Protesters gathered in downtown Milwaukee Saturday to speak out against the way President Donald Trump is running the country — as well as the efforts by his billionaire ally Elon Musk to slash federal government.
The Milwaukee event, which was held outside the Milwaukee Federal Building and U.S. Courthouse on East Wisconsin Avenue, was one of hundreds of anti-Trump protests organized Saturday.
The local demonstrations are part of the the national “Hands Off!” movement, linked to a partnership of some 180 organizations, many that are involved with liberal or progressive politics. According to one of the organizations, Indivisible, about 500,000 people were signed up to protest across all 50 states Saturday.
There were more than 30 protests planned across Wisconsin Saturday, including Madison and Milwaukee as well as locations like Appleton, Oshkosh, Kenosha and Green Bay.
“Donald Trump and Elon Musk think this country belongs to them,” organizers said in an online post. “They’re taking everything they can get their hands on—our health care, our data, our jobs, our services—and daring the world to stop them. This is a crisis, and the time to act is now.”
They said they want to send a message that they “do not consent to the destruction of our government and our economy for the benefit of Trump and his billionaire allies.”
Organizations involved include groups like Indivisible, Women’s March, MoveOn, Working Families Power, and Public Citizen, as well as smaller groups that have formed since Election Day.
The Washington, D.C. event, expected to be the largest, started at noon at the Washington Monument. The protests are being livestreamed.
The office of the first lady said it was moving the White House’s annual spring garden tour to Sunday due to the protests. Trump is scheduled to be at Mar-a-Lago, his Florida estate. But protests are also scheduled for the Palm Beach area.
“Anyone who thinks protests, lawsuits, and lawfare will deter President Trump must have been sleeping under a rock for the past several years,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told USA TODAY in a statement.
The target of the protests was what national organizers described as “the most brazen power grab in modern history.” Protesters took aim at policies and decisions by Musk and the Trump administration, including the firing Veteran’s Affairs workers and the deporting an El Salvadorian man due to an “administrative error.”
National “Hands Off!” organizers said on their website’s “About” page that the government’s actions amounted to “a hostile takeover” by Trump and Musk, that ordinary Americans were the victims of such policies.
“This is the moment where we say NO,” it read. “No more looting, no more stealing, no more billionaires raiding our government while working people struggle to survive.” It continued that, “We’ll show up at state capitols, federal buildings, congressional offices, and city centers – anywhere we can make sure they hear us.”
This story will be updated.
Jesse Lin of the Green Bay Press-Gazette and Sarah D. Wire of USA TODAY contributed to this report.
This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Protesters gather in Milwaukee for ‘Hands Off!’ march April 5