Thousands of San Antonio area residents congregated under the bell towers of San Fernando Cathedral at Main Plaza and marched across downtown on Saturday, April 5, 2025, to decry threats to democracy under President Trump and his unofficial but omnipresent adjunct Elon Musk.
“They’re wasting their Saturday,” a monied college student in a knit polo sneered, staring at the protestors. “They’re idiots,” his dad spat as he hurried his family across the street, part of the streams of out-of-towners teaming toward that day’s NCAA men’s basketball championship events. Yet the roughly 2,000 protestors marching rings around downtown met with the occasional “Go Gators!” call were responding to an urgency that they said could not wait.
“The police told us, ‘No. We’re too busy for the Final Four,’” said Alex, one of the event organizers with the young 50501 group that has sprung up since Trump’s election, of the attempt to get a permit to march from the San Antonio Police Department.
“They suggested that I should wait until next week. I said we don’t have time to wait til next week. So we will flood the sidewalks.”
An estimated hundreds of thousands of similar-feeling U.S. residents joined in at more than 1,000 Hands Off! events around the county. It is estimated that possibly millions of people around the world took part in the day of action.
Deceleration interviewed several protesters who described themselves as former and current members of the Republican Party who are shocked by the actions of Trump and Musk and their Congressional enablers.
“I was a Republican my entire life,” said one woman with a large and detailed poster objecting to attacks on federal workers and the risks to the public health those actions promise. “When Trump won the first time I was like: OK. Let’s see what he’s got. I saw what he had. And I went…completely the opposite direction.
“I can’t support somebody that hates this country but claims to love it,” she said.
Mason, another 50501 San Antonio event organizer, revved up the crowd:
“It is the 99 percent versus the .01 percent. The rich have stolen trillions of dollars from the working class,” said another event organizer, as captured in Deceleration’s video of the day’s events.
“And everything Trump and Musk as doing is in support of that. They’re going to steal more money from you. They’re going not steal more money from me. And I hate that.”
Protestors stood for an array of causes, including the right not to be disappeared by the federal government, for international systems of respectful exchange over Trump’s emerging taste for forced imperial expansion, against attacks on women, members of the LGBTQ community, and immigrants. They demanded social services and safety nets be deepened—not dismantled—as part of the ongoing project of realizing a truly just, fair, and free society.
Many carried signs objecting to attacks on veteran healthcare and Social Security.
One couple, who introduced themselves as Stephanie and Leif, both veterans, said they were motivated to join the protest for fear that fundamental freedoms long enjoyed in the United States were being rapidly eroded by Trump and Musk—because Republicans and Democrats are cowering in fear of the powerful and vindictive couple and the movement they helped fuel.
“Our lawmakers are afraid of, well, two people,” said Stephanie. “And you can’t govern for the people if you’re afraid. Plan it simple. You can’t make laws. You can’t do anything for the people if you’re too afraid. The public has a voice right now and we need to use it because we don’t want to lose it.”
You can hear them for yourself in the above video event summary.
The next international day of action is planned for April 19, 2025.
Hands Off!
Click to expand any image from the day of action.
See more photos by Greg Harman at Emerge.photos.
