At least 47 protests of President Donald Trump and his administration are planned in Ohio for on Saturday. They’ll be part of more than 600 events planned nationwide.
The group 50501 is organizing the effort after joining dozens of others in sponsoring massive “Hands Off!” rallies across the country on April 5. It says its mission is to “fight to uphold the Constitution and end executive overreach.”
Since his inauguration, Trump has raised numerous concerns in that regard. He’s ignored court orders, tried to gut the independent federal antitrust watchdog, empowered the world’s richest man to fire tens of thousands from the Social Security and Veterans administrations, the Park Service, and numerous other agencies.
Trump also is trying to unilaterally alter the status of hundreds of thousands of migrants who are legally in the country and force them back to hazardous homelands such as Afghanistan and Haiti. In addition, Trump is trying to use the government to attack law firms that have sued him and his enemies, and go after a state attorney general who successfully sued him in 2023.
Melissa Portala, a leader of Toledo Persist, said that it’s vital for people to exercise their right to protest to protect all their other democratic rights.
“We need people to stand up and show the rest of the public that people are speaking out,” she said. “If they don’t see that, then they feel helpless, and a lot of people do feel helpless until they see other people speaking out… Public protest is the only way that people have to be visible. This is how we can have our voices heard.”
On April 5, millions turned out across the country to protest the actions of Trump and his administration — including tens of thousands across Ohio. In Toledo alone, between 3,000 and 4,000 showed up, according to the estimates of organizers who used clickers, Portala said.
“We started on one side of a bridge,” she said. “It took 45 minutes to walk across it, the crowd was so big.”
Portala said she expected smaller crowds this time around for several reasons.
The group 50501 is the sole national organizer, while dozens of groups were behind the April 5 protests. This one was called with less lead time for local organizers to plan and get the word out. And this Saturday’s protests fall the day before Easter, when many have longstanding family obligations, Portala said.
Details about the 47 Ohio protests can be found here. A national listing can be found here.
Portala said she expects participation in such events to grow in the coming months.
“I think the population is waking up and saying, ‘Oh my goodness, we’re in some deep trouble here, we need to actually take some action,'” she said.