By Morgan Lee
Demonstrators gathered in cities across the U.S. on Wednesday to protest the Trump administration’s early actions, decrying everything from the president’s immigration crackdown to his rollback of transgender rights and a proposal to forcibly transfer Palestinians from the Gaza Strip.
Protesters in Philadelphia and at state capitols in California, Minnesota, Michigan, Texas, Wisconsin, Indiana and beyond waved signs denouncing President Donald Trump; billionaire Elon Musk, the leader of Trump’s new Department of Government Efficiency; and Project 2025, a hard-right playbook for American government and society.
“I’m appalled by democracy’s changes in the last, well, specifically two weeks — but it started a long time ago,” Margaret Wilmeth said at a protest outside the Statehouse in Columbus, Ohio. “So I’m just trying to put a presence into resistance.”
Catie Miglietti, from the Ann Arbor area, said Musk’s access to Treasury Department data was especially concerning. She painted a sign depicting Musk puppeteering Trump from his outraised arm — evoking Musk’s straight-arm gesture during a January speech that some have interpreted as a Nazi salute.
Demonstrations in several cities piled criticism on Musk and the Department of Government Efficiency.
“DOGE is not legit,” read one poster on the state Capitol steps in Jefferson City, Missouri, where dozens of protesters gathered. “Why does Elon have your Social Security info???”
“We need to show strength,” said Laura Wilde, a former public school occupational therapist in Austin. “I think we’re in a state of shock.”
Thousands protested in St. Paul, Minnesota, where 28-year-old Hallie Parten carried a Democratic presidential campaign sign, revised to read “Harris Walz Were Right.” The Minneapolis resident says she was motivated by fear.
“Fear for what is going to happen to our country if we don’t all just do something about it,” Parten said.
At Iowa’s Capitol in Des Moines, protesters who joined the anti-Trump movement went inside to counter a registered event by the conservative parental rights group Moms for Liberty. The anti-Trump protesters shouted over the speakers in the rotunda for about 15 minutes before law enforcement pushed them outside, removing four demonstrators in handcuffs.
In Alabama, several hundred people gathered outside the Statehouse to protest actions targeting LGBTQ+ people.
On Tuesday, Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey promised to sign legislation declaring that there are only two sexes, male and female — echoing Trump’s recent executive order for the federal government to define sex as only male or female.
“The president thinks he has a lot of power,” the Rev. Julie Conrady, a Unitarian Universalist minister, told the crowd. “He does not have the power to determine your gender. He does not have the power to define your identity.”