Activists in Philadelphia and Bucks spent the Presidential Day, showing President Donald Trump and billionaire Elon Musk, who is trying a significant review of the federal government.
Local protests – which coincided with other demonstrations across the country – Come about a month to the second Trump administration, which was already filled with controversial executive orders, pardons and political decisions.
One of the most controversial points was The Muska Government Efficiency Department (Doge), a commission that is accused of lowering government waste. Doge passes through various federal agencies, calling employees to leave work and Searching for access for confidential information in federal agencies.
Protesters’ answer? “You have an enemy in Pennsylvania.”
It is according to the shirt worn by Jacek Inacker, a democratic organizer and air force veteran, who joined hundreds of anti-Trump protesters in front of the town hall in Philadelphia on Monday afternoon.
“This administration has created the enemy of every person gathered here,” Inacker He said in a speech.
Drivers weakened their corners in support of the protesters who stood in the face of edged winds to march Parkway to Philadelphia Museum of Art, carrying signs with messages against Trump and Musk.
Meanwhile, in Sellersville, Bucks – the only Philly Filly, which Trump won in the election in 2024 – a similar scene spread. Crowds of anti-trumpe demonstrators faced the bitter frigid and set up the sidewalks of the main street of the city, holding the signs, chanting and collecting supporting Honda from passing cars.
In Philadelphia, the Senator of State Vincent Hughes (D., Philadelphia) shouted the phone number to contact Congress members when he stood behind the podium with a giant QR code to get involved in local activism. In Sellersville, the organizers donated QR codes and registration sheets.
“Our goal is to draw the attention of our selected officials in DC – Congressmen Brian Fitzpatrick and senators John Fetterman and Dave McCormick – and demand that they raise their oath, to defend the constitution and use their chosen rights to do everything that is necessary to support Enforcing court orders, “said Vera Cole, an organizer from the event who lost the 2024 offer in Pennsylvania in Upper Bucks.
In a sea of ​​signs such as “Abort Musk” or “Real Life Twilight Zone” 31 -year -old Kyle Esposito distinguished
Putting on a plush purple cape and a plastic golden crown, Esposito said that he represents Trump and Musk, shouting about retirement, “robbing” people of their rights or “crossing all handrails.”
“It seems to me that the king resonates for people in a very American way,” said Esposito. “And it is as if we had to remind people that it is not who we are for some reason, and that we are indulging in what is an autocracy and the king is another example.”
Protesters in Philadelphia also compared Trump and Musk to Wannaba Kings, and some protesters carry signs who declare “not the king!” Matt Stone, a pastor, had a sign with the inscription “Jesus is my king, who is yours?” Stone, 40, from Rockledge, said that the king in question could be “Trump or Elon, choose”.
“I strongly believe that we in the United States fought very hard, so as not to have kings at all, and I already have one king. I don’t need another – he said.
Stone said he protested against the elections of Trump in 2016, but not his first administration, and that although there were “terrible things” that Trump did in his first term, it was “nothing in the scale of cruelty and incompetence as the last month.”
He said he was “extremely bad and gloomy” when Christianity uses support for Trump, and “does not understand how people ignore Jesus’ calls to love and compassion.”
As democrats at the national level An attempt to improve their opposition to TrumpLocal Democrats believe that bottom -up protests are the key to opposing the president and his allies.
While some of the pink wearing a hat and megaphone owners have been protesting for years, others appeared for the first time on Monday.
65 -year -old Laura Rivera from Sellersville said that democrats at the national level “play their tail between their legs.” Rivera never participated in the protest before the Monday event, but she felt that she had resonated at a more personal level.
“You talk to people up close and personally, you invite friends that you know that they feel the same as you,” said Rivera.
Kathleen Wright, 80, retired Haverford College A professor of philosophy who lives in Philadelphia said that she believes that Monday’s protest is “the beginning of people emerging and realizing that we were spent by Trump and [that] Musk can blackmail us all and this is the beginning of a bad chapter in America’s history if we do not stop what is happening. “
Wright said she was on the front with a megaphone during the protests of the Vietnam war, which, as she said, felt different because it seemed that “everyone was deeply anti -free in the population.”
However, she said that people against Trump are now “a kind of minority”, taking into account that Trump won a popular voice in 2024, unlike his win in 2016. Now activists “must encourage people to think about what is really happening” and “what is not happening, like lowering prices and being for working people.”
“And then we will grow as a resistance force,” she added.
