BOSTON — A crowd of thousands flooded the Boston Common on Saturday to protest the Trump administration’s actions on government downsizing, the economy, human rights and other issues.
Boston’s “Hands Off!” rally is one of more than 1,200 planned by 150 groups across the country, including civil rights organizations, labor unions, LBGTQ+ advocates, veterans and elections activists.
Boston Mayor Michelle Wu, Lieutenant Governor Kim Driscoll, Senator Ed Markey and the band The Dropkick Murphys are all expected to address the crowd.
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.
Musk, a Trump adviser 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.
Asked about the protests, the White House said in a statement that “President Trump’s position is clear: he will always protect Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid for eligible beneficiaries. Meanwhile, the Democrats’ stance is giving Social Security, Medicaid, and Medicare benefits to illegal aliens, which will bankrupt these programs and crush American seniors.”
Activists have staged nationwide demonstrations against Trump or Musk multiple times since the new administration took power. But the opposition movement has yet to produce a mass mobilization like the Women’s March in 2017, which brought thousands of women to Washington, D.C., after Trump’s first inauguration, or the Black Lives Matter demonstrations that erupted in multiple cities after George Floyd’s killing in 2020.
Organizers say they hope Saturday’s demonstrations will be the largest since Trump returned to office in January.
This is a developing story. Check back for updates as more information becomes available.
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