Thousands at Philly 'Hands Off' March and Rally: 'No Kings in America'

Philadelphia, PA — After a brutal stock market correction and new anti-trade tariff policies, more than 120,000 layoffs of federal workers, dozens of executive orders, and hundreds of immigrant arrests led by ICE, many Americans are reeling from political and financial upheaval caused by the Trump administration. Around 150 liberal groups, including unions, climate and advocacy groups like MoveOn, called for a wide set of #HandsOff rallies around the country on Saturday, April 5. The Philadelphia rally, one of several in the region, gathered at City Hall in Center City and marched down Market Street to the lawn near the National Constitution Center and Independence Hall for a series of speeches from politicians and people who’ve worked at institutions under threat like the Environmental Protection Agency and US Postal Service.

Supporters tallied turnout from at least 1200 rallies and estimated attendance at more than 3 million, or nearly 1% of the entire US population. (An interactive map with media from 1150 locations is available.) Many protests were in out-of-the-way, conservative-leaning locales like Bolivia, North Carolina, Nanuet, New York, and Tehachapi, California (all in counties that went 55% to 60% for Trump in November 2024).

While the crowds in many locations leaned towards an older demographic, it was a strikingly large mobilization and the largest one since Donald Trump was inaugurated in January; it’s the clearest indicator yet that the Baby Boomer generation hasn’t checked out of political activity in retirement, especially as the systems of the Social Security Administration threaten to unravel. The turnout at the Philly event was both older and more white than the city’s demographics.

Organizer Thomas Keck with Indivisible Onondaga County in Syracuse pointed out protest activity is actually intensifying in 2025. In Syracuse, Keck wrote, new members are connecting via “our email lists, in Discord and Signal chats, and on the phone.” Despite this, one attendee at the New York City march wondered why more members of Generation Z were not there.

In locations like New York and San Diego police seemed surprised by the turnout; a “high-ranking policeman” told New Yorker staff writer Philip Gourevitch, “We did not expect anything like this. Don’t tell anyone but I’ve only got 44 officers out here,” a shocking situation for anyone that has seen the hundreds of officers NYPD routinely deploys for protests. A police officer in San Diego, California, told John Highkin that they’d expected around 3,000 people but estimated around 10 to 12,000 attendees.

One writer noticed that American newspapers didn’t give as much front-page coverage to the protests as overseas publications. While there has been some online debate about how to process this kind of political activity in relation to the American left as a whole, on the ground in Oakland for example, leftist organizers treated the event as a “recruitment opportunity.” Likewise on the lawn in Philadelphia Unicorn Riot saw tabling and literature distribution by one or two op communist groups without any problems or friction with rally organizers, at least within our sight.

50501, pronounced “fifty fifty one,” is a new grouping that launched dozens of “No Kings Day” protests on February 17, 2025. The most widely noticed conflict with march organizers on Saturday appeared to be an incident in Los Angeles where organizers with 50501 called the police on a vendor selling Black Panther merchandise out of the public right-of-way, according to a filmed statement from the vendor, although 50501 sent “deepest apologies” and promised to meet with the vendor at a later event.