Hundreds of demonstrations against the Trump administration are planned across the country this Saturday, including some in towns around Connecticut.
The Hands Off! National Day of Action is meant to show opposition to “the Trump-Musk billionaire takeover and the Republican assault on our freedoms and communities.”
Jim Chapdelaine, founder of Indivisible CT, is helping to organize Saturday’s rally at the Connecticut state Capitol in Hartford. He says the movement is gaining steam at a rapid pace.
“I wouldn't say growing, I would say exploding,” Chapdelaine said. “Growth is not a big enough word.”
Chapdelaine says the rally isn’t partisan, and that he knows some Republicans who will be attending to protest against government cuts.
“There are people who voted for Trump but are realizing, ‘Oh my God, look at all the money he's taking from education,’ or, ‘My Social Security is endangered,’ that's a massive fear,” Chapdelaine said.
Asked about the planned protests, Connecticut House Republican Leader Rep. Vincent Candelora of North Branford issued a statement.
“Democrats and their activist allies manufacture outrage over President Trump’s push for accountability, but they couldn’t be bothered when a catatonic Joe Biden oversaw a failing economy riddled with record inflation,” Candelora said. “Now, they expect us to believe they care more about our wallets than winning? Spare us.”
“These are the same people who championed a state truck tax tariff, sat silent over the meals tax, supported school shutdowns, masked our kids, and now want boys in girls’ sports—all while ignoring fraud and incompetence in their own ranks,” Candelora’s statement concluded.
Chapdelaine said while the demonstrations are anti-Trump, they’re also more broadly pro-democracy.
“‘Hands Off’ could be ‘hands off my Social Security,’ ‘hands off my health care,’ ‘hands off my human rights,’ anything like that,” he said. “But essentially the real fundamental purpose of this, or the goal, is to stabilize a wobbly democracy.”
Chapdelaine says he expects hundreds if not thousands of attendees at the Capitol demonstration.
“You’re going to leave feeling better, because every time you do an action, you feel better,” he said. “You’re going to leave feeling like, ‘Oh, there’s people that feel like me. In fact, look it – there’s a lot of them. They’re willing to stand in the rain to show how they feel.’”
Speakers listed for the Capitol rally include U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal, Lt. Gov. Susan Bysiewicz, and Attorney General William Tong. Chapdelaine said there would also be “real people with real stories” of how federal cuts have affected their lives.
In addition to the Capitol event, dozens of rallies are planned around the state in Windsor, Torrington, Danbury and more.
