Protesters took to New York City streets on Saturday, September 20, to call for climate, social, and economic justice, and specifically, making billionaires and polluters pay up.
The “Make Billionaires Pay” march united climate activists, migrant rights defenders and women’s rights advocates in their demands for climate and social justice. Climate movement researchers say the coalition reflects a growing shift toward intersectional, grassroots mobilization as climate action stalls at the federal level. It is led by 350.org, Climate Defenders, Desis Rising Up and Moving (DRUM), Target Majority NYC and Women’s March.
“I hope we can scare Trump and his billionaire allies,” said Renata Pumarol, deputy director of Climate Defenders, a multi-racial and multi-generational climate organizing hub. “We need to show them that we are organized, and that there are more of us than them.”
“The billionaire fascists are setting our world on fire,” Target Majority NYC stated. “They’re dismantling democracy, attacking immigrants, and fueling war. They profit off genocide and climate collapse. This moment demands mass mobilization. As world leaders gather in New York City for the UN General Assembly and Climate Week, it’s time to show them that we are revolting against Trump and the billionaire class. We’re calling on people across the US to join the nonviolent resistance by hosting a march in your community or joining the anchor march in NYC.”
“Everything feels out of control. ICE raids tearing families apart. Genocide streamed live on our screens,” Womens March declared.” Free speech and our freedoms under direct attack from the Trump regime. And billionaires are pouring gasoline on every fire while families can’t make rent. They want us scattered. Silent. Afraid. Today, we gather in power. As the United Nations meets and Climate Week begins, we take the streets of New York City- lound, undeniable, impossible to ignore.”
“Make Billionaires Pay”
They gathered during Climate Week, as the United Nations General Assembly gets underway.
They marched as the Trump administration is actively rescinding the historic climate actions of the Biden Administration to transition to a clean, renewable energy economy, cancelling regulations to protect the air and water from pollution, cancelling tax credits for electric vehicles, actively shutting down the offshore windfarms that were already well under construction, his EPA Administrator, Long Islander Lee Zeldin who unsuccessfully ran for New York Governor, rescinding the Endangerment Finding that empowers the federal government to regulate carbon emissions contributing to climate change.
“As soon as the second Trump administration took office in January 2025, he unleashed an immediate and unprecedented attack on our environment and public health,” writes the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC). “This includes a rollback of crucial environmental safeguards, the repeal of bedrock environmental and health laws, the delay of critical protections for endangered species, and attacks on well-established science and scientists.” (https://www.nrdc.org/resources/white-house-watch-tracking-attacks-our-environment-health)
The actions are not only hurting public health, exposing communities to more severe and deadly climate disasters, but affordability, as well. Ending the development and transition to clean, renewable energy makes American households dependent on ever-rising prices for fossil fuels.
“Clean energy has lowered Americans’ bills, created hundreds of thousands of jobs, and helped fight climate change. But it’s bad for the fossil fuel industry’s bottom line, and Trump seems willing to stop at nothing to slow it down – including breaking the law his own party just passed,” the Climate Action Campaign (CAC) writes. “We need to build as much clean energy as we can to help avoid the worst impacts of climate change. Thanks to Trump and his fossil fuel cronies, Americans are getting more pollution, higher bills, and more deadly extreme weather instead of the healthy, safe, and prosperous future we deserve.” (https://www.actonclimate.com/post/cacs-alt-on-trumps-latest-attack-on-wind-and-solar/)
It’s hard to keep track of all the aggressively, in-your face anti-climate, anti-environment, anti-public health actions trump has unleashed – this list was compiled with the help of AI:
Withdrew from the Paris Agreement again.
Prioritizes fossil fuel production while actively attacking clean renewable energy development: Trump’s “America First Energy Plan” prioritizes fossil fuel development, including oil, coal, and natural gas, aiming for energy dominance through deregulation.
Reviving oil pipeline projects that communities rejected.
Opened protected areas for drilling: Trump administration finalized decisions to open Alaska’s Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) and other federally protected lands and waters to drilling.
Declared a “national energy emergency” during his 2025 inauguration to justify further expansion of fossil fuel extraction and streamline the permitting process for new oil and gas projects.
Rolled back Clean Power Plan
Weakened vehicle emissions standards:
Targeted renewable energy: The second Trump administration has halted new offshore wind projects, even ones that were nearing completion, and limited tax credits for wind and solar projects as well as credits enabling homeowners to incorporate solar energy.
Reduced Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) authority and budget, undermining its ability to enforce environmental regulations, while declaring it would not bother to regulate polluters.
Weakened the Clean Water Act: The administration repealed the 2015 Clean Water Rule, narrowing the scope of federal protection for wetlands and small streams and leaving more waterways vulnerable to pollution.
Scaled back national monuments: Trump dramatically reduced the size of several national monuments, including Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante in Utah, to open up land for resource extraction. In 2020, he opened the Northeast Canyons and Seamounts Marine National Monument to commercial fishing. In the second term, he has gone back to reverse Biden’s re-designations.
Loosened methane regulations: The EPA weakened rules that limited methane emissions from oil and gas operations on public and tribal lands.
Targeted toxics and pollution standards: The administration rolled back standards for mercury and air toxics from power plants and loosened rules regulating coal ash disposal, and delayed or rescinded standards keeping “forever chemicals” out of drinking water.
Cut climate research funding including those at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and The National Weather Service, stopped satellite monitoring showing impacts of climate change, and cancelled reports that measure climate change.
Dismissed climate change: Trump and his administration frequently expressed skepticism about the scientific consensus on climate change and dismantled interagency groups designed to coordinate climate action and continues to call climate change a “hoax” and a “scam.”
Limited the “social cost of carbon”: An executive order disbanded the interagency working group that calculated the “social cost of carbon”—a metric used to quantify the economic damages from greenhouse gas emissions—and directed agencies to consider eliminating the calculation. Companies are discouraged from calculating the risk of climate change in their investments and public reporting.
Reduced public health protections: A 2018 analysis by Harvard researchers estimated that the environmental rollbacks could lead to thousands of extra deaths and millions of additional respiratory problems per decade due to increased pollution.
Meanwhile, a new study led by a Stony Brook University researcher projects that, due to climate change factors, there will be more wildfires in the coming decades, and their smoke could lead to tens of thousands of deaths by 2050.
Climate disasters have become more severe and more frequent and more costly even as Trump moves to shut down FEMA. The US spends $150 billion annually on climate-related disaster relief (as much as what Trump has allocated to militarize mass deportations), with recent years seeing even higher costs due to increased frequency of major events. The US experienced 27 billion-dollar disasters in 2024, totaling $182.7 billion – well above the 5-year average.
Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lee Zeldin has proposed rolling back carbon pollution standards for existing coal and new gas-fired power plants and dismantling standards that limit dangerous Mercury and Air Toxics (MATS) pollution from coal plants. These rollbacks would worsen air quality, hurt public health, and exacerbate the climate crisis.
“Climate pollution is worsening health and living conditions for so many of our families nationwide, which is why people across party lines strongly oppose their repeal,” stated Climate Action Campaign Director Margie Alt. “The EPA was created to protect people, not polluters. Eliminating these vital air pollution and climate protections will make our families sick, poison the air, and make extreme weather triggered by the climate crisis more deadly and destructive. The EPA should honor its mission to protect our health and environment, not advance an agenda that puts polluters first.”
Thousands of Americans are now dying each year from heat stroke, with global warming setting new records for temperature year after year.
“Clean energy has lowered Americans’ bills, created hundreds of thousands of jobs, and helped fight climate change. But it’s bad for the fossil fuel industry’s bottom line, and Trump seems willing to stop at nothing to slow it down – including breaking the law his own party just passed.
Even as his administration works aggressively to harm the environment, unleash climate change rather than mitigate against it resulting in public health emergencies ranging from epidemics, to heat stroke, to asthma, to heart disease, trump is working to dismantle public health altogether.
A kind of catch-all for protest in what has become a rolling series of protests, other issues being voiced included democracy, rule of law, immigrant rights, human rights, Palestinian rights, ending war and conflict.
It is depressing to hear the call for economic and social justice mimicking the speeches of the March on Washington 62 years ago during this year’s March on Wall Street, led by Rev. Al Sharpton and Martin Luther King III – as if the last four years with Joe Biden’s Justice Agenda, indeed, the last 60 years, had never happened.
Some 318,000 Black women lost their jobs in just the last eight months, coinciding with Trump’s ascendancy to a second term in office and his executive orders effectively making Diversity, Inclusion & Equity illegal – or put another way, making discrimination legal and the official government policy. It is Jim Crow not just from the offices of redneck governors and their sheriff’s offices, but from the White House, which as several noted, was built by slaves, as was most of Wall Street.
The March on Wall Street was a response to Donald Trump’s unrelenting attacks on diversity, equity, and inclusion, and brought together a major coalition of civil rights, clergy, and labor leaders. The importance of this demonstration has only grown as the federal government threatens more takeovers of Black-led cities after the unprecedented National Guard deployment in Washington, D.C.
“We march from the African Burial Ground to the heart of the Financial District to remind Donald Trump the power of Black Americans and their dollars,” Rev. Al Sharpton, president of the National Action Network and organizer of the March on Wall Street stated.
