Chicago protest draws thousands in nationwide push against Trump, Musk policies
Protests against President Trump and Elon Musk took place in Chicago and across the country on Saturday.
Tens of thousands of people showed up in downtown Chicago for a demonstration that began in Daley Plaza.
Protesters demanded that Trump and Musk "take their hands off" popular programs like Social Security and Medicare.
CHICAGO - Thousands of people participated in"Hands Off!"protests against President Donald Trump and tech entrepreneur Elon Musk on Saturday in Chicago, the surrounding suburbs and cities around the country.
Organizers said they expected tens of thousands of people to join more than 600 events planned in every state and Washington, D.C.
What we know
The demonstrations are meant to demand that Trump and Musk "take their hands off the programs that the middle class and working families rely on."
In Chicago, multiple progressive organizations held a rally and march that began at Daley Plaza and wound through downtown streets. Organizers estimated that about 30,000 people gathered near the plaza.
Other protests were scheduled in suburban cities including Evanston, Highland Park, Gurnee, Palatine, Algonquin, Arlington Heights, Elgin, Schaumburg, Geneva, Lisle, Batavia, Joliet, Kankakee and Ottawa.
What they're saying
Event organizers included the Chicago Federation of Labor, Equality Illinois, the Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights, Indivisible Chicago, Personal PAC, Sierra Club Illinois and others.
"Enough is enough. It is time for all of us in Chicago to rise up and fight back for what we believe in," organizers said in a statement.
Key issues highlighted by organizers included protecting Medicaid, Social Security, immigrant and LGBTQ rights, the judiciary and democracy.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
New York Post
5 minutes ago
- New York Post
The city and state's fiscal pain just got real —and it was all so avoidable
Albany and City Hall are now staring at some wicked fiscal headwinds, a key watchdog reports — but it's not like they weren't warned. The Citizens Budget Commission is flagging both the city and state's massive budgets, slamming them as 'unaffordable and unprepared' in light of federal funding cuts and a possible economic slowdown down the road. With passage of President Donald Trump's One Big Beautiful Bill Act, which aims to (slightly) curb the growth of federal outlays, including aid to New York, Gov. Kathy Hochul is directing state agencies to cut $750 million from their budgets. When folks gripe, she'll just point her finger at Trump. Convenient, no? But about reckless and dishonest as can be. And she'll still have to find another $3 billion — and that's assuming no further cuts from Washington in the short term and an economy that remains robust. Plus, the long-term structural gap, CBC says, is now a monstrous $22 billion. It was all sadly predictable, but Hochul and state lawmakers nonetheless decided to blithely run up the tab — to a whopping quarter of a trillion dollars–plus — figuring they can blame the GOP when they have to make cuts or raise taxes. Take health care: Lawmakers boosted spending on it by 17%, even as the Empire Center's Bill Hammond predicted federal Medicaid cuts would shift over $3.3 billion in costs to the state. In April, budget expert E.J. McMahon slapped Hochul and the Legislature for 'whistling in the dark' instead of anticipating likely changes to the state's 'nearly out-of-control Medicaid program.' Now the gov's budget director won't rule out raising taxes, even though Hochul vowed she wouldn't. The CBC instead urges to keep her promise and instead shred her $2 billion 'inflation reduction checks' (i.e., reelection bribes), for starters. The group also called out the city's $116 billion spendapalooza and hit both Albany and City Hall for not squirreling away enough reserves. Whoever become mayor in November, it noted, will have to fill a $6 billon to $8 billion budget gap in just 16 days of taking office. It also ripped mayoral frontrunner Zohran Mamdani's planned tax hikes to cover his ludicrous plans for $10 billion in new outlays. He'd be setting a record for irresponsibility. New Yorkers are now sure to be hit with some pain, whether it's spending cuts or tax hikes. The pols will try to shift blame, of course, but the public wouldn't be in this mess if their leaders had acted like adults from the start.
New York Post
5 minutes ago
- New York Post
Trump, Xi may meet ahead of or during APEC summit October: report
President Trump might visit China before going to the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit between Oct. 30 and Nov. 1, or he could meet Chinese President Xi Jinping on the sidelines of the APEC event in South Korea, the South China Morning Post reported on Sunday, citing multiple sources. The two countries have been trying to negotiate an end to an escalating tit-for-tat tariff war that has upended global trade and supply chains. The two sides have discussed a potential meeting between the leaders in the region this year, but they have not confirmed a date or location yet, according to a person familiar with the matter. President Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping in 2019. REUTERS Trump has sought to impose tariffs on US importers for virtually all foreign goods, which he says will stimulate domestic manufacturing and which critics say will make many consumer goods more expensive for Americans. He has called for a universal base tariff rate of 10% on goods imported from all countries, with higher rates for imports from the most 'problematic' ones, including China: imports from there now have the highest tariff rate of 55%. Trump has set a deadline of Aug. 12 for the US and China to reach a durable tariffs agreement. President Donald Trump has set a deadline of Aug. 12 for the US and China to reach a durable tariffs deal. Costfoto/NurPhoto/Shutterstock A spokesperson for Trump did not respond to a request for comment about the reported plans for a meeting with Xi in the autumn. The two countries' most recent high-level meeting was on July 11, when Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi had what both described as a productive and positive meeting in Malaysia about how trade negotiations should proceed. Rubio said then that Trump had been invited to China to meet with Xi, and said that both leaders 'want it to happen.' On Friday, China Commerce Minister Wang Wentao said China wants to bring its trade ties with the US back to a stable footing and that recent talks in Europe showed there was no need for a tariff war.
