Grassroot anti-Trump protest draws hundreds to the state Capitol

WEDNESDAY, Feb. 5 — Hundreds gathered at the Capitol at noon today to protest the Trump administration.

The ragtag coalition was the turnout for the 50501 protest, a decentralized movement organized online to create 50 simultaneous, grassroots protests at every state capitol on the same day.

“If a convicted felon and a bunch of tech billionaires can run the country without experience, we can do this,” said Jeremy, an organizer who declined to give his last name.

Though protesters’ signs reflected a multitude of concerns, opposition to the Department of Government Efficiency and its leader, Elon Musk, was a common thread.

“There’s an unelected group of citizens inside the U.S. Treasury,” said one early protester, Justin, who also didn’t want to identify himself more either. “With Musk and all the other billionaires that are going to have a place in our government, the U.S. feels like it’s becoming an oligarchy.”

Alongside opposition to the Trump administration, protesters sought to make connections and gather contact information for a future grassroots organization. Neon-vested organizers provided water, gloves and masks while collecting contact information from attendees.

“Build your community, build your network,” said one speaker. “Get each other’s phone numbers and start organizing in your community.”

An early speaker was state Sen. Jeremy Moss, D-Southfield. Moss, the first openly gay person to be elected to the Michigan Senate, declared that “LGBTQ rights are non-negotiable.”

Moss also stressed a message of solidarity between the gay and transgender communities, declaring that “your rights are our rights.” The message comes on the heels of the State Department’s erasure of transgender representation from its webpages, including shortening the popular acronym to “LGB.”

The protest came together quickly: 50501 was first suggested Jan. 25 in a since-deleted Reddit post, according to Snopes.com. With no organization behind the movement, it was uncertain whether the protest would even happen. It wasn’t until Saturday that a group of local activists decided to take the reins, one said. 

“This weekend, a bunch of people were like ‘OK, maybe we should organize this,’” said an organizer who asked to go by L.

“We all just got together,” said another organizer. “We knew it was a short time frame, but we want our voices heard. It’s too important and there are too many injustices to sit in the passenger’s seat.”

The speedy organization included finding speakers and getting a permit to protest on Capitol grounds.

Most attendees learned about the protest through the internet, including community sites on Facebook and Reddit. Despite uncertainty online as to the decentralized protest’s legitimacy and the likelihood of a substantial turnout, hundreds had already gathered an hour before the noon start time.

Despite a significant presence from the Michigan press, many protesters were reluctant to go on record or to give their names, citing fears of targeted retaliation from counter protesters, right-wing locals and the federal government.

Jeremy attributed those concerns to the political climate he was there to protest.

“It’s Trump’s America 2.0,” he said. “Everyone’s suspicious.”

Today’s protest was not the year’s first coordinated protest with a presence in Lansing. A protest Thursday at the Michigan Capitol by the Transgender Unity Coalition inspired coordinated protests in other states. Many of today’s protesters carried repurposed signs from that one.

“This is the beginning,” said one speaker.