Thousands of people turned out in cities across the U.S. on Monday to protest President Trump and billionaires on Labor Day.
May Day Strong, comprising a multitude of labor and advocacy groups, organized over 1,000 protests and events across more than 900 cities nationwide. Supported by the AFL-CIO, the movement is called “Workers over Billionaires.”
Organizers told The Hill they expected several hundred thousand people to attend the events across the country on Monday.
Demonstrations sprang up in major cities such as New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, and Philadelphia, while extending to cities and states from Washington, D.C., to San Diego, and parts of Florida to Idaho.
The main focus of the protests is the perceived excessive influence that key business leaders and corporations hold during the second Trump administration.
“We’re planning more than just a barbecue on Labor Day this year, aiming to halt the billionaire takeover. We believe billionaires are taking resources from working families, undermining our democracy, and assembling private militias to threaten our communities,” states May Day Strong’s website.
Demonstrations in certain cities took on a particular focus.
In Chicago, where Trump has proposed deploying National Guard troops and federal immigration agents to curb crime, thousands protested, carrying signs and chanting against any increase in federal law enforcement, as reported by Reuters.
The Washington Post noted that the leader of the local AFL-CIO chapter in San Francisco mentioned that their rally targeted tech companies such as Palantir, which has received billions in federal contracts in Trump’s second term as part of a broader move to utilize artificial intelligence.
When reached for comment, White House spokesperson Taylor Rogers said “no one has done more for working men and women than President Trump.”
“President Trump believes that American workers are the heart and soul of our economy, which is why he’s championed an agenda that always puts them first from signing the largest middle-class tax cuts in history to securing nearly $10 trillion in new investments to create high-paying jobs across our country,” Rogers added.
