By SONYA DYMOVA
Medill Illinois News Bureau
[email protected]
CHICAGO — Tens of thousands of Illinoisans across the state took to the streets Saturday to protest President Donald Trump’s and billionaire Elon Musk’s government downsizing, foreign policy choices and actions on the economy, immigration and human rights.
The protests spanned more than 30 cities in Illinois as part of a “Hands Off!” National Day of Action campaign in more than 1,300 locations in all 50 states. Nearly 600,000 people signed up to attend the rallies, according to Indivisible, one of the organizations leading the movement together with a nationwide coalition that includes civil rights and women’s rights groups, labor unions, veterans and LGBTQ+ advocates.
In later estimates, the “Hands Off!” organizers stated “millions” showed up to the rallies across the country and a dozen protests held in solidarity around the globe, though these estimates could not be independently confirmed.
The largest protest in the state took place in downtown Chicago. Organizers estimate that about 30,000 people flooded the Loop, chanting “This is what democracy looks like!” and “This is what Chicago looks like!” Kathy Tholin, board chair at Indivisible Chicago, one of the rally’s key organizers, said the crowd was by far “the largest” since the inauguration.
Several other organizations joined Indivisible Chicago in planning the action, including the Chicago Federation of Labor, the Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights, Equality Illinois, the environmental Sierra Club and the pro-choice Personal PAC. The core demands advanced by the rally organizers included bringing an end to the “billionaire takeover,” stopping the “slashing” of federal funds and ceasing attacks on immigrants and LGBTQ+ communities.
“The theme of this is to tell the Trump regime that they need to keep their hands off our freedoms, hands off our Social Security, hands off our health care, hands off our immigrants, hands off many things,” Tholin said.
Responding to the coast-to-coast demonstrations, the White House said in a statement: “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.”
But across the nation, in red states and blue, people came together expressing fear, outrage, anger and concern about the threats they see to myriad issues ranging from free speech and cancer research to democracy and the rule of law.
Thousands of handmade placards at the Chicago protests reflected a wide range of concerns beyond the rally’s core demands.
“Usually there’s a lot of printed signs, but today there’s a lot of handmade signs, which shows me people are rising up,” said Janet Farr, a 71-year-old Chicago resident who said she spent hours crafting her own poster. Her sign proclaimed “We The People” aiming darts at GOP balloons undergirding a depiction of Trump wearing a crown and sitting on Musk’s knee and picturing the words “Greed. Oligarchy. Power.” Far said, “There are more signs than I’ve ever seen.”
Some compared Trump and Musk to Nazi-era leaders, while others condemned U.S. policies on Ukraine, Gaza and reciprocal tariffs.
Protesters raised a broad spectrum of other issues, from trans rights and labor conditions to cuts to veteran care and threats to national parks. Anger at Trump and Musk was a unifying theme.
“I’m so totally pissed off. I’ve been fighting these particular things all my life: we fought for abortion, we fought against the Vietnam War, we fought for gay rights,” said 73-year-old Chicago resident Suzie Simoneit. “We’re fighting for everything that we’re fighting for now, and we had pretty much won, and then these idiots took over.”
Sizeable crowds filled other Illinois locations, too. Over 3,000 people took to the streets of Gurnee, Illinois, a town populated by just over 30,000 people, according to the event’s organizers.
U.S. Rep. Brad Schneider, D-HIghland Park, attended the event, calling the Gurnee turnout “absolutely incredible” in a Facebook post. In Arlington Heights, Ill., around 2,000 protested along Northwest Highway.
Other Illinois locations where protesters gathered included Chicago suburbs like Highland Park and Evanston as well as towns like Kankakee and Macomb and O’Fallon in metro-east, where more than 200 people came out with signs to stand in a heavy downpour.
“This is really capturing a moment across the state that people from all different parts of Illinois are fed up with what the Trump administration is doing to communities,” said Brandon Lee, 37, communications director at the Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights. “This is really a moment for different parts of the movement to come together.”
Some protesters chose to travel to Chicago rather than join their local “Hands off!” events. According to Lee, people from “across Illinois” signed up to participate in the downtown rally.
One protester who would only give his first name for fear of retribution, Josh—a 25-year-old Rockford resident—said there was a demonstration happening in his city, but he came to Daley Plaza “to be part of this big movement here.”
“Chicago’s a fantastic city with fantastic people. It’s a tough people. You gotta be tough to be in Chicago,” he said. “The sheer amount of people and the sheer amount of willpower in this city is what brought me here.”
Sonya Dymova is an undergraduate student in journalism with Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism, Media, Integrated Marketing Communications, and a fellow in its Medill Illinois News Bureau working in partnership with Capitol News Illinois.Capitol News Illinois is a nonprofit, nonpartisan news service that distributes state government coverage to hundreds of news outlets statewide. It is funded primarily by the Illinois Press Foundation and the Robert R. McCormick Foundation.
