(Reuters) -Some 1,200 demonstrations are planned across the U.S. on Saturday in what organizers expect to be the largest single day of protest against President Donald Trump and his billionaire ally Elon Musk since they launched a rapid-fire effort to overhaul government and expand presidential authority.
Thousands were streaming into downtown Washington as the protests got underway under gloomy skies and light rain. Organizers told Reuters that more than 20,000 people were expected to attend the rally at the National Mall.
The protests in the U.S. will give Trump opponents an opportunity to demonstrate their displeasure en masse in response to Trump’s raft of executive orders.
Some 150 activist groups have signed up to participate, according to the event’s website. Protests are planned in all 50 states plus Canada and Mexico.
Protesters were lining the busy thoroughfare of Connecticut Avenue in Washington, D.C., awaiting buses to take them downtown. They were carrying signs with slogans such as “No Kings in the USA” and “Deport Musk.”
Terry Klein, a retired biomedical scientist from Princeton, New Jersey, was among hundreds who gathered early in front of the stage below the Washington Monument.
She said she drove down to attend the rally to protest Trump’s policies on “everything from immigration to the DOGE stuff to the tariffs this week, to education. I mean, our whole country is under attack, all of our institutions, all the things that make America what it is.”
David Madden, a 75-year old Army veteran and retired trial lawyer, said he flew from Dayton, Ohio, to demonstrate against “the injustice that is dominating this country, the institutions that are being stolen from the American people, the confusion in the courts, the fact that we have a population that I believe is essentially racist.”
With Trump’s blessing, Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency team has scythed through the U.S. government, eliminating more than 200,000 jobs from the 2.3 million federal workforce. At times, the effort has been haphazard and forced the recall of needed specialists.
On Friday, the Internal Revenue Service began laying off more than 20,000 workers, as much as 25% of its ranks.
Several hundred people gathered on Saturday outside the headquarters of the Social Security Administration, a top DOGE target, near Baltimore to protest against cuts to the agency which delivers benefits to the elderly and disabled.
The mood was angry and defiant, after the agency recently announced cuts of 7,000 staff and the ending of phone services to millions of claimants.
Members of DOGE have been inside the building for weeks. Many in the crowd of mostly retirees held handmade signs, including “Where Has My Country Gone?”, “FIRE DOGE!”, “Send Musk to Mars,” and “Hands off Social Security!”.
Linda Falcao, who turns 65 in two months, told the crowd she had been paying into the Social Security fund since the age of 16.
“I’m terrified, I’m angry, I’m pissed, I’m bewildered this could happen to the United States,” she said. “I do love America and I’m heartbroken. I need my money. I want my money. I want my benefits!”
In response, the crowd chanted, “It’s our money!”
White House assistant press secretary Liz Huston disputed the protesters’ charge that Trump aimed to cut Social Security and Medicaid.
“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,” Huston said in an email.
Much of Trump’s agenda has been restrained by lawsuits contending he has overstepped his authority with attempts to fire civil servants, deport immigrants and reverse transgender rights.
Trump returned to office on January 20 with a stream of executive orders and other measures critics say are aligned with an agenda outlined by Project 2025, a deeply conservative political initiative to reshape government and consolidate presidential authority. His supporters have applauded Trump’s audacity as necessary to disrupt entrenched liberal interests.
Hours before the protests were due to kick off in the United States, hundreds of anti-Trump Americans living in Europe gathered in Berlin, Frankfurt, Paris and London to voice opposition to Trump’s sweeping makeover of U.S. foreign and domestic policies.
About 200 people, mostly American, gathered on Paris’ Place de la Republique, listening to speeches and waving banners ranging from “Resist Tyrant”, “Rule of Law” to “Feminists for Freedom not fascism” and “Save Democracy”.
“We have to show solidarity with all the demonstrations in a thousand cities today in the USA,” Democrats Abroad spokesperson Timothy Kautz said in Frankfurt. Protester Jose Sanchez said Trump was a con man who was destroying U.S. democracy.
(Reporting by Jonathan Landay and Tim Reid in Washington. Additional reporting by Daniel Trotta in Carlsbad, California, John Irish in Paris, Emma-Victoria Farr, Christian Mang and Frank Simon in Berlin and Frankfurt; Sarah Young in London. Writing by James Oliphant; Editing by Frank McGurty, Toby Chopra and Alistair Bell)
By Jonathan Landay and Tim Reid
