Thousands take to the streets in New York City in a “Hands Off!” demonstration to voice their opposition to Donald Trump’s administration on April 05, 2025, in New York City.
This was apparently the weekend that Democrats decided to try to get back that protestin’ feelin’ before it’s gone, gone, gone. Is this a popular restart of a resuscitation of the Democratic Party? It is always possible, but a closer look indicates that what appears to be a lively uprising might simply be the shudders of a political party whose life is draining away.
According to Democratic advocates, there were over 1400 “Hands Off” protests all around the country scheduled. That sounds impressive, but even so-called mainstream reporters are not quite jumping in the way they have done in the past. An ABC News clip that includes a reporter covering the aftermath of a rally on the National Mall is titled “Thousands protest Trump and Musk in rallies this weekend.”
Thousands? It’s an interesting numerical estimate. Though the reporter dutifully passes on the claim of the organizers to have had 100,000 protesters without comment, there are no overhead pictures of the crowd for a viewer to adjudicate such a claim.
The “thousands” estimate for the nation seems to be consistent, however. The Detroit News published an article about protests that gives context to what’s happening: “From the National Mall and Midtown Manhattan to Boston Common and multiple state capitols, thousands of protesters assailed Trump and billionaire Elon Musk ‘s actions on government downsizing, the economy, immigration and human rights.” The main part of the article focuses on a protest in Wyandotte, Michigan, whose attendance was 300. And the only other protest it refers to is one in Palm Beach, Florida, that also had about 300 attendees.
The South Florida Sun Sentinel’s Saturday article about the protests was a bit more upbeat about numbers, rejoicing in the claims from organizers “estimating a couple thousand at each of the Hollywood, Miami and Boca Raton protests and about 500 in West Palm Beach.”
All this bragging about “thousands,” particularly in a state such as Florida that has over 23 million people, may bring to mind the famous scene in “Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery” in which ‘60s supervillain Dr. Evil, having been thawed from his cryogenic state after thirty years, steals a nuclear warhead and demands “one million dollars” to the laughter of a group of UN representatives.
The unimpressive and fuzzy numbers are made fuzzier when one reads a CNN account of the weekend that cites the Democratic organizing group Indivisible’s claim that 600,000 people had signed up to protest at the rallies, “some of which took place in major cities like London and Paris.”
America is rising up! Especially in…Europe? One can’t help but speculate that if the crowds are any better over there, that the cause is surely some USAID money that still hadn’t been spent before the grants got cancelled. The crowds here, as many observed, didn’t seem to have the same number of paid professional protesters.
What the “Hands Off” events had instead may well have been genuine grassroots Democratic protesters. But the lack of focus they brought reminds one a bit of Will Rogers’s jibe: “I belong to no organized political party; I am a Democrat.”
Media descriptions portray the events as against “Donald Trump and Elon Musk.” And when you ask what the specific issues are, you find out that it really is, well, everything. “The majority of protestors,” the Sun Sentinel account says, “couldn’t pinpoint which issue worried them most; their concerns varied from democracy to immigration, education, social security, LGBT rights, healthcare, climate change, research funding, and national parks. Multiple people carried lists of all of the issues they were worried about attached to their signs.”
I’m no paid political consultant, but I doubt that the most effective rally strategy is to write really long lists of political causes on hand-held signs. Even assuming one could make out those listed problems on the signs, some issues are fictional, some are losers, and some are crazy.
Among the fictional, some protesters apparently think Donald Trump is going to do away with Medicare and Social Security entirely. Among the losers is the desire to allow “transwomen” (read: men) to compete in women’s sports and use women’s restrooms and locker rooms.
In the crazy camp is the revolution still desired among aging radical protesters. Minnesota journalist Dustin Grage posted a picture on X/Twitter of the protest at the state capitol in St. Paul, Minnesota, on Saturday featuring the Democratic Socialists of America who were “all white, half of them masked.” As Grage added, “Not a single American flag in sight, but they did bring one for Palestine. Fascinating.” Fascinating indeed.
The writer whose nom-de-plume is Cynical Publius reposted journalist David Marcus’s film of a protest in Charles Town, West Virginia, that had about 200 protesters. As Marcus observed, they didn’t seem to be paid protesters, “but the median age appears to be about 70.” As Cynical Publius observed, his own study of the footage from around the nation seems to bear out the same results: this is a bunch of older white Democrats with “an almost complete lack of black and Latino people.” So much for the party of diversity.