“Donald Trump’s attacks on DEI were only the prelude, as he is now dangling threats to take over American cities led by Black mayors,” said Rev. Al Sharpton, Founder and President of NAN. “If we leave him unchecked on DEI, if we do not get out and march, if we do not speak up, he will completely erase the freedoms our parents and our grandparents fought, bled, and died for.
Hundreds were expected, but thousands showed up, many driving through the night from far away places like Tennessee, Michigan and Alabama – to register their opposition with their bodies, voices and signs.
The march began at Foley Square which was across from the African burial ground, the largest known resting place of enslaved and freed Africans. Foley Square also stands next to 26 Federal Plaza, where ICE agents have rampantly arrested migrants during appearances before immigration courts. It then proceeded the mile down to the bronze bull – or more accurately, the golden calf, a symbol of the corporate greed and obsession to amass economic power, now equivalent to political power, that has CEOs kowtowing to a convicted fraudster, whose policies, from the Big Bad Bill taking away healthcare and food from those who need it most in order to accomplish the biggest transfer of wealth in history from the middle class to the wealthiest, exacerbating the biggest wealth gap since the Gilded Age, to the tariff policy which is not only pushing up prices and making goods scarce, harming once again, working families the most, it is devolving alliances around the globe, weakening the dollar, to the evisceration of due process and Rule of Law with his cruel and unconstitutional mass deportation to his sending armed military into cities which happen to be majority Black and headed by Black mayors.
“We march from the African Burial Ground to the heart of the Financial District to remind Donald Trump the power of Black Americans and their dollars,” Sharpton stated.
Trump has compared himself to a department store manager and the USA as where the world comes to shop, when the opposite is true – it is Americans who buy the products that come from around the world, Americans who pay the tariffs which are an added, regressive tax, hurting the people most who can least afford it. Trump, the most ignorant as well as corrupt person to ever hold the office of president, also does not understand that consumers drive the US economy, accounting for 70% of GDP. What is more, it is the Black and Brown people who account for $6 trillion dollars – equivalent to the eighth largest country in the world, and if you add in the other groups targeted for non-personhood and “erasure” by Trump, LGBTQ and Asians, that $8 trillion domestic product would make it third largest after the USA and China. That purchasing power could be a weapon to win back the rights stripped away by an administration determined to put power in the hands of an elite (some might say “oligarchy”).
But erasure is what Trump wants – with his revisionist history, his forcing out of people, objects and ideas from museums, universities and schools – so-called “woke” culture – to be replaced with White Christo Fascist Nationalist cultural indoctrination. Even how he has fired the CDC Director for refusing to follow RFK Jr’s insane anti-vax instructions: the Trump White House said every person in government must follow Trump’s “vision” and “policy,” rather than follow facts or their oath to follow the law and protect the Constitution.
Law enforcement has not just been politicized and weaponized – everything from disbanding the civil rights office – but so has health care, education, indeed everything that people rely on to survive, let alone thrive.
Diversity, Equity, Inclusion – “DEI” (which Trump shorthands as “woke”) is intended to make up for the centuries of slavery, then discrimination and injustice from access to public education, health care, housing and voting, to equal justice before the law – instead of paying outright reparations. What is the value today of 150 years of “40 acres and a mule” promised to freed slaves after the Civil War? It was CRT (critical race theory), taught in law schools (not public schools) that showed the pattern and the result of systemic discrimination.
But the campaign against DEI – as an excuse to remove Blacks, women, Black women, cut off funding for schools, universities, research, shut down the Civil Rights office within the DoJ and end consent decrees against police brutality and voter suppression, end lawsuits protecting women’s right to emergency health care – are of a piece to transfer wealth and power to a class, instead of working for an equal opportunity to succeed. Add to this Trump’s executive order rescinding cashless bail – under threat of losing millions of federal funding.
It’s of a piece to effectively cancel everything “public” or for the “common good” – from public health and access to health care, public schools, public parks, Pell grants, school lunch, wind farms, environmental protection, clean air and water, consumer protection and product safety.
Within hours after Trump was sworn into his second term, he signed an executive order demanding an end to DEI policies within the federal government. Those have since been followed by:
Revoking Executive Order 11246. Signed by President Johnson nearly 60 years ago, this action required federal contractors to take affirmative action to prevent discrimination and ensure equal employment opportunity for protected groups such as race, color, religion, sex, and national origin.
Federal DEI Staff Actions. In tandem with revoking EO 11246, Trump put all federal employees working in DEI on paid leave almost immediately. To comply with Trump’s executive orders, several agencies including the Departments of Defense, Education, Justice, Health and Human Services, as well as NASA, eliminated their DEI and civil rights initiatives and guidance.
Launching the DOJ Against DEI. Trump has used the Department of Justice to wither away at DEI, especially with the Civil Rights Division. Within just the first four months of Trump’s second term, an estimated 70% of the Division’s attorneys had either left or submitted their resignation. That came amid a flurry of memos in February from Attorney General Pam Bondi, who signaled the DOJ would bring civil rights cases against companies that implemented DEI policies.
Banning DEI in AI. In July, Trump signed an executive order directing agencies to not procure large language models with DEI embedded into their programming.
Removing Diversity in Foreign Service. In March, Trump demanded the State Department to scrub the “Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Accessibility” Core Precept on tenures and promotion, as well as similar actions on Foreign Service recruitment.
Canceling $783 Million in NIH Grants. Earlier this month, the Supreme Court narrowly approved the Trump administration’s canceling of hundreds of millions in National Institutes of Health grants linked to DEI (and yet, RFK Jr. has asserted there are racial differences in “antigens” and has basically advocated a form of eugenics).
Withholding Education Funding. This spring, the Trump administration threatened to cut off federal funding to schools and colleges with DEI programs. A federal judge earlier this month halted that effort, writing that “regulation of speech cannot be done casually.”
Pressuring the Private Sector to Drop DEI. Trump has lost a pressure campaign against Corporate America to follow suit and walk away from its billions of dollars in DEI commitments. That includes a highly scrutinized agreement with the law firm Paul Weiss to water down its DEI policies, while the FCC recently approved an $8 billion between Paramount and Skydance after the entities agreed to not implement any such programs.
Pushing GOP-friendly Redistrictings. Trump has backed the highly criticized redistricting efforts to skew Congressional seats in states like Texas to favor the GOP. Megadonors including Charles Munger Jr., who have supported conservative causes, has supported the fight against a converse effort in California that would see the GOP lose its foothold in the state.
In fact, policies which “lift all boats” are what made the United States the strongest economy in the world – 25% despite being only 5% of the population – the most innovative, the superpower. Think of all the talent and brainpower lost during centuries when women and Blacks were denied entry to education, professional licenses, fair housing, health care. The work of 150 years all undone in a matter of months by a wannabe dictator whose vision is not of a country where each has an equal opportunity to fulfill their full potential, but where the rich and well connected elite to exert power over the rest.
“It’s not illegal to invest in people, and never more necessary. Diversity , equity, inclusion are not illegal,” said Deputy Executive Director of the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law is Shaylyn Cochran.
Janet Murguía, President and CEO of UnidosUS, said, “We are marching for economic justice. Civil rights is economic justice… We can’t give in to naysayers who falsely claim changing demographics are bad – Black/Latinos are nearly 50 percent and more than half of population of those under 18. We are the future workers, customers. Spending power is the 3rd largest GDP in the world. Imagine how much more we could contribute to the US economy if we had equal opportunity. By 2030, 40% of all new mortgages will be by Blacks, Latinos and Asians. We can make choices with our spending power. Call out the tariffs, cuts to health care, education, the costly mass deportation that has hurt business and the economy.”
“We will not be erased,” declared Melanie Campbell , president/CEO, National Coalition on Black Civic Participation. “We will not go back. We built this country. We are America.”
Ben Crump, prominent attorney who has sought justice for victims of police brutality, declared, “Economic justice is civil rights… Financial freedom helps make all the other freedoms more than just a dream; economic justice makes all the other justices more than a dream; equal opportunity access to capital gives us a better chance at generational wealth.”
Maya Wiley, president and CEO of the Leadership Conference for Civil and Human Rights, countering the lie that DEI is responsible for hiring unqualified people into jobs, declared, “We are the qualified ones, the future of country. We know how to lead, how to create businesses. When people think they can get ahead by putting us down, when they say they are coming for DEI and accessibility, they are coming for us because we are the qualified ones, we lead, we built this country and won’t let anyone take it away.”
Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers, declared,, “We are saying to the billionaire class, to Wall Street, you need to be fairer, fight for all of us, not just yourselves – worker tax cut, health care, better jobs with better pay. We need to strengthen, not abandon public education, affordable college, affordable health care, social security. These are not radical ideas, this is what labor fought for in the 1960s.”
Newark NJ Mayor Ras J. Baraka pointed out that DEI policies aimed at leveling a playing field that had been tilted for centuries against people of color and women, was a better, more reasonable solution than demanding reparations for centuries “of slavery, decades for burning down communities and stealing housing. Every mayor should be standing up against the biggest transfer of wealth his history.” People working full time can’t afford child care, health care, decent housing.”
“Economic justice is a civil right,” stated Marc H. Morial, President and CEO of the National Urban League. “In 2025, say no to tariffs that make food, household goods more expensive, for the Big Bad Bill that shifts money to billionaires from cuts to Medicaid and food stamps so we are less healthy and more hungry. Say no to smear campaigns on black women, DEI… DEI is a bridge – it’s about growth, jobs, justice. Stand up against White Nationalism. Stand for DEI.”