New York Post
5 minutes ago
- New York Post
‘Iraq Syndrome' is dead, why PBS & NPR had to go and other commentary
Foreign desk: 'Iraq Syndrome' Is Dead 'Fear of the expression of American military power has now dissolved,' cheers Commentary's Seth Mandel. In his first term, President Trump 'adopted a modified Murphy's Law that also governed his predecessor's foreign policy: Anything that can be Iraq, will be Iraq.' But that looks to have changed 'when President Trump ordered the successful strikes on Iran's nuclear program.' Notably, 'Ukraine is now benefiting from the Iran strikes because reality has dispelled the fog of Iraq Syndrome and the president is seeing more clearly.' Fact is, 'the 'just like Iraq' line of thinking isn't accurate, and now Trump realizes that.' How 'fitting that Donald Trump, who rode the effects of Iraq Syndrome all the way to the presidency (twice), would be the one to cure American politics of this malady.' Health beat: Med-Schools' Merit Malpractice 'The Supreme Court banned racial preferences in university admissions, but finding ways to maintain them has become a cottage industry in higher education,' blasts The Wall Street Journal editorial board. Medical schools are one of the worst abusers. A new study finds 'admitted black applicants had lower MCAT scores than admitted white and Asian applicants at 22 out of 23 schools.' At places like the University of Wisconsin, 'a black medical school applicant was about 10 times more likely to be admitted than white or Asian applicants with identical test scores and GPA.' 'In the admissions cycles since 2023, little has changed.' 'Preferences that elevate less qualified doctors won't reduce inequities in public health, but they will stigmatize successful minority applicants who excel.' 'Oh, and to remind, racial preferences are against the law.' Media watch: Why PBS & NPR Had To Go 'Let us call a spade a spade: NPR and PBS have earned the 'woke' label,' roars TIPP Insights' editorial board. That's why it's so great Congress just cut off federal funds. 'NPR is a wolf in sheep's clothing. It enjoys the tax-exempt privileges of a 501(c)(3) organization, yet operates as a de facto mouthpiece for the Democratic Party and progressive ideology.' Two GOP senators, Susan Collins (Maine) and Lisa Murkowski (Alaska), voted against the cuts, crying about the 'impact on rural and tribal communities.' 'It's a flimsy argument': Both 'stream through the internet and airwaves,' so 'even the most rural communities can access their content instantly.' As we've asked before,'In a world of endless streaming and podcasting, why are taxpayers still funding a media cocoon for coastal elites?' Spy world: Russia-Hoax Document Bonanza The 'floodgates' of 'long-classified information' about the Russia-hoax scandal may finally be opening, reports Paul Sperry at RealClearInvestigations. Documents include a secret audit revealing that an 'intelligence community assessment on Russia ordered by President Obama after the 2016 election' was framed to portray Trump as beholden to Putin. A US intelligence official 'alleged the outgoing administration weaponized' Russian intelligence 'to sabotage President-elect Trump.' The information could 'strengthen a criminal case' against Obama intelligence officials like former CIA chief John Brennan. Former FBI officials say prosecutors have 'sufficient grounds to charge Obama's FBI and CIA officials with criminal conspiracy.' Statistician: Medicaid Fearmongers' Bad Math Yale law professor Natasha Sarin's claim that 'at least 100,000 more' Americans will die over 'the next decade' due to Medicaid cuts 'reflects a fundamental misunderstanding of the concept of 'statistical lives saved,'' warns Aaron Brown at Reason. Sarin 'and several other prominent journalists misinterpreted a recent working paper' by economists Angela Wyse and Bruce D. Meyer, which estimated 'that the Medicaid expansion reduced mortality among eligible adults between 0.40% and 4.52% ,' or about 27,400 lives. But these are 'statistical lives,' and 'these same government programs also take many statistical lives.' 'Counting statistical lives' is 'a debased currency, because it counts each actual life multiple times. And citing only the good side of the ledger makes it impossible to evaluate.' — Compiled by The Post Editorial Page