“The Democrat Party,” he concluded, “may not exist in ten years.”
As the line often attributed to Yogi Berra has it, “It is difficult to make predictions, especially about the future.” But this speculation about the Democrats has some warrant to it. Though some Democrats would like to move past the radicalism of the last decade, it is hard to see how they can do it when their party infrastructure is so tied to radicalism.
It would be tempting to say the Democrats gave it the old college try. But the problem is that, apart from the radicals at elite institutions, many of whom seem to be foreign students in danger of losing their student visas, the college kids are leaning right these days.
Democrats had a lock on “cool” for a long time. With their celebrity endorsers and celebrity politicians, and a little bit of help from the paid protester class, they could put on what might pass for a mass movement when they needed to. Today, however, both the reality and the illusion behind that period are gone. They have no Obama-like political celebrity sensations. And their attempts to demonize Trump have utterly failed.
A Daily Mail/J.L. Peterssurvey, the results of which were released on Saturday, shows that even with the controversies over Trump’s tariffs, Trump’s approval rating climbed 4 percentage points from their last survey a week ago, from 49 percent to 53 percent. His gains were among 18-29-year-olds (where his cumulative gains since March 7 total 13 points) and Democrats and independent voters, where he gained 6 points. Apparently, some in the Democratic Party are OK with Trump’s hands on the executive branch.
Once asked if he thought the radical playwright George Bernard Shaw was a “coming peril,” English writer G. K. Chesterton laughed and called him a “passing pleasure.” Watching the old hippies on parade this weekend, it’s tempting to say the same of the Democrats.
David P. Deavel teaches at the University of St. Thomas in Houston. A past Lincoln Fellow at the Claremont Institute, he is a Senior Contributor at The Imaginative Conservative. Follow him on X (Twitter) @davidpdeavel.
Articles like this that keep proclaiming the end of Socialism / Marxism (what the Democrat Party actually has evolved to represent in its current form) in this country only serve to lull the general public into a sense of “normalcy” or “return to sanity” that hasn’t yet occurred. Until you eliminate or substantially curtail the major financial sources that are funding all these staged protests or so-called “peaceful” riots, nothing will materially change. The individuals and organizations that bankroll these ongoing protests across the country, with everything from signage to transportation, paid legal support for when any of the paid protestors are arrested, to a whole assortment of other things too numerous to list here must be permanently shut down to starve the Left’s means to keep this ongoing road show running.
Look at the picture above closely. You’ll notice a lot of professionally made signs and banners. That all costs a lot of money. If you were to question a large percentage of the people protesting, you would likely find someone, or some organization was involved in instigating the event and coordinating the activity once it was under way. Those are the people who serve as front groups for the people that are actually bankrolling the larger, nationwide effort where all the protestors just happen to very similar or exact same signage and talking points.
If you shut down the money spigot that is feeding all these supposedly organic protests, that just happen to mirror each other across the country to a ridiculous degree, then you would find the protests would all dwindle away and soon quickly cease. The important thing is to focus on eliminating the source of problem, NOT on pretending or hoping it’s just magically fading away on its own without starving the problem of the resources that keep it alive.
I still don’t understand why people are protesting what is good for America – less federal government, elimination of waste, fraud and abuse. One must ask where their common sense is. When you look at the accomplishments of what President Trump has done in less than 100 days: $1.3 trillion of possible new investment, 208K job creation in March, reducing the border crossings, elimination of USAID, DOE (should be back to the states but with caution), etc. what is wrong with that.
Hands off what exactly, this sounds like few old flower children got together and protested against man. Down with the man and establishment mode. Too much weed atrophied the brain. Never grew up , but are allowed to vote.It is time they recognized that Dem. Party of their youth has been extinct for some time.
It’s time to stop all this glorifying about what bad shape the Democratic Party is in. We need to remember that at the state and local levels, and in the media, the Democratic party is firmly entrenched and functioning the same as it always has. The battle to get our nation back did not end with the election of President Trump. The battle must now shift to the media, the states and local governments. If we don’t mobilize against these elements, we will have won the battle but lost the war.