Everett Kelley, National President of the American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE) who represents 820,000 employees, demanded Trump keep his “hands off our government” – the [illegal] mass firings and retaliation against employees who speak out. (My question: why aren’t people suing for defamation when they claim to fire thousands of people at a time for “poor performance” without evidence?)
Lee Saunders, president of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, AFL-CIO, with 1.4 million members, declared “government workers perform essential services and unions made workplaces safe, the economy fairer, democracy stronger.”
The lawsuit asserts that President Donald Trump illegally exceeded his authority in trying to unilaterally roll back a regulation that protects the rights of civil servants. Trump is trying to make it easier to fire career civil servants in order to appoint loyalists to do his bidding.
AFSCME President Lee Saunders called the Trump administration’s attacks against federal employees “a shameless attempt to politicize the federal workforce by replacing thousands of dedicated, qualified civil servants with political cronies..Our union was born in the fight for a professional, non-partisan civil service, and our communities will pay the price if these anti-union extremists are allowed to undo decades of progress by stripping these workers of their freedoms. Together, we are fighting back.”
He told the demonstrators, “62 years since March on Washington the promise of America is unfulfilled for too many. We are still fighting. If anyone can make good on that check it’s the billionaires on Wall Street,” he said, but Wall Street is compliant in the Trump administration’s ruthless in attack on workers. “Don’t separate civil rights from economic rights.”
More than compliant or even complicit, in actions that evoke China’s brand of “capitalism,” Trump has used extortion – threats of tariffs, bans on trade – to force companies like and Intel to actually give up a percentage of ownership control (10% of Intel) or revenue (15% of Nvidia chip sales to China), and ordering companies to fire their CEOs.
Pointing to the $2 trillion in black purchasing power, the millions of jobs they fill and goods and services they produce, Jennifer Jones Austin, Vice Chair of the Board of the National Action Network (NAN), sent a message to Wall Street in terms they would understand: “Roll over with Trump and risk your profit and returns. Only when all thrive, will business and the nation thrive.”
Arndrea Waters King, who is the wife of Martin Luther King III, said, “This is not a drill – democracy is on fire…. Truth is twisted, lies lifted up, power not to the people but to pursestring; we see erosion of voting rights.” Then she added, “Democracy may be on fire but we the people are the water, rise like a mighty flood and put out the flames of injustice for good.”
Martin Luther King IIII said, “62 years ago, my father on the steps of Lincoln Memorial shared a vision. But in 1963, the check from Treasury for health care, education, came back as ‘insufficient funds.’ Keep moving forward and some day, will realize the dream of Martin Luther King Jr.”
Rev. Al Sharpton, said, “Wall Street, you benefit from Trump, but your benefit days are over…Trump, get ready for the fight of your life. We won’t let you end our democracy for your autocracy.”
Estimates of more than 2,000 turned out in the rain for the No Kings rally and march at Nassau County Courthouse on June 14 – just one of several No Kings protests on Long Island.
Long Island’s protests were among the 2,100 taking place in all 50 states and the world that collectively drew an estimated 5 million in response to the authoritarian excesses and corruption of the Trump administration and rejecting Trump’s attacks on democracy and the Rule of Law, for one of the largest single days of protest since the 2017 women’s marches in Trump’s first term.
“The power of the presidency has been used to attack universities, the arts, political adversaries and the very fabric of our democracy,” wrote the organizers, Show Up LI, Engage LI, Long Island Network for Change. “It has been used to terrorize our immigrant communities and disappear them off the streets. It has been used to decimate the ranks of our federal employees who keep us safe, oversee our social security checks, care for our veterans, develop cancer treatments, monitor severe weather, attend to disasters and maintain our national parks. Disastrous cuts to the services and healthcare hard-working and vulnerable Americans rely on are on the horizon. The painful ramifications of these senseless cuts are being felt across the country while enriching a cabinet of billionaires and their allies.”
The No Kings protests were a counterpoint to Trump’s $45 million military parade, ostensibly to mark the formation of the U.S. Army on June 14, 1775 by the Continental Congress, to stand up against Britain’s monarch who claimed absolute power over the colonists, but actually for his own glory on his 79th birthday. Trump had been mooning over such a display – extraordinary in American history and more typical of tyrants and dictators – since his first term, when more patriotic advisers than surround him this time talked him out of it. The $45 million boondoggle is also a harsh contradiction to the millions of dollars cut from veterans benefits, health care, education, research, climate action, foreign aid, and administration of such critical programs as Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid in order to fund billions more in tax cuts for the richest 1% and corporations.
“So on June 14th 2025, we come together to say NO KINGS in America. We say no to the cruelty and the chaos. Our country belongs to the American people and we will peacefully stand up to authoritarianism and defend our democracy.”
Speakers included Lieutenant Governor Antonio Delgado, NYS Deputy Speaker Assemblyman Phil Ramos, and NYS Assemblyman Chuck Lavine.
NYS Assemblyman Chuck Lavine began his remarks by mourning the political assassination of Minnesota State Representative Melissa Hortman and her husband, and the critical wounding of Rep. John Hoffman and his wife – an event which prompted U.S. Senator Mike Lee to tweet “This is what happens When Marxists don’t get their way,” when Speaker Mike Johnson called for U.S. Senator Alex Padilla to be censored for daring to ask DHS Secretary Kristy Noem a question during a press conference, at which point he was thrown to the ground and handcuffed, and while in Los Angeles, law enforcement continued to provoke encounters with otherwise peaceful protesters, no doubt to give Trump an excuse to invoke the Insurrection Act and declare martial law. Raising the danger to our democracy, Lavine could also have quoted Noem who stated about the provocations in Los Angeles, “We are staying here to liberate this city from the socialist & burdensome leadership that this governor & this mayor have placed into this city” and just a couple of days before, U.S. Senator Padilla was thrown to the ground and handcuffed merely for trying to ask Homeland Security Sec Kristy Noem a question at a press conference.
It was a reminder that since Trump first entered the political scene 10 years ago down a gilded staircase, he used bigotry, sexism, xenophobia, scapegoated, stoked hatred and violence and basically gave permission for those to act on the grievances he created. And record numbers of threats and assaults have occurred as a result, including the January 6 2021 insurrection intended to keep Trump in office. (Notably, Trump pardoned 1,500 of the insurrectionists on his first day, and has weaponized the Justice department against the prosecutors and scores of his declared enemies and politicized the military.)
“You are not fair-weather sailors,” Lavine said as people stood steadfast as rain poured down. “We are here because we care, and if you care about the future of American democracy — you join us.”
Deputy Speaker Phil Ramos denounced the Trump administration’s escalating attacks on immigrant communities and railed against Trump’s $45 million military parade. “While mothers in Brentwood are praying that their children make it home safely, while ICE agents tear fathers from their families without warrants, Donald Trump is having a birthday party — let that sink in,” Ramos said.
Ramos’ impassioned remarks echoed his previously issued a statement after the militarism in Los Angeles and ICE raids in Long Island “America-and the world-witnessed what we have long feared: the unchecked abuse of presidential power unleashed against communities of color. Families are being torn apart. People are being taken without explanation, without warrants, and far too often, without due process. What remains is a trail of fear, heartbreak, and outrage….The painful truth is we can no longer trust this administration to uphold the law, respect the courts, or honor basic human dignity….
“In Los Angeles and here on Long Island, people are marching in defense of their families, their dignity, and their right to live without fear. They are standing against an authoritarian tide gaining strength each day. And when masked officers descend on our neighborhoods, abducting loved ones and escalating tensions with military force, we must ask: what choice do the people have but to resists?
“The tools of authoritarianism are in full effect. While 1% of the population hoards 99% of the nation’s wealthy, they poison our drinking water, erode our democracy, and drive the cost of living to unbearable heights. They gut our healthcare system and dismantle the foundations of everyday life. And yet, President Trump wants us to believe the blame lies not with the powerful but with the people who build our cities, harvest our food, mow our lawns, wash our dishes and hold this country together through honest, back-breaking work…
“We cannot fall for these cruel, calculated lies. We must reject this propaganda and speak the truth: immigrants are not the problem, they are part of the solution.
“The people are demanding an end to these raids. They are demanding justice. Many are prepared to risk their own safety to protect their families because for them, this is a should understand that. We must support peaceful protest, and wemust demand an end to this campaign of fear.
“We are at a turning point in our nation’s history. We must condemn the use of ICE and the National Guard as political tools deployed by a president who thrives on hate, division and fear, and who undermines constitutional rights and human dignity for political gain. This is not leadership. This is cruelty disguised as policy…
“I call on all freedom-loving people-Democrats and Republicans, Black, White, Latino, Asian – to stand in solidarity with our immigrant communities. History has taught us a painful lesson… We cannot-we must not – turn our backs on those now suffering these fascist assaults.”
Lt. Gov. Antonio Delgado said, “No one is above the law” and every person is entitled to “equal protection under law. Without the Rule of Law, the most vulnerable would be trampled, the mighty would take what they want. But that’s not America. Democracy is based on a moral idea that all are created equal. If we lose sight of that moral essence, we will crumble. In New York, we are diversity, we are inclusion, we are tolerance. We are the essence of what it means to be American, what it means to be human.”
Rachel Klein, founder of Engage Long Island and an organizer of the rally, said immigration raids across the country has stoked fear, even on Long Island. “There are people in Brentwood and Westbury and Huntington Station and Glen Cove who are afraid to leave their homes right now,” she said. “We can’t function as a society like this.”
