Thousands of people Saturday gathered in Stuart, Port St. Lucie and Vero Beach to join with hundreds of thousands of protesters in cities across the country to complain about President Donald Trump’s actions since taking office.
Saturday’s “Hands Off” protests were expected to be the largest and most numerous gatherings since Trump’s second term began.
According to USA TODAY, there are more than 1,000 protests across the nation against Trump and Elon Musk scheduled for Saturday organized by grass-roots groups. Over 40 of those are planned for Florida.
Hosting organizations include longstanding groups like Indivisible, Women’s March, MoveOn, Working Families Power, and Public Citizen and grass-roots groups such as 50501 that have formed since Election Day.
Protests against President Donald Trump and the Department of Government Efficiency, led by Elon Musk, were planned nationwide for Saturday, including on the Roosevelt Bridge in Stuart, where around 200 people had gathered by 11 a.m.
The nationwide protests planned against Trump and Elon Musk were happening as Trump spends the weekend at his private club, Mar-a-Lago, in Palm Beach.
At the Roosevelt Bridge in Stuart, by 11 a.m. more than 200 people were waving large hand-written signs and American flags as vehicles headed north honked in support.
“Today I am standing up for myself, my daughters, my grandchildren, all of our rights,” said Joan Kelly, 60, of Port St. Lucie, as she grabbed a chair from her car. “I just think what’s going on in America today is so sad and it’s confusing. It’s just scary and confusing to be honest.”
Her friend, Amy Morgan, 61, of Port St. Lucie, nodded her head as Kelly spoke.
“It’s just terrifying. I’m just scared and upset and angry and I just feel like I’ve got to do something,” Morgan said. “Sitting back and hoping isn’t working.”
Rosemary Westling, 72, of Jensen Beach, said she came to protest at the bridge to “stand up for democracy.
“I don’t like what Trump and Musk and the Republicans are doing. They are dismantling our government,” Westling said, holding a large orange sign that read, “Honk for Freedom!” “How possibly can the richest man in the world take food away from starving babies? I don’t get it.”
Protests against President Donald Trump and the Department of Government Efficiency, led by Elon Musk, were planned nationwide for Saturday including on the Roosevelt Bridge in Stuart, where Rosemary Westling, 72, of Jensen Beach, held up a bright orange sign that read, “Honk For Freedom!”
She was also protesting staff cuts at the Veterans Administration, the Social Security Administration and against new tariffs Trump has imposed worldwide, she said.
“We used to be the good guys, in America. All over the world, people loved us. ‘The Americans are here to help, I want to live in America,’” she said. “Well, maybe not anymore because Trump has embarrassed us all.”
Ann Berger, 78, of Stuart, who spends half the year in Wisconsin, said she was protesting over the recent Supreme Court election in that state in which a candidate backed by Musk lost.
“Elon Musk came in and put $28 million in, and offered millions of dollars for votes and I think that’s wrong,” Berger said. “We are not for sale. That’s not the way our government should run.”
Saturday’s protests, she said, were a “duty we all should do.”
“We all should be speaking out; we all should be speaking our piece,” Westling said. “We should be respectful and listen to each other, but we need to speak the truth. There’s too much fear going on.”
Other protest events on the Treasure Coast include at noon in Vero Beach at State Road 60 and 58th Avenue, and at 4 p.m. in Port St. Lucie, outside City Hall on Southwest Port St Lucie Boulevard.
Sally James, 77, of Stuart, held up a bright yellow sign Saturday during a protest on the Roosevelt Bridge in Stuart against President Donald Trump and adviser Elon Musk that read: “Perfume smells good Musk stinks.” MELISSA E. HOLSMAN/TCPALM
What is Hands Off? Why are people protesting Donald Trump and Elon Musk?
Hands Off is the title and group behind the “mass mobilization” nationwide rallies and protests aimed at Donald Trump and Elon Musk, the SpaceX and Tesla CEO who is leading the Department of Government Efficiency or DOGE for short.
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Most of the Hands Off Fight Back rallies on Saturday have this message online: “Donald Trump and Elon Musk think this country belongs to them. We are fighting back! 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.
“This mass mobilization day is our message to the world that we do not consent to the destruction of our government and our economy for the benefit of Trump and his billionaire allies. Alongside Americans across the country, we are marching, rallying, and protesting to demand a stop the chaos and build an opposition movement against the looting of our country.”
Melissa E. Holsman is the legal affairs reporter for TCPalm and Treasure Coast Newspapers and is writer and co-host of “Uncertain Terms,” a true-crime podcast. Reach her at [email protected].
This article originally appeared on Treasure Coast Newspapers: Crowds gathered Saturday across Treasure Coast to protest Donald Trump
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