‘Feeling really empowered’: Thousands rally in the Philly region for the nationwide ‘Hands Off!’ anti-Trump protest

SEPTA had not experienced a commuter crush like this since Feb. 14, the day of the Eagles Super Bowl celebration — and this time it was an off-peak weekend day.

Even organizers of Saturday’s “Hands Off!” anti-Trump administration protests were surprised at the turnouts in Philadelphia and elsewhere.

After a turbulent week that generated economic anxieties worldwide, thousands of demonstrators gathered in Center City and elsewhere to protest actions by President Donald Trump and unofficial top aide Elon Musk on a litany of issues from inflation to the environment, to federal job cuts, to academic research, to DEI rollbacks.

Crowds congregated at City Hall around noon for a march to Independence Mall that grew louder and larger into the afternoon.

Protesters poured through the turnstiles at Suburban Station, among them Becca Taylor, 31, of Mount Airy. She said she woke up wondering if a dreary, damp April Saturday would suppress the crowd.

Unfounded.

The train was so packed it had to skip stops. “I think we’re feeling really empowered after seeing so many people,” she said. SEPTA spokesperson Andrew Busch said the transit agency eventually added more cars to the regional rails, but not more trains.

By 2 p.m., a sea of demonstrators had overflowed Independence Mall and filled Arch Street. Hundreds more had gathered for a rally in Media, Delaware County.

Of the crowd in Philly, a special events officer said it was “one of the biggest” he had seen.

The “Hands Off!” protests in Philadelphia, Delco, and Chester County were among several hundred across the country, part of mass demonstrations organized via social media by the “50501″ group — 50 protests, 50 states, one movement — a coalition of organizations with a wide variety of agendas.

According to Indivisible Philadelphia, a co-organizer of the city event, “at least” 10,000 participated in the march and Independence Mall rally.

No significant incidents were reported, with only a small group of counterprotesters in evidence in Media, and none in Philadelphia.

The president has shown an enameled indifference to criticism, and it was unlikely that the turnouts here and in cities around the country would have any short-term effects on the administration’s policies, said David Redlawsk, a political scientist at the University of Delaware. “If anything, they might increase Trump’s resolve,” he said.

Hundreds of people demonstrated in Palm Beach Gardens, Fla., a few miles from Trump’s golf course in Jupiter, where he spent the morning at the club’s Senior Club Championship. He planned to golf again Sunday.

But Redlawsk said the demonstrations ultimately could affect those who do have a say in Trump’s agenda.

The 50501 group says it wants the administration to “uphold the Constitution and end executive overreach.”

It organized anti-Trump protests on Presidents’ Day. But this was a far larger collective protest, with thousands more joining rallies in Boston and New York. The demonstrations involved as many as 150 different groups, including labor union, civil rights, and LGBTQ activists, with myriad grievances against Trump and Musk.

At the Philadelphia rally Saturday, Rabbi Erin Hirsh from Glenside said that like Sen. Cory Booker (D., N.J.), who executed a historic marathon speech last week in the U.S. Capitol, she thought she could talk for 25 hours about all the wrongs of the Trump administration.

“Everything the Trump administration is doing is morally offensive and indifferent to human life,” she said. “The administration is just not thinking of the citizens as people and is not fulfilling the social contract to care.”

Demonstrators carried signs with a variety of messages that included “Putin’s puppet” and “If you’re not outraged, you’re not paying attention.”

Said Sue McInerney of Roxborough, “We need people to rise up and not sit in the background letting this craziness happen.”

Against the backdrop of Independence Hall, Betsy Tucker, 64, a Bucks County resident, and Tristan Edwards-Wright, 44, who lives in Chester County, said they had closed their Phoenixville art gallery to join the protest. “I could not in good conscience miss this,” Tucker said.

Edwards-Wright said she came because she is “an empathetic mother.”

In Media, Candice Carbone, an obstetrician/gynecologist practitioner, said she was concerned about abortion rights. “If you don’t own your body,” she shouted to the crowd, “what do you own? That’s not freedom.”

Redlawsk, the University of Delaware political scientist, said that over time, if “large-scale” protests were to continue, they eventually might have an impact.

Trump might experience pushback from Republican members of Congress concerned about their fortunes in 2026.

In the meantime, those who participated Saturday expressed confidence that they were making a point or two.

“It’s great to speak up,” said Moe Kelevra, 35, of Sewell, Gloucester County, a dual German American citizen, “and to be among people who also have the courage to speak up.”

Staff writers Lizzy McLellan Ravitch and Aubrey Whelan contributed to this article, which contains information from the Associated Press.