Other No Kings protests were held in Port Washington, which drew hundreds; outside Heckscher Park in Huntington, where Newsday reported 2,000; Patchogue, where Newsday estimated 2,000 demonstrated outside the local office of Rep. Andrew Garbarino (R-Bayport), Riverhead, Orient, East Hampton, Hampton Bays and Southampton.
Rain did not deter the well over 50,000 New Yorkers from coming out for the “No Kings Protest” – just one of the more than 2100 protests taking place in all 50 states and around the world that drew an estimated 5 million, in one of the largest single day protests since 2017’s Women’s March against Trump and Trumpism.
They gathered as the target of their ire, the man who would be king, Donald Trump, watched his long-dreamed military parade march passed his viewing stand in Washington DC, a $45 million vanity show ostensibly to honor the 250th anniversary of the U.S. Army that coincided with his 79th birthday.
June 14th is also Flag Day, and the protesters felt it appropriate to assert their rights and freedoms the flag is supposed to represent and that so many died defending.
Among the coordinators of the New York City No Kings Protest were Indivisible, Moveon, 50501, NYCLU, and Womens March.
“They’ve defied our courts, deported Americans, disappeared people off the streets, attacked our civil rights, and slashed our services. The corruption has gone too. far. No thrones. No crowns. No kings.” Wrote Indivisible
Womens March chose to adopt the theme of Trump as a Clown: “When authoritarianism shows its face, we don’t cower. We shine light—and sometimes that light is a spotlight on smeared-on orange makeup. Ridicule isn’t trivial; it’s courageous. And right now, that courage might be the best weapon we have.”
There was music. There was a bit of dancing. There were humorous digs at the wannabe dictator (a theme advocated by Womens March). And most of all, a sense of unity, camaraderie, and community in the shared desire to reclaim democracy, decency, governance by Rule of Law, and the values of equality that this country was founded upon and still striving toward.
Notable to me were the number of people in wheelchairs who nonetheless marched in the rain, but also the extraordinary kindness shown by New Yorkers crammed together on the city streets.
Though planned weeks ago, the protests that swept the nation took on an added commitment and determination after the actions of the Trump administration in defying court orders and Constitution’s due process protections in violently rounding up migrants, even those with legal status and US citizen spouses and children, for deportation, branding them all as worst of the worst criminals and gangmembers, the DOGE cuts to public services, the attacks on academic freedom, the politicization of the military, the political assault on Democrats, judges and anyone else who Trump doesn’t like, as he pardons actual criminals and terrorists and dismisses investigations and prosecutions against his friends, allies and donors, the weaponization of his law enforcement, the breaking of alliances, the derailment of the economy with his unhinged tariff policies, and general descent into fascism, oligarchy and kleptocracy.
Add to the list the attacks on free speech, free press, taking money from foreign interests and felons for pardons and policies, overt violations of laws including using the active military for domestic law enforcement, instituting tariffs and rescinding funding which are powers of Congress, not the president, attempting to overturn voting rights and birthright citizenship prescribed by the Constitution with the stroke of a Sharpie.
All of these issues were manifest in the banners, posters, hand-drawn signs that got soaked in the rain. But no one seemed to care.
The gathering on June 14th took on even more significance as Trump and his administration’s violent rhetoric (Kristy Noem stating “We are staying here to liberate this city from the socialist & burdensome leadership that this governor & this mayor have placed into this city”) was followed by the political assassination of a Minnesota Democratic state representative Melissa Hortman and her husband, and the critical wounding of Rep. John Hoffman and his wife (effectively changing a tied legislature with shared control into a Republican majority) while in Los Angeles, law enforcement continued to provoke encounters with otherwise peaceful protesters, and just a couple of days before, U.S. Senator Padilla was thrown to the ground and handcuffed merely for trying to ask Homeland Security Sec Kristy Noem a question at a press conference.
No Kings Day proved to be one of the largest days of protest in American history, with some 5 million taking part in some 2,100 cities and towns across all 50 states and several foreign countries (Indivisible.org)
No Kings Day proved to be one of the largest days of protest in American history, with some 5 million taking part in some 2,100 cities and towns across all 50 states and several foreign countries. “From deep red small towns to our largest cities, millions of people turned out to make clear that the American people will not bow to fascism,” Indivisible stated. “It is a frightening time in our history. But in spite of that reality — or rather, in response to that reality — over five million people here in the US, along with allies in cities from London to Tokyo, stood united today in the belief that democracy is worth fighting for.”
While the protesters were all peaceful, even joyful, Minnesota Governor Tim Walz pleaded that the planned No Kings protests not be held in light of the gunman, who had a kill list and “No Kings” flyers in his car, still being on the loose, and there was an incident of shots causing a panic in Salt Lake City. And Indivisible discouraged an official “No Kings” protest in Washington DC, amid Trump’s threats to stamp out dissent with force, though some smaller ones did take place.
“Trump has made no secret of his willingness to use force to crush dissent. He’s got tanks rolling through DC and marines in Los Angeles where we’ve all seen (and continue to see) police respond aggressively to peaceful protests.”
Also, Trump has made no secret he is salivating over the prospect of invoking the Insurrection Act, declaring martial law, to unleash military force throughout the country (that is, in cities, towns and states run by Democrats). In his first term, he wondered why his soldiers couldn’t just shoot protesters, but while his Defense Secretary and generals at the time discouraged him, this Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, equally violent and fascist, would likely greenlight whatever he was told.
But, as Indivisible wrote, “a massive, nationwide mobilization like today can change the narrative, grow our movement, build our organizing muscles, and deliver a jolt of courage — something much needed after Trump’s recent attempts to quash dissent with violence. But a single day of protest — even historically large protests like today — will not alone defeat the fascist takeover of our government. We need to ensure that the incredible organizing and inspiring courage of today’s protests continue to spread. We need to do the hard work of organizing those who turned out today and those who were watching into a sustained, broad-based movement that’s prepared for the hard work that comes ahead.”
Womens March is already planning the next action, most likely July 4th Free America action—rallies, BBQs, marches, art builds, community block parties, and more to celebrate real freedom.
Here are highlights from New York City’s No Kings Protest:
The 6,000 May Day protesters gathered at Foley Square in front of the Federal Courthouse and surrounded by federal buildings, were fired up by the surprise appearance of Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez who had raced from an airport to give her energy to the labor movement amidst the unprecedented crackdown of civil and workers rights by the Trump Administration.
AOC called on them to keep the pressure on the MAGA Republican lawmakers, who have ceded their co-equal power to the dictator wannabe rather than face his ire or a primary challenge. The protests – collectively the largest in history -through the first 100 days of Trump’s presidency, have not been futile exercises. Just that day, Republicans pulled a vote to slash Medicaid by an unprecedented $888 billion. “They have stopped and suspended next week’s Medicaid cuts because they’re getting too scared,” Ocasio-Cortez said. “They see you, New York, they see the gathering.”
She urged continued vigilance, warning that they will vote again in the dead of night when they think no one is watching.
She energized the crowd, declaring that the Trump administration is much more prepared and planned this time around in terms of the kinds of chaos that they’re trying to unleash. More than legal programs, more than policy, they are trying to invokefear.
“That is how authoritarianism works. These are the tools to get us to sacrifice and surrender our civil liberties, more than they take them.” Indeed, Trump pardoned virtually all the January 6th insurrectionists, including those who had threatened her life. “I’m not going to give them my fear,” she has told supporters. “They’re relying on us giving up. Hell no.”
We’re going to keep standing with trans people. We’re going to keep standing with the LGBT community. We’re going to keep standing for the working class. We’re going to keep fighting for a better minimum wage. We’re going to keep fighting to guarantee healthcare.
The issues that have dominated the anti-Trump protests that have been virtually constant were present here too – Hands Off public education with huge contingents of protesters from colleges and teachers unions and immigrant rights.
And typical of May Day protests were the demands by workers, but the Tax the Rich and Down with Billionaires themes more vitriolic and urgent. You get the feeling that if Trump is not stopped in his march toward authoritarianism, there will be an equally strong backlash. One cannot but think that Trump is hoping for these protests to get even more animated and violent, so he can declare martial law under the Insurrection Act and snuff out the last vestige of opposition, after decimating the judicial system, the Congress, a free press (he just signed an order canceling federal spending for NPR and PBS).
The May Day protest, an annual rite in New York City, featured the city’s labor unions, students and educators, a huge contingent of pro-Palestinian protesters, and were joined by those standing against encroachment of power, rise of autocracy and Fascism, and standing up for due process, democracy, public education, healthcare, immigrant rights, social security and Medicaid and healthcare.
Many protesters exclaimed support for immigrants, for students whose visas were cancelled and arrested for exercising free speech, and for Khalil Abrego Garcia specifically, wrongly deported to an El Salvador gulag without due process, as the face of a victim of a tyranny.
Veronica Salama, the New York Civil Liberties Union staff attorney who is part of the legal team representing Palestinian activist Mahmoud Khalil, condemned Trump for separating Khalil from his family and said Khalil’s arrest violated the first amendment.
The protesters marched down Broadway, ending at the Charging Bull, the iconic image of Wall Street, to emphasize the message on many of the signs: Send Billionaires to Mars, Tax the Rich, Fight Fascism.
