On Monday, thousands of protesters across the country hit the streets to tell Donald Trump and Elon Musk “No kings on Presidents’ Day” in response to the barrage of alarming actions—from legally questionable executive orders to mass firings—taken by the administration since the inauguration.
From California to Florida, demonstrators were seen armed with signs that read “Resist fascism” and “Fight for Democracy,” as they marched against Trump’s agenda. Some braved freezing temperatures.
“I thought it was important to be here on Presidents Day to demonstrate for what America stands for,” 55-year-old Emily Manning, an engineer who was one of nearly a thousand protesters in Boston, told the Associated Press. “American values are not the values of the plutocracy or the limited few rich people.”
Many of the protests were organized by the 50501 Movement, a grassroots organization aimed at mobilizing against “the anti-democratic and illegal actions of the Trump administration and its plutocratic allies.” The group started as a decentralized effort born from a Reddit thread of the same name; it organized a similar set of nationwide protests earlier this month.
A demonstrator holds a poster displaying a prohibited traffic sign reading “Musk DOGE” during a rally to protest President Trump’s policies on Presidents Day Monday, Feb. 17, 2025, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Etienne Laurent)
Big crowd at the SF Tesla dealership protesting our unelected overlord. A tiny sign hangs from an upstairs window
Meanwhile, despite reports of tension, Trump and Musk’s partnership in upending the federal government seems stronger than ever. Last week, the pair sat down for their first joint interview with Fox News‘ Sean Hannity, where Musk compared reactions among Democrats to Trump’s policies to “rabies.”
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