The problems we face lie chiefly, but not solely, with the Democratic party – there is corruption and evil in the Republican party as well. So, our battle is not against a political party per se, but against evil, fraud and corruption wherever it exists. Accordingly, we must target evil wherever it exists by spiritual warfare and getting involved with the political process. We have to pay attention not only to what those running for office say, but take into account what they have said in the past. We need to understand what the true values are of those running for office. We must not give credence to skillfully crafted arguments by the enemy that would compromise our efforts.
So, that should be our goal going forward. If you agree with this assessment, please forward to your friends.
NAZI = “National Socialist Party”
So “Democrat Socialist Party” = DEMZI ?
The Communist will never give up. Our Democrats are full of these disillusioned Socialist / Communist. Even if the Democrat Party dies, the Communist will still be there, by another name, trying to seize power at the cost of everybody else’s freedom.
The party bent on murdering babies, in cahoots with big pharma and the fascist World Economic Forum, in support of “No Trump, No Wall, No U.S.A. at all”, and which gladly spends millions to keep brutal murderers belonging to the Venezuelan Tren De Aragua gang from being deported belongs banned from any further participation in the civic life of our nation. Their values are diametrically opposed to American values, and the U.S. Constitution. It is the party that brought us the Trail of Tears, Civil War, KKK, Segregation, the Black Panthers, WWI, WWII, the Korean War, the Vietnam War, and generally that has never seen a war it did not like, or profited from. They are now the party of voter disenfranchisement, and illegals voting to replace the American voting public. They don’t represent the American public, and have no business occupying seats in Congress.
In Denver, a protester said it was not about one group, they were protesting for everyone. Enough said.
To participate in this mindless protest is either they are paid, or really ignorant of what is going on. This is a good signal to find out by auditing each one of them to see where the money is coming from? I bet it is from our enemies? How about it, IRS?
in case you didnot already know it they still cheat in every election they can
Sorry these are not Grass Root protest. The Democrats with their media allies are working overtime to make it look like President Trump is sending us down an abyss. And all bullsh*t.
I don’t think this is end..They started all Judicial lawfare attacks prior to Inauguration, Alex Soros ran around letting everyone kiss his ring and of course everyone got a photo with him. ..This is just a warm up everyone stay alert keep your head on a swivel it’s gonna be a very long summer imo..
I really liked reading this article. I wish I could feel warm and fuzzy about it, but I don’t. I am getting a bit tired of reading how the democrat party is near the end. How they have no leadership or purpose. Please stop under estimating these people! They do have leadership… it’s Soros, Obama, and so many other wealthy commies who are funding all of this. And their purpose is to destroy republicans and the country. They do what they are told and what they are paid to do. Couple that with the reality of what’s happening right now, and they are right where they want to be, right or wrong. A Rasmussen poll, that is more right leaning than most, last week has Trumps approval dropping, now under 50. Why is that? Because the media is not dead, and the democrat party is not dead. It’s not that the dems do anything good, they don’t. But money and power will get them the results they want, and until that is somehow eliminated it will continue. Draining the swamp includes somehow closing off these sources, including the MSM. And it has to be quick… midterms are 19 months away, and the referendum against the Trump policies is gaining traction.
“Their attempts to demonize Trump have utterly failed.” Right on target.
The older citizens of this country are democrats for life. They don’t see what Obama and Clinton and Pelosi and Schumer and Demented Biden have done to this country. If paid protesters don’t show up the older people do, they yell and scream They have never heard any different from these leaders that Trump has got to go. They can’t name one thing Biden has done besides supporting Ukraine and mandating to us citizens to shut up. Accept the trans and mutilation of our children. Morals are out the windows, racism is rampant starting under Obama. Biden called all Trump supporters domestic terrorist. The devil spoke in Philadelphia remember all the red lights around him and the military. They tried twice to assassinate Trump and all these old democrats thought it was a good idea. They have only feelings for the invaders that have entered this country. They have no problem having their tax money go to support these 20 million that have walked into this country. Criminals, terrorists, drug smugglers, pedophiles, human traffickers. But a mother or a young girl is raped and killed by one of these invaders do they care?. No. Obama was a lousy president and Biden was not the president. The man couldn’t function. President Trump is doing what should have been done at least 30 if not 40 years ago. The drop in the stock market is man made by the billionaires. And we small investors are suffering. But it will get better. In 2009 we had the stock market drop and people lost much then. Under Trump it flourished like never before or since. The dems can scream all they want but they are betting on the wrong horse. There is nothing democratic about the democrat party, or caring for the people or the country. Just power to dictate to the people and have them dependent on the govt. Europeans are taking to the street in opposition of their democrat rulers. France and England and many other countries have protests almost every week. Instead of the democrats sit down with the republicans to iron out their differences for the good of the country and its citizens they keep widening the divide more and more. Hatred rules the Democrats. Here and in Europe.
