A rainy day in Midtown Manhattan. It was cold and windy – not the sort of day you’d want to spend outside. Even so, thousands of New Yorkers congregated in front of Bryant Park and marched down 5th Avenue to demand that Donald Trump and Elon Musk take their “Hands Off.”
This protest was one of approximately 1,400 events that took place nationwide on April 5th, 2025 as part of a national effort to respond to new policies enacted by the Trump administration. The Hands Off Protest’s official website put it like this: “This is a nationwide mobilization to stop the most brazen power grab in modern history.”
Thus, New York took to the streets. Despite the grave situation, the mood of the crowd did not seem angry. Many protesters commented that they were glad to see that they were not alone. Others were there to voice their concerns as they wanted to take action. People of all ages were present, including young adults, entire families, and older generations, all marching for a common cause. 44-year-old Anita said, “There comes a point where people, they feel like they don’t have a voice so joining with all these, who knows, how many thousands of people kind of gets the message across.”
It was a peaceful protest focused on a shared feeling of frustration. As one of the younger children in the crowd quite eloquently said, “I don’t like the world right now. I would like something nicer.”
At the start of the route, some protesters noted there were three empty public buses parked in the middle of the road. Some felt that it was an attempt to prevent them from continuing downtown from 42nd to 23rd Street.
As the crowd funnelled around the buses, they came upon at least one group of counter-protestors. There were a few people wearing MAGA hats and shirts, holding signs and flags supporting Trump.
Protesters yelled at the counter-protesters and the counter-protesters yelled back, but no violent confrontation occurred. Instead, there was a man holding a sign with the words “right wing troll” standing slightly behind a man asking the crowd if they had “Trump derangement syndrome.” Strangely, none of the counter-protesters seemed to notice.
There were varied reasons as to why protesters showed up that day. A young man holding an American flag said “everything that’s happening right now is totally contrary to what this country stands for. It’s contrary to what my great grandparents fought for…and if we go quietly, if we just stay complacent, then we’re gonna lose everything that makes this country great.”
Some people had more specific worries. Anita said, “[I]t seems that so much that’s against the democratic principles of our country is being normalized…there’s no accountability for the people at the top.”
Another New Yorker said, “arresting legal immigrants who are protesting is the thing that upsets me the most.” And yet another said, “I’m very concerned about the world that my daughter is gonna be going into, and the rights that she’s going to lose that she and I have taken for granted.”
Despite having varying reasons for joining the protest, thousands of people in New York City came together as one. After all, as one protester said, “[w]hen there’s injustice, you gotta show up in droves…it’s important to show up for the things that matter.”
This is what democracy looks like.
“When there’s injustice, you gotta show up in droves.”