Activists across metro Detroit and around the country are mobilizing today to protest the policies of President Donald Trump.
Dubbed Hands Off Day, the groups accuse Trump and Elon Musk of “taking everything they can get their hands on — our health care, our data, our jobs, our services.”
Protests are occurring across the state, including Lansing, Detroit, Novi, Troy, Dearborn and Ferndale. Other rallies are planned on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., and in Boston, Independence, Missouri, and Berkeley, California.
Nationwide, more than 500,000 people have RSVP’d to attend one of 1,000 rallies, marches or protests organized by grassroots groups. The groups include activists for reproductive rights, immigrant rights, government workers, and foreign policy issues like the Gaza War and support for Ukraine.
A steady rain didn’t dampen the enthusiasm in Detroit, where protesters boarded the QLINE and made their way to the Detroit Institute of Arts amid a relentless blast of car horns from traffic on Woodward.
At their peak, the marchers blanketed the sidewalks on both sides of the street from the museum to Little Caesars Arena.
For Kathy Cassar, 65, it was a family affair, as she stepped off the train and walked with her sister and brother-in-law to the DIA, where hundreds of people were already pouring to the front steps of the museum with signs in tow.
“Congress do your job,” one sign read.
Another: “Hands off free speech.”
“Elon Musk has got to go, hey, hey, ho, ho,” protesters chanted.
Cassar drove more than an hour from Hartland to Detroit to express her outrage over the Trump administration, which she described as “reprehensible.”
“I have never been so afraid for my country in my entire lifetime,” she said. “What is happening now is terrifying.”
The firing of federal workers and changes to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention would affect everyone, she said.
More: Live updates: Anti-Trump protesters set to gather at hundreds of locations nationwide
“We need federal workers. These are Americans. These are our neighbors,” Cassar, who identifies as an independent but voted for Kamala Harris last November, said.
She carried a sign, wrapped in plastic to thwart the rain, that read: “Republican Congress Grow A Spine Or Resign.”
Susan Shernit, 64, showed up with her sister Karen, 57, in part to mark the fifth anniversary of their mother’s death from COVID-19.
“This (Trump) is the person who hates science, and if it were not for him, worried about the numbers of COVID in the very beginning, she could have been protected,” Karen Shernit said. “This didn’t have to happen, and this is a person who said we should drink bleach and put lights in our bodies, and nobody having the strength to stand up to him, (Dr. Anthony) Fauci trying and then being vilified to this day makes my blood boil.”
That’s not Shernit’s only complaint about Trump.
“We felt so helpless and you could name anything from the economy, tariffs, health insurance, Elon Musk, who is not elected to any office, just taking jobs away from people and just dismantling our entire federal government leaves me terrified,” she said.
John Donabedian of Livonia created a three-dimensional sign for his protest.
It included three spheres hanging from a rod. One was a blue ball, about 3 feet in diameter, showing oceans and clouds, to represent Mother Earth. Another was a pale blue globe inside a clear garbage bag, which represents the trashing of the planet, he said.
In between was a smaller gray sphere.
“In the middle rides the owl, which represents the wisdom of the native peoples and the natural world, which actually has more intelligence than the human beings, because they don’t destroy their own habitat like we are,” he said. “I built this just as a way of intriguing people to think a little about what it is we’re doing and to realize that our choices make a difference, and right now. It’s a choice between climate change or human change, and our choices make the difference.”
Jessica Sato, 36, of Detroit, was in Washington, D.C., and decided to come to the protest on the National Mall with friends.
“To be honest, I’ve had the privilege of not being directly affected by a lot of policy changes (in) really any administration. But I care about people, and I think that’s what Americans need to do. We need to care about our fellow Americans, and I’m here to stand up for the rights of everyone who can’t stand up for themselves, or just to show support and make it clear that our rights are everyone’s rights,” Sato said.
USA TODAY contributed to this report.
Contact John Wisely: [email protected]. On X: @jwisely