New York City’s May Day protest was one of more than 1000 in more than 800 cities and towns across the country, and the second that day at Foley Square (some 3,000 lawyers came out in front of the federal court during Law Day, an annual affirmation of the Rule of Law), plus several others around the city, organized and promoted by multiple organizations. They have realized that only through solidarity can they fulfill their individual goals. The overarching message: “Together we win.”
Hallie Brenner Perles, co-leader of Show Up Long Island and an organizer of the Long Island protest, stated, “Authoritarians like Trump and Musk want to divide us and to appeal to the smallest, cruelest, and most selfish impulses of humanity. That’s the only way they can win. But we still live in a democracy. And right now we can choose to care, to stand up for each other, to seek truth and facts over lies, to know that an attack on any groups’ human rights is an attack on all. We can choose empathy and the courage to acknowledge these are not normal times so we won’t pretend that they are. We will continue to nonviolently protest all that is wrong with this administration as heroes have done before us. Then some day books will be written that tell our story: that when our country, our children and the world needed us, so many Americans in all 50 states stood together on the right side of history. “
“This was by far the largest, most widespread May Day action in the history of our country,” MayDayStrong.org reported. “The billionaires are waging a war on working people—and on May Day, international workers’ day, hundreds of thousands of us stood together and stood strong, fighting for public schools over private profits, healthcare over hedge funds, shared prosperity over free market politics. Working people built this nation and we know how to take care of each other. We won’t back down—we will never stop fighting for our families and the rights and freedoms that ensure access to opportunity and a better life for all Americans. Their time is up.”
Numerous protests are upcoming with another national day of protest slated for June 14th organized by 50501.org: They are looking to “amass in spectacular numbers for the “Anti-Regime Day of Protest” and counter the massive (6600 soldiers! 150 vehicles, 50 helicopters! 2,000 civilians!) and massively expensive ($92 million!) military parade Trump, in true dictator fashion, is organizing for his 79th birthday, even as he orders cuts to Medicaid resulting in hospitals laying off healthcare workers.
At its protest in suburban Long Island, Hallie Brenner Perles, co-leader Show Up Long Island, declared, “Authoritarians like Trump and Musk want to divide us and to appeal to the smallest, cruelest, and most selfish impulses of humanity. That’s the only way they can win. But we still live in a democracy. And right now we can choose to care, to stand up for each other, to seek truth and facts over lies, to know that an attack on any groups’ human rights is an attack on all. We can choose empathy and the courage to acknowledge these are not normal times so we won’t pretend that they are. We will continue to nonviolently protest all that is wrong with this administration as heroes have done before us. Then some day books will be written that tell our story: that when our country, our children and the world needed us , so many Americans in all 50 states stood together on the right side of history.”
Let the protesters speak for themselves. Here are highlights from the New York City May Day protest:
Governor Kathy Hochul today outlined the turmoil created under President Trump’s first 100 days in office, warning that his administration’s retaliatory policies, deep federal cuts and unilateral tariffs are poised to negatively impact New York’s economy, the environment and hard working families. Last week, New York State joined a multi-state lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of President Trump’s global tariffs. According to independent estimates, Trump’s tariffs will cost the State’s economy more than $7 billion, result in more than 280,000 jobs lost and hit New York families with an average cost increase of $6,400. New York has also led the fight to protect federal funding from cuts and disruptions that are impacting more than $1.3 billion in federal funding for New York and has successfully challenged in court the Trump Administration’s global funding freeze, as well as cuts to the National Institutes of Health, the Department of Health and Human Services, the Federal Emergency Management Agency and other critical federal agencies.
“The first 100 days of the Trump Administration have been rife with chaos and uncertainty, from on-again, off-again tariffs to cuts to vital programs, New Yorkers are paying the price,” Governor Hochul said. “President Trump promised relief from inflation and his policies are making life harder, chaotic and more expensive for working class New Yorkers while slashing the very services they rely on.”
Implications for New Yorkers during President Trump’s First 100 Days Include:
More than $1.3 billion in cuts to funding for State programs so far with more expected, in addition to the funding cuts to local governments, universities and other organizations delivering critical services to New Yorkers
Massive fluctuation in the stock market from ever changing tariff policies has shrunk 401(k)s and 529 college savings plans, and is expected to increase cost of living for New Yorkers by thousands of dollars
Manufacturers and small businesses are reeling from severe cost hikes on some products due to tariffs, leading them to leave shipments in customs or cancel orders
Canadian and European travel to New York has dropped and hotel stays and trips in regions such as the North Country and Western New York have been cancelled
The pause of construction of Empire Wind, which will have a profound impact on jobs and energy production
Cutting millions in funding that allows school districts and food banks to buy produce from local farmers who rely on their purchases
Three Social Security Administration offices closed in New York
Eliminated every person in the office that manages a program helping over 1 million New Yorkers pay their heating and cooling bills
Cuts to the NIH paused the critical research of a New York Scientist on Alzheimer’s treatments
Cut over $300 million in infrastructure funding for New York communities, threatening our public safety
Cutting the majority of federal AmeriCorps funding in New York, which supports approximately 1,500 AmeriCorps members working for non-profits and in low-income communities across the State
PUBLIC SAFETY AND IMMIGRATION
The Trump administration has revoked more than $325 million in vital resiliency funding from the Building Resilient Infrastructure and Communities program and put $56 million more at risk, which will impact several critical infrastructure and community resilience projects in New York State.
Additionally, DOGE is planning to cut up to 84 percent of staff from their Office of Community Planning and Development, which helps pay to rebuild homes and other recovery efforts after the country’s worst disasters such as Superstorm Sandy and Tropical Storms Lee and Irene.
The Albany National Weather Service (NWS) Office was forced to suspend weather balloon launches due to staff shortages and budget constraints. This has impacted the ability of the NWS to provide twice-daily balloon launches, impacting the accuracy of weather forecasts.
After Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detained a Sackets Harbor mom and her children, Governor Hochul took action, engaging with the White House, Border Czar Tom Homan and local officials in an effort to bring the family back home. After 11 days in detention, the family was returned to Sackets Harbor.
ECONOMY AND TOURISM
The stock market has been unstable due to President Trump’s on-again, off-again tariff policy. This has caused retirees’ 401(k)s and students’ 529 savings plans to shrink. Additionally, consumer confidence plunged, to 50.8 percent in April from 71.7 percent in January. The dollar has weakened, falling to a three month low in April.
The Governor has heard from small and mid-sized businesses across the State who are worried about rising costs and their future. A recent survey from the National Small Business Association found that the majority of small businesses are concerned about tariffs and one in three are very concerned. Examples include North Country manufacturer Alcoa, which took an estimated $20 million hit on imports from Canada, and North Country Golf Club which is facing declines in businesses due to the decline in tourism from Canada. In the Southern Tier, the Cortland Standard, which was in business for more than a century, has closed its doors, citing the expected 25 percent tariffs on paper as part of the decision.
The Trump administration is cancelling the successful Manufacturers Extension Partnership (MEP) in several states. In New York, NY MEP centers generated $1.25 billion in economic impact, supported the creation or retention of nearly 6,300 jobs and served over 700 companies during the 2023 calendar year. This decision has raised widespread concern across the entire national network of MEP Centers, prompting fears about whether these initial cancellations are the first step in a broader effort to dismantle the program and eliminate federal funding for all 51 centers.
Due to the tariff trade war with Canada, New York’s number one trade partner, and the rhetoric that Canada could be the “51st state,” impacts are widespread. Visitors from Canada are avoiding the U.S. and New York State. Overall, total bridge crossings between Eastern Ontario and New York State for March are down 23,000 compared to 2024, and at the lowest level since 2022. Additionally, Niagara River bridges traffic for February is down 14 percent and Thousand Islands Bridge crossings are down 19 percent.
A survey of local businesses in the North Country found that 66 percent have already experienced a slight to significant decrease in Canadian bookings for 2025, and that 26 percent have already adjusted staffing levels in response to the decline.
TRANSPORTATION
President Trump’s Department of Transportation vowed to kill congestion pricing from day one of his administration, despite clear evidence that the program is working. The MTA reported that in March, traffic is down 13 percent, travel times have improved in key corridors within the Central Business District and it has increased revenue for the MTA that will result in improvements in the system.
IMPACTS ON HARD WORKING FAMILIES
President Trump has reduced the federal workforce by more than 120,000 people nationwide according to data compiled from CNN. In New York more than 1,200 federal workers have been forced to file for unemployment.
The Trump administration has pledged to cancel the successful and free Direct File tax filing program. This program has already begun to make an impact in its first full year, with many New Yorkers saving nearly $300 per household in tax prep fees that could instead go toward groceries, gas, child care or rent.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture slashed hundreds of millions of dollars in funding that helped schools buy food from local farms. The program sought to bring local produce to schools and child care facilities, giving schools the opportunities to purchase fresh foods and use smaller producers rather than rely on large corporations.
The Trump Administration announced that half of all food shipments through The Emergency Food Assistance Program (TEFAP) would be canceled, resulting in a $500 million reduction in funding for food banks across the country. New York State could see a loss of around 16 million pounds of USDA foods in 2025 due to the TEFAP funding cuts, according to Feeding New York State.
SSA field offices are closing, wait times for deserving seniors are increasing and sensitive and private personal data is in danger of being insecure.
