Protests under the “50501” movement – short for 50 protests, 50 states, 1 movement – in response to the Trump administration’s flurry of moves over its first 100 days are set to take place across the country Thursday for May Day.
“Join us in the fight to uphold the Constitution and end executive overreach,” the movement’s website states. “National Day of Solidarity. Stop the Billionaire Takeover. We are the Many. They are the Few.”
The 50501 movement sprang out of a Reddit forum and has held multiple national days of action the last few months. The most recent came on April 19 when crowds of people attended over 80 protests at state capitols, courthouses and city halls in several states to oppose what organizers describe as President Donald Trump’s executive overreach, including deportations without due process, the dismantling of federal agencies and threats to higher education.
The protests Thursday are part of a partnership with the group May Day Strong, according to Gloriann Sahay, the co-founder and digital director of Political Revolution PAC, who responded to a CNN message sent to 50501’s “Press” email.
“We will not stand by as this administration kidnaps our neighbors, tramples our rights, jails judges, harms people in our marginalized communities, and turns the evil Project 2025 into a reality. When the government attacks even one person, they are attacking every American,” Sahay said.
“On May 1st, we’re gonna step up to bat for our communities and our unions, because we know they would do the same for us.”
May 1 marks May Day, which shares a date with International Workers’ Day and is often a day for protests and civil action for labor rights. However, most Americans do not have the day off of work, and planning a protest for the middle of the workweek is a tricky proposition for mass attendance.
“Despite it being a weekday, we still expect a large turnout because the American people are committed to defending the rights of their communities,” Sahay said.
50501 describes itself as “decentralized” and says all its events are organized by independent volunteers. A map on its website lists over 1,000 events in communities across the country.
The planned protests come two days after Trump marked 100 days in office. In that short period, he has moved to upend the world order by cracking down on immigration and immigrants’ rights; instituting tariffs that threaten global trade; dismantling the administrative state under the Department of Government Efficiency’s slapdash cuts; rolling back protections for transgender people; and exercising executive power with disdain for checks and balances.
Trump’s 41% approval rating is the lowest for any newly elected president at 100 days dating back at least to Dwight Eisenhower over six decades ago – including Trump’s own first term, according to a CNN poll conducted by SSRS. Approval of Trump’s handling of the presidency is down 4 points since March, and 7 points lower than it was in late February. Just 22% say they strongly approve of Trump’s handling of the job, a new low, and about twice as many say they strongly disapprove (45%).
The first Trump presidency was met with immediate mass protests in the form of the Women’s March on the day after the inauguration in January 2017.
The second time around, protests were slower to develop on a significant scale until more recently.
The “Hands Off” protests on Saturday, April 5, targeted both Trump and billionaire Elon Musk in response to what the organizers called a “hostile takeover” and attack on American rights and freedoms. The organizers said they had three demands: “an end to the billionaire takeover and rampant corruption of the Trump administration; an end to slashing federal funds for Medicaid, Social Security, and other programs working people rely on; and an end to the attacks on immigrants, trans people, and other communities.”
Nearly 600,000 people had signed up to attend the events, some of which took place in major cities like London and Paris, according to Indivisible, one of the organizations leading the movement. In Washington DC, several Democratic members of Congress, including Democratic Reps. Jamie Raskin, Ilhan Omar and Maxwell Frost, spoke to the crowds to criticize the Trump administration.
Then on Saturday, April 19, the “50501” protests gathered across the US in a similar show of disapproval for the Trump presidency’s actions. A key focus of that protest was the plight of Kilmar Abrego Garcia, the Maryland man wrongfully deported to an El Salvador prison.
Further, there have been hundreds of “Tesla Takedown” demonstrations in the US, Canada and Europe as activists ramp up their opposition to Musk’s efforts to slash federal government staffing and budgets through DOGE.
