My Experience at the “Hands Off!” Nationwide Protest

On April 5, my twenty-first birthday, I took a trip to Portsmouth, New Hampshire. The small seaside town, which was established in 1630 and still (vaguely) looks the part, is the most peaceful place I know: the streets are lined with quaint gift shops, homey restaurants, cafés, and bookstores. It has a mystical quality, being the site of numerous ghost stories and nautical legends—until this year, in fact, the most crowded I had seen the streets of Portsmouth was during their annual “Spectral Stroll.” This is the type of charming, quintessentially New England town where you can generally count on no disruptions. To find myself standing in Portsmouth among thousands of people at the nationwide “Hands Off!” protest against President Donald Trump, therefore, was as shocking as it was heartening.

Under Trump’s administration, there is no place in the United States that has escaped disruption. This disruption touches every community, from the immigrant communities in major cities that are facing Immigration and Customs Enforcement raids—a result of Trump’s promise to carry out mass deportations—to the farmers unable to find markets for their products amidst Trump’s trade wars. Portsmouth is already feeling the effects of the administration’s federal workforce cuts: the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard, which employs 6,800 people and is responsible for much of the U.S. Navy’s submarine maintenance, recently installed a hiring freeze and may be facing layoffs.

Since Donald Trump was reelected in November, I have personally worried for the fate of reproductive healthcare, for my transgender friends’ ability to live safely and freely, for my fellow college students who took part in Palestine protests, for environmental policy, for voting rights—but no matter what your top issue may be, it will likely undergo rapid and unprecedented change in the next four years. After losing the White House and Senate in 2024, the Democratic party faced intense scrutiny over its inability to persuade voters, and it has dropped in popularity since: only 27% of registered voters hold a favorable view of the Democratic party, according to a recent NBC poll, which is the lowest rating since 1990.

Perhaps in response to the party’s unpopularity, or in an attempt to replicate the fervor generated by the 2017 Women’s March (which drew 1.3% of the U.S. population), the Hands Off! protests were the Democratic party’s first major show of force against Donald Trump since his inauguration. Roughly 600,000 people signed up for the Hands Off! protests, which occurred in over 1,400 locations, and over 1 million people reportedly showed up. The Hands Off! protests marked a new era of hands-on action for the left, which is increasingly turning to mass public demonstration as its first line of defense against the far right—in the words of Senator Cory Booker, who repeated this mantra numerous times during his historic speech at the beginning of April: “The power of the people is always greater than the people in power.”

The Hands Off! protests were organized by activist groups including MoveOn, Third Act, and Indivisible, although numerous other groups took on leadership roles. According to the event website, the Hands Off! protests were intended to be “a nationwide mobilization to stop the most brazen power grab in modern history.” Several reasons for the protests were listed, including the Trump administration’s dismantling of Social Security and Medicare, cuts of worker protections, and assaults on immigrant, senior, veteran, and transgender communities. Multiple protests hosted speakers: at the Washington D.C. protest, State Representatives Jamie Raskin, Ilhan Omar, and Maxwell Frost spoke to the gathered crowds, along with two federal employee union presidents. In Boston, the band Dropkick Murphys performed the protest song “Which Side Are You On?”

While there were no speakers or performing artists lined up for the Portsmouth protests, the turnout was still remarkable for the small town. People packed the sidewalks on both sides of the road, wielding homemade signs reading “Immigrants are Essential,” “Respect for Veterans,” “Hands Off Social Security,” “Embrace DEI,” and of course, “IKEA Has Better Cabinets.” Many of the signs targeted Elon Musk’s dubious influence in the federal government, including the unofficial Department of Government Efficiency—one, bearing Musk’s face, read “He Doesn’t Even Go Here!” Some protesters toted pride flags, Ukrainian flags, Palestinian flags; some sported the pussyhats they surely wore 8 years ago, at the Women’s March; one protester held a weather-beaten Silence=Death Project sign, which were used during the AIDS crisis, bearing the note: “This sign is 31 years old, and I’m still protesting this crap?”

The Portsmouth crowd had some trouble maintaining any chant for longer than a few repeats, but we gave it a noble attempt. Some of the more popular chants were “lock him up,” “Congress won’t, the people will,” “86 47,” and “the people united will never be defeated.” The crowd consisted largely of seniors—one of the major organizing groups, Third Act, is led by and targeted to adults over 60—but people of all ages were represented, and the atmosphere was an invigorating blend of angry and jovial. Cars that honked in support were met with an uproar of shouts; the lone car bearing pro-Trump signage was booed away.

At one point during the protest, which lasted about three hours, the musical talent—despite being unplanned—found its way to Portsmouth. A marching band of about ten members dressed in vaguely punk-esque clothing and eccentric hats made their way to the center of the crowd. On the back of a majorette’s jacket was the hand-painted title “The Leftist Marching Band.” (On their website, The Leftist Marching Band is self-described as “An Activist Street Band: Our Music is Better than it Sounds!”) They played tunes ranging from “We Shall Overcome” to “Seven Nation Army,” but their most effective cover was, by far, “Sweet Dreams” by Eurythmics—perhaps not a popular protest song choice, but they managed to work the crowd by starting a back-and-forth chant with the lyrics: “Hold your head up / Moving on / Keep your head up / Moving on.”

The Women’s March in 2017 started a chain reaction of protests that spanned the entire first year of Trump’s presidency, and arguably had a tangible effect on elections: in 2018, more women were elected to Congress than ever before. Today, a similar phenomenon could occur: another nationwide protest against the Trump administration, led by the grassroots political organization 50501, is scheduled for April 19. This could be a sign that the left is rebounding, spreading its message more effectively in communities where it matters, and working towards eventual change at the grassroots level—where, in the absence of a Democratic president or majority in Congress, it is imperative that the work gets done.

The Hands Off! protest in Portsmouth reminded me that often, political movements have roots where you least expect them. Joining thousands of people in my home state—some in their 90s, some barely toddlers, and some who looked no older than myself—to support democracy, workers’ rights, proactive climate policy, international cooperation, and the welfare of vulnerable communities (among other equally worthy issues) was the perfect way to spend my twenty-first birthday. My first legal drink would come later; first, we had to advocate for the rule of law.