Don’t sound the death knell of the DIMMs! They have plenty of billionaires to provide funds and about 90% of the media on their side. They are FAR from dead! Plus, they have cheating down pat.
These whackos aren’t going anywhere soon. Keep the pedal to the metal!
Interesting. I watched a girl who was paid to attend one of the protest and was paid $100. She had to answer specific questions put to her by the protest organizers in order to be paid. She also received an additional $10 for bringing her own sign. She had no particular interest in the reason for the protest, as her interest was the $100. I wonder where the Democrats are stealing the money for the paid protestors? This is pathetic.
DO NOT underestimate the Corruption of the liberal far left democrats and DO NOT IGNORE the FACT that the Rhino republicans STILL SUPPORT THEM. All one has to do is look at Rand Paul and the republicans attacking Trump for because of his Tariffs and many of his other executive orders. I’m a member of AMAC but this is a very Ignorant write-up because they will NEVER END their goal to control and own America.
*This* Democratic party will undoubtedly be gone in 10 years, their current leadership will be too old or dead by then.*The* Democratic party will not be dead. It will have a new look, new leadership, and new messaging. While they’ll probably back off on some of the most disliked policies (for now), the end goal will remain the same. The destruction of a free America replaced with a socialist America. The fight is nowhere near over as they have so thoroughly indoctrinated several generations who 100% believe in this garbage. I know because most of my nieces and nephews are amongst them. They’re not going to dump the general idea even if some of the policies are clawed back.
The Globalists have lots of money to pay people to protest for them & show division in our country. So, they are either paid or brainwashed by their controlled and biased mainstream media. You are correct, these signs costs a lot of money, so they do have moneyed sponsors. I bet one of them is George Soros’ foundation & could also be the CCPP? Some people nowadays are for sale and no longer listens to their God given conscience, so they succumb to Satan’s grid of money So sad for their souls. .
The liberal left should understand that President Trump is a very smart business man and knows far more than what his favorite flavor of ice cream is. He is also a fighter for America. A stark contrast with the last resident.
I ran across a couple of verses in the book of Ecclesiastes which speaks very efficiently of our current state of the nation:
Chapter 10 verse 2, The heart of the wise inclines to the right, but the heart of the fool to the left. Verse 3, Even as fools walk along the road, they lack sense and show everyone how stupid they are.
i think that says enough. I care about those who are swept along in the current, but Kamala made it clear that “their side” is not the Lord’s side.
The LORD has turned them all over to their own depraved minds.
If you research these protests the Billionaire Democrats have paid most of these “protesters” to show up. Some of them were interviewed by independent UTUBE reporters and many of the people didn’t even know what they were protesting about! Main street media will never tell the truth even it it bit them in the butt!!
As you can see when democrats use the woke technology it separates the party because of it powerful abuse of A.I. This is what happens when you fool around with things you got no business messing around with. This tech is far beyond the use of human potential and affects human behavior. For some reason it gets bad and creates more bad reactions than good actions. There is a price to pay for woke. As you can see democrats scrambling and for what they don’t know themselves.This is woke!
Victor Davis Hansen has an interesting video on YouTube about the tariffs. He says that the tariffs are just mirrors of what the other countries have been doing to us for decades and now the USA is just mirroring them.
Sounds like they’re becoming the Dark side of the unorganized, dysfunctional Libertarian Party, which no one seems able to quite define. Just a swarming mass of people who have nothing in common except their discontent, and no real alternative to propose, because they can’t even agree on what their goals are.
Soros illiterite army paid to protest
The Democrat Party will exist in some form into the future. The system is rigged to maintain the two party system. The Democrats might evolve, just like the Republicans have, over the years. The Establishment, make it next to impossible to create a new party. Since this country started we’ve always had three sides. During the Revolution it was the Tories (sided with the King), the middle (didn’t support any side), and Rebels (wanted independence), the Civil War was very similar. The pendulum swings over the years, and will continue to do so.
Explain, how would we benefit from Harris admin. , are you on welfare?
