Approximately 6,000 community members marched throughout Providence Saturday afternoon, protesting recent actions by the Trump administration and Elon Musk and calling for increased taxes on the wealthy. The protest — titled “Hands Off!” — was one of over a thousand similar rallies nationwide expected to take place on Saturday.
Since assuming office, President Trump has signed a number of executive orders that have targeted diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives and implemented sweeping and controversial tariffs on over 50 countries.
The protest also comes less than 48 hours after a White House official confirmed the Trump administration’s plans to freeze $510 million of Brown’s federal funding. The freeze has yet to be officially announced.
As of midday Friday, the University had yet to hear from the White House about the planned freeze. The Herald reached out to the University this afternoon and has not yet received a response.
Demonstrators gathered at Hope High School and marched along Thayer Street amid chants of “tax the rich” and “Donald Trump has got to go.” Protestors carried homemade signs calling on the federal government to “support working Americans not billionaires” and keep their “hands off everything.”
The march ended at Kennedy Plaza, where over 10 local organizers and state politicians gave speeches to the crowd. The rally was organized by Indivisible Rhode Island in collaboration with other Rhode Island activist organizations, including the Rhode Island Working Families Party, The Womxn Project and Climate Action RI.
The protest aimed to “hold this country, this state and our elected leaders to account,” said Aseem Rastogi, the chair of Indivisible R.I., in a speech addressing the protesters.
Rastogi demanded that the Trump administration keep its “hands off our futures, hands off our money, hands off our neighbors, hands off our schools, hands off our dreams — hands off the United States of America.”
In a statement shared with The Herald about the protest, RIWFP Political Director Zack Mezera ’13 wrote that “we’re marching to show that working people refuse to remain silent while Trump, Musk and their billionaire buddies in (Washington, D.C.) siphon money and power from us.”
“They’re dismantling the economy, corrupting democracy and rewriting all the rules to make themselves richer while working people shoulder the burden,” Mezera wrote.
Multiple speakers alleged that the Trump administration, in collaboration with Musk, is taking money from lower-class citizens nationwide and giving it to richer Americans. They “continue to tax us and use our money,” said State Representative Karen Alzate (D-Pawtucket, Central Falls).
“Mega-rich people don’t exist without keeping everyone else poor on purpose,” said Atlantic Mills Tenants Union organizer Jenine Bressner in a speech.
“It may feel impossible to stop billionaires, but we can be good sparks igniting more fires of positive change,” she added.
Susan Davis, a rally attendee and resident of West Warwick, told The Herald that “I want the world to know what side I’m on. Something has to change.”
“Out of the White House, nothing seems to be fact-checked or sourced, just a lot of misinformation,” said Wende Corcoran, a protester from West Warwick. “The country deserves better. We deserve facts.”
In recent weeks, the Trump administration has taken aim at higher education programs, placing hundreds of millions of federal funding at risk at five Ivy League institutions, including Brown. Following a number of demands made by the Trump administration, Columbia agreed to institute a ban on some face masks and employ “special officers” with the power to arrest individuals on campus.
“We’re horrified at what they’re doing to the universities,” Corcoran said.
Multiple rally attendees spoke of the recent plans to freeze over half a billion dollars in federal funding at Brown.
“I know the $510 million threat is really serious and can cripple” Brown, said Nina Kushner, a professor at Clark University. “I hope the president of Brown University is the one who actually does stand up.”
The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Maya Kelly is a metro editor from Providence who covers community, crime and activism as well as business and development. A concentrator in urban studies and data fluency, she is passionate about intersecting storytelling with data analysis. When Maya's not at The Herald, you can find her hanging from an aerial silk, bullet journaling or in the middle of a forest.
