A Hell Of A Lot Of People Gave Trump The Finger This Weekend
And Dom was there!
On Saturday, people all over the world turned out to protest the Trump administration. Rallies were held from Anchorage, Alaska, all the way to Palm Beach, Florida; from Vancouver, British Columbia, to Montreal, Quebec; as well as in London, Paris and Berlin. Officially titled "Hands Off," more than 1,100 rallies were organized under the 50501 movement, but a bevy of others also came together under the Grand Unifying Theory of "Fuck That Guy."
By noon, the crowd on the National Mall in Washington DC was swelling well into the tens of thousands. Throngs of people massed around the Washington Monument, enjoying the first warm spring Saturday in April. By 12:30, the crowd around the National Sylvan Theater, next to the Washington Monument, was so large people were being told to step back “for safety.” A few thousand around the Sylvan, those that could actually hear the speakers, would roar, cheer and chant.
To say there was a lot of pent up anger is an understatement. This was the first mass demonstration in DC since Trump’s inauguration that had any sort of formal planning or advanced notice, and aside from the weekly Tesla protests, the first to be held on a weekend.
Organizers tell Axios the massive rallies in DC and New York City “had well over 100,000 attendees each.” I’m not personally sure about this estimate, only because the crowd in DC was so spread out along the National Mall. (But maybe!) The DC numbers are likely buoyed by a large, unaffiliated march under the "Let Gaza Live" banner that was calling for an Israeli arms embargo. That march started on the other side the Mall, by the Capitol. So as the Hands Off rally was winding down, the Let Gaza Live march toward the ICE headquarters was kicking off and sucking in passersby.
And while there were certainly audible differences voiced by people in the crowd, both sides seemed content to take any ally they could get for the moment.
Darryl Graff, 39, wore a blue hat that read, "Donald Trump 4 Prison," and carried a defaced Trump 2020 campaign flag. He'd angrily scrawled "TRASH" in black paint over Trump's name. When asked what brought him out, he scoffed.
"Donald fuckin' Trump brought me out today," he said, waving his flag and posing for photographers.
Dr. John Kilbourne, 72, a retired movement sciences professor from Grand Valley State University in Allendale, Michigan, dressed as Galileo and held a comically oversized telescope to draw attention to the administration’s assault on universities and scientific research.
”I feel very strongly about the importance of science,” Kilbourne said. “What they’re doing is just cruel.”
It was one of the few instances where someone would identify themselves by their full name. People have become gripped with fear when speaking to the press. Many now feel concerned about publicly voicing their dislike of Trump, or the fascist movement spreading like an uncontrollable cancer in nations across the world. People attending demonstrations shield their faces with large sunglasses, signs and masks. They give obviously fake names, or flatly refuse to offer any information whatsoever (which is usually the safest move when dealing with any self-identifying member of the press corps, though it makes our job that much more complicated).
Of course, I can only speak for protests in the DC area, which since Trump's inauguration have generally been held ad hoc outside of a whatever federal agency DOGE was gutting that week. Many federal workers are in limbo as they wait to get extrajudicially fired, or rehired, as the legality of Trump's mass firings works through the courts.
A friend's partner recently told me they were keeping their mouth shut when I asked how they were doing. They've spent their career at an alphabet agency we both considered untouchable. It has yet to be fully DOGE-ed, I’ve been told, but it's only a matter of time before Elon Musk's Lebensborn figure out a way inside. They’re expecting the axe to fall later this month.
As the crowds began to leave, I sat on a bench in the late afternoon sun. It had been cloudy all day, and the warm glow peaking out basked the Mall in a golden hue. Everything on the Mall felt normal for a fleeting moment.
A young girl in a flowery dress danced along the grass. Muslim men knelt to pray in the shadow of a tree. A gaggle of tourists struggled to identify a museum in a foreign language. A man laid out in the sun smoking a joint. An aging punk in sailors tattoos and ripped shorts strolled aimlessly as a runners in neon spandex juked through the crowds. The chants from teenaged protesters echoed off in the distance.
It was the image of the Mall that I’d grown up with. Where pretty much everyone could walk through a well manicured park, and veer off into a museum that informed you about people and actions throughout history that brought you to this moment in time. A reminder that nothing was perfect or sacred, and that keeping a vision for a better society means fighting through a hell of a lot of bullshit, blood, sweat and tears.
He's salivating to give the order to have us all shot.
"as well as in London, Paris and Berlin..."
NEW YORK LONDON PARIS MUNICH EVERYBODY TALK ABOUT
POP MUSIC