You’re theory is about to be tested.
The question is are these tariffs meant solely as a negotiating tool to make better trading deals or to try to force a global trade realignment ?
If the answer is the latter, fasten your seatbelt it’s going to be a bumpy ride.
In any case, we should know in the next 60 to 90 days.
Glad to hear that Conservatives are beginning to have rallies for Trump and Musk, they should. After all, we voted Trump into office to clean up the swamp and it is great that Musk jumped in to help!! What a relief to have someone in office who actually loves our country and its people. The far-left liberals are mentally ill from their hatred of Trump and of course the Democrats in DC are fearful that THEIR pet projects will get canned or down-sized! Kind of like seeing them squirm.
Absolutely!!
These protesters are either paid or clueless. Just like Biden and Harris rallys, they take low angle and close up pictures to help exagerate the numbers.
The individuals who are doing the so called protest are enemies to America! Furthermore some of these enemies are being paid to destroy our country! They can’t just be ignored, they must be stopped at all cost and deport! Seize their assets put it to our country’s deficit, ban them from returning to America! They are not Americans anyway, they are enemies trying to destroy our great nation!
I think most americans see right through this Bull from the left, they honestly don’t even know what they are protesting , they just want to get paid…
I don’t know about this article. The democrats I talk to are very strong in their hatred of President Trump. They want him dead and you can bet the party of violence is going to be making many attempts to assassinate him.
I pray for President Trump’s safety because I have never before in my 85 years seen such rabid hatred for one man. They don’t want to hear about all the good he is doing, they just want him gone.
I believe the democrat party should be declared domestic terrorists. They are dangerous not only to this country, but also to anyone who disagrees with them.
Just too many unelected government workers and people who have income coming from government grants. They are the TAKERS that don’t MAKE anything. Mostly unionized.workers whos only product is ANAMOSITY.
Since it’s inception in the mid-1800’s the US Democratic Party has been a plague on US citizens and on the world, and it has gone from very bad to horrifically demonic.
Most of these folks had no idea as to why they were there other than to protest something the democrats bussed them to. So laughable how these people just fall in line like sheep to the slaughter with no real purpose and no stance on anything other than what they are told to do. Hmm. At their peril in what they think they stand for but are just pons in the democrats control society
Gee I wonder what would have happened if republicans had protested Biden like that. Oh yeah J6 is probably an example of what would have happened. And it would have been shut down and media would not have shown it unless they could make it look like it was violent but the democrats have no idea or won’t believe all the proof of. censorship that was done
From what pictures and videos were shown on the news channels, it looks like a bunch of old hippies from the 60s and some social misfits confused about their biology showed up for one last hurrah before fading completely into the far and recent past. It’d be nice to know what they were paid to be there.
“The Democrat Party,” he concluded, “may not exist in ten years.”
We can only hope this is true. Nothing has done more harm to the US than the democratic party.
” … on the signs, some issues are fictional, some are losers, and some are crazy.” And it seems to me that the crazed issues more than mildly affect the veracity of the rest.
Dem Party: 1822-2025
Is there any way for us to reverse our trade deficit with any of our big trading partners ?
We need/want many more of their goods than they want of ours. I don’t think that we can tariff ourselves out of that dynamic without a substantial increase in consumer prices.
Why don’t Republicans stage protests or have an organization to organize marches in favor of Trump’s policies, against anti-semitism, against judges interfering with agenda American people want re deporting illegals? I didn’t see one protest during all of Biden era — it Seems Republicans don’t have the guts to get out in big numbers and show what we think! If someone can enlighten me on this, please do!
last gasp was obama; since they have been radicalized by rejection of obama into stealing 2020. pulled out all the stops 2021-2424. flailing with self-admitted unfit candidates since hoping their brown sticks to the wall, (which they also misspelled walz)..
Looks like many of those who “broke” our country may be sitting in the cheap seats for awhile…. along with everyone they wronged.
Looks to me like they brought a couple of buses to the local senior centers and gave each senior a five dollar bill to ride into town to “Protest.” No blacks, no hispanics, no drag queens or trans people. And no one could agree on what they were marching or protesting for. The funniest one I saw was a grey haired old lady moving on all fours with rubber gloves and a dog collar on being lead by another lady in a motorized wheel chair. Oh, and she had a blond Trump wig on. Way too funny for this 75 year old guy!