency. He says he is saving taxpayers billions of dollars.

The White House did not reply to a request for comment about the protests.