ENERGY
The Trump Administration stopped construction on Empire Wind, putting thousands of construction jobs at risk and threatening to dismantle a project that when complete, will generate enough electricity to power about 500,000 homes in New York State.
Funding has been suspended for the National Electric Vehicle Infrastructure (NEVI) Formula Funds. The NEVI program — passed as part of the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law — provides funding directly to states for installing public electric vehicle (EV) charging stations, which, if implemented, will lower fuel costs for families, reduce U.S. dependence on fossil fuels and create construction jobs nationwide.
President Trump has also threatened to roll back the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) and repeal its tax credits. NYSERDA estimates a full repeal of the clean energy incentives could result in more than $20 billion in increased project costs and could cause significant project attrition.
HOUSING
At the direction of President Trump and DOGE, HUD staff has been decimated, imperiling the core functions of the agency that serve our communities, manage federally funded housing programs and assist housing development at a time of national crisis for housing. Funding has also been cut for organizations that fight housing discrimination across the country, while rolling back federal protections to Affirmatively Further Fair Housing.
HUD has further announced it was ending four years early the Emergency Housing Voucher Program, a successful federal program to combat homelessness for more than 9,500 households across the State. The federal administration imperiling this funding will force these families, at last stably housed, back onto the street.
The $1 billion Green and Resilient Retrofit Program that helps preserve affordable housing is being paused, threatening projects that keep tens of thousands of units livable for low-income Americans.
HEALTH CARE
The actions of the current administration threaten the health and safety of New Yorkers. New York State remains steadfast in its commitment to safeguarding the health and well-being of all New Yorkers and promoting health equity.
President Trump has endorsed the House’s budget resolution which includes over $1 trillion in cuts to critical safety net programs like Medicaid and SNAP. Nearly 7 million qualifying New Yorkers are covered under Medicaid, including 2.5 million children, and 636,000 New Yorkers with disabilities. 2.9 million New Yorkers rely on SNAP for healthy food, including over 800,000 children.
The Trump administration’s National Institute of Health (NIH) has cut grant funding to SUNY used to conduct research to cure diseases, keep our nation safe and grow our economy. The NIH’s sudden budget cuts will cost SUNY research an estimated $79 million on current grants, including more than $21 million over just the next five months that will immediately imperil the work of SUNY’s dedicated researchers by decimating the equipment, staff and services they rely on.
The Trump Administration picked a top health official who has questioned the safety of vaccines and the use of fluoride in drinking water and claimed that autism was preventable. These views go against proven science and could lead to more diseases by making people doubt public health advice.
The Administration has taken back important public health funding. This includes money for tracking disease, supporting vaccinations and helping vulnerable communities hit hardest by the pandemic. Without this funding, local health services must cut staff and scale back programs, especially in areas that need the most help.
Hundreds of federal health workers have lost jobs, making it harder for both the federal government and states like New York to respond to health threats and deliver services like maternal care and disease control.
New executive orders have removed federal support for diversity, equity and inclusion programs, harming efforts to ensure fair health care for women, LGBTQ+ people and communities of color. These actions affirm that the needs of these communities no longer matter to the federal government.
In addition, with massive arbitrary cuts to federal agencies, the future of federal programs to help combat substance use disorder, heating and cooling assistance for low-income New Yorkers, and early childhood investment programs like Head Start remain in jeopardy.
New York State remains committed to ensuring all New Yorkers have access to affordable, quality health care. Accordingly, the State rejects thinly veiled attacks on anyone who may not comport with the Trump Administration’s limited views of who is a person.
EDUCATION
President Trump vowed to eliminate the Department of Education, a crucial part of the federal government that supports kids, teachers and administrators right here in New York State. New York receives $5.5 billion annually from the Department of Education. Approximately $3.2 billion is routed through the State Budget and $2.3 billion is sent directly to local entities, primarily colleges and universities. This crucial funding supports Pell Grants for college students, money for kids with disabilities, programs that are supporting kids’ mental health, crucial research at our public higher education institutions and much more
ENVIRONMENT & AGRICULTURE
The Trump administration has taken aim through Executive Order at dismantling New York State’s strong environmental protections.
Additionally, funding for the Local Food Purchasing Assistance Program has been slashed. While the Biden administration had indicated that $24 million would be available under the LFPA program (New York Food for New York Families), the Trump administration (USDA) has reversed and this next round of funding will no longer be available.
More recently, New York State’s $60 million award for the New York Connects: Climate Smart Farms and Forests Program, which funds climate smart agriculture and forestry practices, was cancelled by USDA.
USDA staff that assist farmers with implementing conservation programs, loans and other resources for their farms, have been laid off.
Over 80 percent of agrochemical imports and 70 percent of farm machinery imports come from countries facing tariffs of 10 percent or more. Tariffs may slow down or halt on-farm expansion and modernization due to projected increases in equipment costs, with much of the stainless steel coming from abroad.
Trade issues are having a compounding effect for dairy farmers — input costs are going up and the milk price relies on export markets. Tariffs and threats of trade disputes result in lost markets and lower milk prices. For example, the budget for a building project went from $85,000 to $106,000, due to tariffs on steel and aluminum, one farm had a $2,200 fee added to their bill for grain because it came from a Canadian feed mill and another farm is anticipating their bottom line to be 7-10 percent lower this year due to lower milk prices and tariffs on inputs, including feed, energy and building supplies.
The ability of West Coast apple producers to export their product will play a key role in the price and demand for New York apples. If West Coast producers are not able to expand overseas markets, they will continue to flood East Coast markets and displace New York State fresh apples where they can undercut prices.
Tariffs placed on equipment, largely coming from Canada, would increase producers’ costs of maple syrup production significantly and negatively impact profitability in the maple industry.
Governor Kathy Hochul and New York Attorney General Letitia James today announced that New York State and a coalition of 11 other states are suing the Trump administration for illegally imposing unprecedented tax hikes on Americans in the form of tariffs issued under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA). The Trump administration’s IEEPA tariffs raise taxes on imports from nearly every country on Earth, including America’s closest allies and trading partners, and they have already caused severe economic damage. The lawsuit, filed by Attorney General James and a coalition of attorneys general, argues that Congress has not granted the president the authority to impose these tariffs and therefore the administration violated the law by imposing them through executive orders, social media posts, and agency orders. The coalition seeks a court order halting these IEEPA tariffs, including the worldwide tariffs that were paused on April 9, and preventing the Trump administration from enforcing or implementing them.
“President Trump’s reckless tariffs have skyrocketed costs for consumers and unleashed economic chaos across the country. New York is standing up to fight back against the largest federal tax hike in American history,” Governor Hochul said. “Attorney General James and I are partnering on this litigation on behalf of New York consumers, because we can’t let President Trump push our country into a recession.”
New York State Attorney General Letitia James said,“The president does not have the power to raise taxes on a whim, but that’s exactly what President Trump has been doing with these tariffs. Donald Trump promised that he would lower prices and ease the cost of living, but these illegal tariffs will have the exact opposite effect on American families. His tariffs are unlawful and if not stopped, they will lead to more inflation, unemployment, and economic damage.”
Since February, President Trump has been unilaterally imposing sweeping tariffs against America’s closest trading partners. These tariffs expanded in a series of announcements in April to now cover nearly every country worldwide, including places that are not involved in international trade, such as the Heard and McDonald Islands, which have no known human inhabitants.
In addition to the severe economic damage that President Trump’s tariffs have already caused, the coalition warns they could cause even more destruction if allowed to continue. The lawsuit argues the IEEPA tariffs will increase unemployment, raise inflation, and threaten Americans’ wages by slowing economic growth. The president’s tariffs will harm the states and their residents by making important goods ranging from electronics to building materials more expensive and scarce.
These costs will severely impact New Yorkers. Economists estimate the increased tariffs will cost the average family thousands of dollars per year, and a report from the New York City Comptroller estimated that even a mild recession caused by the tariffs would lead to over 35,000 lost jobs in New York City alone. New York state agencies could end up paying over $100 million in extra costs due to tariffs increasing prices. Retaliatory tariffs imposed by Canada on the hundreds of millions of dollars in electricity that New York imports every year would cause New Yorkers’ energy bills to spike. Across the state, small businesses that rely on imports are already reeling from the threat of higher prices and uncertainty caused by the administration’s policies. In Central New York, the Cortland Standard, one of the oldest family-owned newspapers in the country, announced it would cease publication in part due to an expected tariff on newsprint.
The lawsuit, filed in the United States Court of International Trade, asserts that President Trump has no authority to impose tariffs as he has. While the president has declared emergencies and invoked IEEPA to justify these tariffs, not once has any other president used IEEPA to impose tariffs like this in the five decades since it became law. As the coalition argues in the lawsuit, the law was not designed to allow the president to unilaterally impose worldwide tariffs indiscriminately. In addition, the coalition argues that the Trump administration has overstepped its authority and violated the Constitution and the Administrative Procedure Act by imposing these tariffs.
With this lawsuit, the coalition is seeking a court order declaring the Trump administration’s IEEPA tariff orders to be in violation of the law and ordering the administration to stop implementing or enforcing these tariffs.
Joining Attorney General James in filing this lawsuit are the attorneys general of Arizona, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Illinois, Maine, Minnesota, Nevada, New Mexico, Oregon, and Vermont. (California filed its own lawsuit against the Trump Administration.)
Governor Hochul has been in contact with federal leaders regarding the devastating effects tariffs will have on New York’s residents, businesses and our economy. The Governor has consulted with federal partners, economists and heard from business owners, trade groups, agribusiness and other stakeholders on the hardships tariffs will have on New York State.
Some 20,000 turned out in New York City with little notice only two weeks after the gigantic nationwide “Hands Off” protest on April 5 which drew some 3 million people nationwide – way more than anticipated considering that 100,000 flooded Manhattan streets only two weeks ago.
“No Kings”. March to Protect Migrants and the Planet, NYC, April 19, 2025, organized by 50501ny.org (c) Karen Rubin/news-photos-features.com
This protest, organized by 50501 NY, was themed a “March to Protect Migrants and the Planet” and while these were the most prevalent among the signs and the marchers, even more were the signs protesting against encroaching tyranny, fascism, the need to protect democracy, due process, free speech, and calls to Resist, Rebel, “Revolution 2.0” along with signs protesting for women’s rights, Hands Off Social Security, Medicare, healthcare, protect science, protect truth, against tariffs (the penguins were back)
“It’s the Constitution Stupid” and “Make Corruption Wrong Again”
“It’s the Constitution, Stupid”. March to Protect Migrants and the Planet, NYC, April 19, 2025, organized by 50501ny.org (c) Karen Rubin/news-photos-features.com
This event took place on the 250th anniversary of Pau Revere’s Midnight Ride – a woman held a sign “250 years ago-and today- let the warning ride forth once more: Tyranny is at our door.”
“250 Years Ago-And Today.” March to Protect Migrants and the Planet, NYC, April 19, 2025, organized by 50501ny.org (c) Karen Rubin/news-photos-features.com
Others drew parallels: “No Kings. Not in 1775. Not in 2025.”
“No Kings in America.” March to Protect Migrants and the Planet, NYC, April 19, 2025, organized by 50501ny.org (c) Karen Rubin/news-photos-features.com
(April 19 is also the anniversary of the Oklahoma City bombing, and the WACO – two of the worst incidents of domestic terrorism.)
The line of marchers stretched a mile, taking over 42nd Street from Fifth to Madison, and then Madison Avenue up to 57 street, and Fifth Avenue into Central Park where the march ended.
“Mein Trumpf”. March to Protect Migrants and the Planet, NYC, April 19, 2025, organized by 50501ny.org (c) Karen Rubin/news-photos-features.com
There were people of all ages, people using walkers, wheelchairs, fearful of losing Social Security or Medicare; families with young children, afraid for the future of the planet, let alone the economy – an indication of the extent of the harms – basically to every constituency except his billionaire and corporate donors – Trump, Musk, DOGE and MAGA have inflicted in less than 100 days in office.
“Wanted! Crimes Against Democracy.” March to Protect Migrants and the Planet, NYC, April 19, 2025, organized by 50501ny.org (c) Karen Rubin/news-photos-features.com
The fear and anxiety over Trump rapidly imposing a fascist autocracy is not unwarranted – it took Hitler only 53 days to replace Germany’s constitutional democracy with his Nazi dictatorship and only 10 years between his inauguration to the Final Solution in which he exterminated 6 million Jews and millions of others and sunk the world into war. Trump has been in office 89 days, but between his ignoring court orders, deporting individuals to foreign gulags without due process, snatching people from the street, attacking judges, journalists, law firms and academia, many drew the parallels to genocidal autocrats of the past.
“Fight Ignorance. Not Immigrants.” March to Protect Migrants and the Planet, NYC, April 19, 2025, organized by 50501ny.org (c) Karen Rubin/news-photos-features.com
Though smaller in number than two weeks ago, these chanters were more angry and not above using profanity in chants and on signs. People are pissed.
“First it’s immigrants, then…” March to Protect Migrants and the Planet, NYC, April 19, 2025, organized by 50501ny.org (c) Karen Rubin/news-photos-features.com
The April 19 protests nationwide were organized by the 50501 Movement, a grassroots initiative. Some 700 protests were planned, to “sustain resistance in order to make a difference” and keep the momentum of the massively successful April 5 “Hands Off” protests that by some estimates drew 5 million across the U.S.
Here are more photo highlights:
Indivisible Brooklyn “fabulously fighting fascism!” March to Protect Migrants and the Planet, NYC, April 19, 2025, organized by 50501ny.org (c) Karen Rubin/news-photos-features.com
“Hands Off Our Bodies, Our Freedom, Our Democracy.” March to Protect Migrants and the Planet, NYC, April 19, 2025, organized by 50501ny.org (c) Karen Rubin/news-photos-features.com
March to Protect Migrants and the Planet, NYC, April 19, 2025, organized by 50501ny.org (c) Karen Rubin/news-photos-features.com
March to Protect Migrants and the Planet, NYC, April 19, 2025, organized by 50501ny.org (c) Karen Rubin/news-photos-features.com
“Revolution 2.0” March to Protect Migrants and the Planet, NYC, April 19, 2025, organized by 50501ny.org (c) Karen Rubin/news-photos-features.com
“Resist.” March to Protect Migrants and the Planet, NYC, April 19, 2025, organized by 50501ny.org (c) Karen Rubin/news-photos-features.com
“Resist.” March to Protect Migrants and the Planet, NYC, April 19, 2025, organized by 50501ny.org (c) Karen Rubin/news-photos-features.com
March to Protect Migrants and the Planet, NYC, April 19, 2025, organized by 50501ny.org (c) Karen Rubin/news-photos-features.com
March to Protect Migrants and the Planet, NYC, April 19, 2025, organized by 50501ny.org (c) Karen Rubin/news-photos-features.com
“Due Process Now!” March to Protect Migrants and the Planet, NYC, April 19, 2025, organized by 50501ny.org (c) Karen Rubin/news-photos-features.com
“Wicked” March to Protect Migrants and the Planet, NYC, April 19, 2025, organized by 50501ny.org (c) Karen Rubin/news-photos-features.com
“Our Power. Our Planet. Our People” March to Protect Migrants and the Planet, NYC, April 19, 2025, organized by 50501ny.org (c) Karen Rubin/news-photos-features.com
“Tell Old Pharoah: Let My People Go!” March to Protect Migrants and the Planet, NYC, April 19, 2025, organized by 50501ny.org (c) Karen Rubin/news-photos-features.com
“Jews Against Deportation.” March to Protect Migrants and the Planet, NYC, April 19, 2025, organized by 50501ny.org (c) Karen Rubin/news-photos-features.com
“Hands Off Public Health, Medicare & Medicaid.” March to Protect Migrants and the Planet, NYC, April 19, 2025, organized by 50501ny.org (c) Karen Rubin/news-photos-features.com
“Billionaires Profit Off Climate Chaos.” March to Protect Migrants and the Planet, NYC, April 19, 2025, organized by 50501ny.org (c) Karen Rubin/news-photos-features.com
“Save our Land. Stop the Destroyer.” March to Protect Migrants and the Planet, NYC, April 19, 2025, organized by 50501ny.org (c) Karen Rubin/news-photos-features.com
March to Protect Migrants and the Planet, NYC, April 19, 2025, organized by 50501ny.org (c) Karen Rubin/news-photos-features.com
“Rotten Oranges Belong in the Compost Bin, Not the Oval Office.” March to Protect Migrants and the Planet, NYC, April 19, 2025, organized by 50501ny.org (c) Karen Rubin/news-photos-features.com
March to Protect Migrants and the Planet, NYC, April 19, 2025, organized by 50501ny.org (c) Karen Rubin/news-photos-features.com
“Who is Safe?” March to Protect Migrants and the Planet, NYC, April 19, 2025, organized by 50501ny.org (c) Karen Rubin/news-photos-features.com
“This is what autocracy looks like.! March to Protect Migrants and the Planet, NYC, April 19, 2025, organized by 50501ny.org (c) Karen Rubin/news-photos-features.com
“Hands Off! Immigrants. Our Free Speech.” March to Protect Migrants and the Planet, NYC, April 19, 2025, organized by 50501ny.org (c) Karen Rubin/news-photos-features.com
“A National Disgrace.” March to Protect Migrants and the Planet, NYC, April 19, 2025, organized by 50501ny.org (c) Karen Rubin/news-photos-features.com
“Consequences.” March to Protect Migrants and the Planet, NYC, April 19, 2025, organized by 50501ny.org (c) Karen Rubin/news-photos-features.com
“Make America America Again.” March to Protect Migrants and the Planet, NYC, April 19, 2025, organized by 50501ny.org (c) Karen Rubin/news-photos-features.com
“Wanted” March to Protect Migrants and the Planet, NYC, April 19, 2025, organized by 50501ny.org (c) Karen Rubin/news-photos-features.com
“Vote or Watch Democracy Die.” March to Protect Migrants and the Planet, NYC, April 19, 2025, organized by 50501ny.org (c) Karen Rubin/news-photos-features.com
“Super Callus Fascist Sexist Nazi POTUS.” March to Protect Migrants and the Planet, NYC, April 19, 2025, organized by 50501ny.org (c) Karen Rubin/news-photos-features.com
“Save the Planet.” March to Protect Migrants and the Planet, NYC, April 19, 2025, organized by 50501ny.org (c) Karen Rubin/news-photos-features.com
“Republicans Destroying America.” March to Protect Migrants and the Planet, NYC, April 19, 2025, organized by 50501ny.org (c) Karen Rubin/news-photos-features.com
“No Deportations.” March to Protect Migrants and the Planet, NYC, April 19, 2025, organized by 50501ny.org (c) Karen Rubin/news-photos-features.com
“Get Off Fossil Fuels.” March to Protect Migrants and the Planet, NYC, April 19, 2025, organized by 50501ny.org (c) Karen Rubin/news-photos-features.com
“Hands Off DEI! Education!” March to Protect Migrants and the Planet, NYC, April 19, 2025, organized by 50501ny.org (c) Karen Rubin/news-photos-features.com
Families protest to save the future. March to Protect Migrants and the Planet, NYC, April 19, 2025, organized by 50501ny.org (c) Karen Rubin/news-photos-features.com
“Make America Broke Again.” March to Protect Migrants and the Planet, NYC, April 19, 2025, organized by 50501ny.org (c) Karen Rubin/news-photos-features.com
March to Protect Migrants and the Planet, NYC, April 19, 2025, organized by 50501ny.org (c) Karen Rubin/news-photos-features.com
“Worst President Ever.” March to Protect Migrants and the Planet, NYC, April 19, 2025, organized by 50501ny.org (c) Karen Rubin/news-photos-features.com
“Our City. Our Earth. Our Future.” March to Protect Migrants and the Planet, NYC, April 19, 2025, organized by 50501ny.org (c) Karen Rubin/news-photos-features.com
March to Protect Migrants and the Planet, NYC, April 19, 2025, organized by 50501ny.org (c) Karen Rubin/news-photos-features.com
“Rebel Baby Rebel” March to Protect Migrants and the Planet, NYC, April 19, 2025, organized by 50501ny.org (c) Karen Rubin/news-photos-features.com
“Turd Reich No!” March to Protect Migrants and the Planet, NYC, April 19, 2025, organized by 50501ny.org (c) Karen Rubin/news-photos-features.com
It took almost three hours for all the protesters to get to the starting line on Fifth Avenue at 42nd Street for the march to Madison Park at 25th Street in midtown Manhattan – I’m guessing some 50,000. There were no speeches, only chants and periodic roars that rang through the cavern of skyscrapers, releasing pent up anger, frustration, hostility to an administration – headlined by Trump, his billionaire hatchet man Elon Musk and the DOGE bros – that has been so contemptuous of human rights, civil rights, voting rights, workers rights, allies and alliances, that has upended people’s lives and inspired such fear, anxiety, insecurity. Hands Off! They chanted. Hands Off….! (fill in the blank) their hand-written signs declared.
It was an anguish that could only be extinguished by being in community with thousands of others.
The New York City march was one of some 1,300 taking place in all 50 states and even abroad, organized by a coalition of some 150 organizations, headed by Indivisible, Moveon, Public Citizen, women’s groups, veterans groups and others.
It was the biggest day of protest since the 2017 Womens March that greeted Trump’s first term. But after a period of frustration that the biggest single day of protest did not protect women’s reproductive freedom, with the capitulation of Republicans in the Senate, in the House, in the states and localities, with the capitulation of media moguls, universities, law firms, and with Democrats banished from having any impact on governance, as Trump unleashed his assault on constitutional rights, it was decided that the people have to take power, and take it back where they live.
And that was before Trump, with a stroke of a Sharpie, undermined the economic order that has underpinned peace and prosperity for 75 years, and unleashed the worry of a global recession, erasing $4 TRILLION in wealth in two days, the sharpest two-day decline since he was last occupying the office. He is the only individual in history to have caused that kind of damage. On purpose.
There is no constituency – even the MAGAs who fell for Trump’s BS (the Big Lie of Election 2024: “I never saw Project 2025”) – that has not been harmed by Trump and his enforcer, Elon Musk and the DOGE bros: women, seniors, children, students, the disabled, scientists, doctors, teachers, federal workers (he ended rights for 1 million civil servants), veterans (Trump, who had no idea that four American soldiers had been “lost” in Lithuania, went to his golf club rather show respect and receive their bodies), academics, union workers, farmers, immigrants, refugees, migrants WITH LEGAL STATUS (who have I left out?).
Trump has trampled on free speech, free press, free assembly, the right to a trial by jury, the right to due process (except for abusing that privilege for himself, while conveniently tearing up the other part of the 14th amendment: no insurrectionist can hold federal office), equal protection, the right to vote and have that vote counted. He has even teased that he would run for a 3rd term (“I’m not joking.”).
I’ll let the people and their posters speak for themselves:
On Saturday, April 5, Long Island will host its Hands Off! Mass Mobilization Rally protesting the Trump administration and Elon Musk’s DOGE actions to dismantle government services, civil rights, public health and environmental protections. It will be one of more than 1,200 Hands Off! Day of Action protests being held throughout the country and the world, with major ones being held in Washington DC and New York City (Bryant Park,1 pm).
More than 1,400 community members from across Long Island are expected at the rally, taking place at the Nassau County Courthouse, 262 Old Country Road, Mineola, at 1 pm, “to protest and join in this national mass day of action to express our deep concerns about the course this country is taking.”
“Trump and Musk are illegally decimating our federal workforce and gutting the many services we rely on to keep us safe,” stated Dr. Eve Meltzer Krief, Legislative Chair NY Chapter 2 American Academy of Pediatrics, one of the organizers. “They are barreling toward dismantling social security while Congressional Republicans are planning to significantly slash the Medicaid funding so many Long Islanders rely on- all to fund tax cuts for billionaires. Trump is making us less safe and is threatening our health and well being. Whether it’s the maligning of our NATO allies, defunding NOAA and the National weather service, slashing jobs at the VA- impacting the employment and health of Veterans who fought for this country, cuts to the EPA along with clean water and air initiatives or the cuts to the HHS which will cripple our local health departments’ ability to fight disease and cut substance abuse and mental health programs right here on Long Island – the list goes on and on. Everybody knows somebody being impacted by the instability Trump is bringing to our daily lives. It’s a national crisis and it’s time to stand up to it.”
The protesters are demanding:
•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.
The Long Island protest is being organized by concerned community members from across Long Island including members of Engage Long Island, Show Up Long Island, 1199SEIU.
Speakers at the Long Island rally include: Jeffrey L. Reynolds, Ph.D, President/CEO Family & Children’s Association; Dr. Eve Meltzer Krief, Legislative Chair NY Chapter 2 American Academy of Pediatrics; Mary Anne Trasciatti, labor activist and educator; Greg Perles, teacher and unionist and Fred Harrison, Food and Water Watch.
“Donald Trump and Elon Musk think this country belongs to them, and they’re taking everything they can get their hands on. On Saturday, April 5, we’ll take to the streets nationwide in a non-violent action with a clear message: Hands OFF! our democracy!
“This mass mobilization day is our message to the world that we do not consent to the destruction of our government and our economy for the benefit of Trump and his billionaire allies. Across the country, we’ll be marching, rallying, and protesting to demand a stop to the chaos, and to continue building a non-violent movement dedicated to ending the looting of our country.”
On a national organizing call for Hands Off! Held by Moveon.org, Randy Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers spoke out against the assault on public education and labor, with the actions to shut down the Department of Education and pull back on billions in funding supporting school lunch, programs for disabled children, support for rural and schools in impoverished areas, and the clear policy shift to put tax payer money into private, parochial and for-profit charter schools.
“Why are they going after public education, why labor? Because public education is the foundationstone of democracy, the foundation of opportunity, and democracy and pluralism, brings communities together instead of separating, brings people who are different together instead of otherizing. And the labor movement is about agency – decent wages, health care, the fight for social security. If you take the labor movement away, the right to collective bargaining away, how do we fight together? They are taking away foundation stones of opportunity.
We must fight back – in the courts, in the court of public opinion, in commerce –that’s how we move Congress.
If you care about critical thinking, safe and welcoming environment, that all our kids have access to the funding we’ve been trying to get for 40 years- Title 1, IDA, funding for poor kids, going to college, kids with disabilities, we have to be out on the streets on April 5, together, as community. The more we are together, the more they can’t otherize people. We must work together to fight for all, for opportunity, for public education for every child, a labor movement for anyone. To say ‘No, this is what we want in our government, this is not not who we are, not what we voted for.”
Jonah Minkoff-Zern of Public Citizen, said “We are angry, scared, fired up. Could have had speakers for hours talking about all the ways Trump and Musk and their people – incompetent and malicious – are devastating our nation, services, freedoms, democracy. Signalgate shows their incompetence, just how little they care about their impacts of going to war. Firing 10,000 healthcare workers today is not even top of the news because it goes on and on. But we have power. Our voices, our mobilization will pushback and ultimately win.
The dismantling of government services, the threats to Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid, the brain drain that is underway as Trump shuts down research and threatens universities, the assault on freedoms, the Rule of Law and due process evident in the cruel and malicious and unconstitutional deportation of immigrants, the attacks on judges and lawyers, the assumption of war powers without an actual war, the attacks on voting rights and barriers to voting has already shattered the pillars holding up our democracy as it is clear, while antagonizing and threatening allies and cozying up to every tyrant on the planet. Trump is assuming powers of an autocrat (even not joking about a third term), and a power structure based on oligarchy and kleptocracy, following Putin’s example.
The Hands Off! Day of Action is endorsed and supported by Indivisible, Common Cause, Third Act (and Third Act NYC), MoveOn, the SEIU, and many others.
Check out handsoff2025.com for more information, events and to sign up.
