Concord Crowd Demands End to Trump Agenda

By Arnie Alpert, Active with the Activists

Arnie Alpert spent decades as a community organizer/educator in NH movements for social justice and peace.  Officially retired since 2020, he keeps his hands (and feet) in the activist world while writing about past and present social movements.

CONCORD—The largest crowd yet of anti-Trump protesters met up at the State House Saturday for a rally coordinated with about a thousand other rallies nationwide, including fifteen others in New Hampshire from Colebrook to Plaistow and Portsmouth to Keene. 

With hundreds already there when the event was scheduled to begin at noon, the area from the State House steps to the Main Street sidewalk was soon filled with sign-holding members of the anti-Trump resistance, mostly united in their demands for an end to the administration’s assault on immigrants, the LGBTQ community, and federal programs aiding veterans, people with disabilities, and pretty much everyone who isn’t a billionaire. 

Several speakers also tied the agenda advanced by Trump and Republican members of Congress to the policies advanced by Republicans inside the New Hampshire State House, where Representatives will vote next week on the state’s two-year budget. 

“Hands Off!” was the theme nationwide.  National organizers, representing a coalition of about 200 national and local organizations, said interest grew in recent weeks as the administration further gutted worker rights, imposed policies expected to raise prices, closed Social Security offices, and took away funding for other popular programs. 

Like other recent actions, many participants brought home-made signs employing humor to poke at President Trump, Elon Musk, and tariffs on faraway locales that export nothing to the United States.  “I’ve seen smarter cabinets at IKEA,” one sign read.  Others were more straightforward, like “Hands off!!! Social Security – Immigrants – Education – Human Rights – Democracy!!!!”

“DOGE bros have got to go,” they chanted, and led by emcee Holly Smith, they sang, “No hate in the Granite State.  Hate never made anyone great.”

Organizers from NH 50501, a group of five activists who met up on social media and organized the first major Concord demonstration on February 5, had obtained permits covering the State House lawn area as well as the City Plaza by Main Street.  The terms stated that people needed to stay off the State House steps and out of the street, which had been a popular place for sign-wavers to interact with people driving through downtown Concord.  

“Off the steps,” Holly Smith chanted.  “Off the steps,” the crowd chanted back in agreement.  By and large, the rally-goers complied.  Standing on the sidewalk, the sign-wavers still managed to draw lots of enthusiastic honks from cars passing by.  

Closer to the steps as a light rain began to fall, 50501 organizers introduced a series of speakers, starting with former Executive Councilor Cinde Warmington, who called for people to commit “random acts of courage” and said, “Every one of you will have to resist, every single day.”

Louise Spencer of the Kent Street Coalition said there’s a “throughline connection from Trump to what’s happening here,” that is, inside the State House.  “Whatever is happening with Project 2025 is on steroids here,” she said, pleading with people to show up again when the House votes on the state budget Thursday.

“We the people. For the people. By the people,” the crowd chanted, and “Free, free Palestine.”  

The most stirring speaker was Grace Kindeke, an immigrant from the Democratic Republic of Congo who was at times undocumented and in the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program before becoming a U.S. citizen.  Referring to the administration’s hostility to immigrants, she said, “We have been lied to over and over again, putting the blame for the lack of affordable housing, the lack of good health care, the lack of decent education for our children at the feet of people who are simply looking for a place to call home, looking for safety. And why do we get lied to like that? It is so easy.”

“It is so much easier to blame poor people,” she went on, in answer to her own question.  “It is so much easier to blame undocumented people. It is so much easier to do that than to blame the oligarchs, the wealthy, the corporations that bleed our country dry.”

“It’s not just Trump,” Kindeke continued, speaking without notes.  “It is our own legislators. It is our own governor who continues to put our communities on the chopping block. Immigrants are not our enemies. No. Fascism is our enemy. Injustice is our enemy, and we will not stand for it.  We will not allow our communities to be weaponized. We will not allow our communities to be terrorized, to be taken from us, to be kidnapped off the street and disappear into a system that dehumanizes us, that treats us like aliens, as if every single person here hasn’t been born on this planet earth.  No human being is illegal.”

Other speakers included Chloe LaCasse, who described herself as an out, proud, leftist trans-gender woman.  The transgender community, she said, is being scapegoated to distract people from the oligarchs who are dismantling democracy.  “I know Democrats have failed us on many levels over the years, but friends, both parties are not the same,” she said, with an ASL interpreter by her side.

“Those Republicans, oh, those Republicans, how they have fallen in only a few years,” she said. They’re picking on girls who just want to play field hockey, she said, while they “siphon tens of millions of dollars a year in this state from public education.  The voucher scam is a scam. It’s a god damn scam. Say it with me, the voucher scam is a scam.” 

The crowd agreed.

“It’s remarkable,” LaCasse said, “the party of fiscal responsibility and small government, yeah, bullshit. I call bullshit on that right now.”  Lacasse urged people to call the governor, and chanted the phone number of the governor’s office, 603-271-2121. 

“Medicaid is critical to the survival and wellbeing of the disability community,” longtime organizer Lisa Beaudoin said, “and we are here today to raise up our voice to say, hands off Medicaid!  People with disabilities can and do want to work. People with disabilities vote. People with disabilities go out and sing karaoke. They are capable of being lifelong learners, being your friends, and being engaged in all elements of civil society.  We are here to say that Medicaid is core to our existence. So what are we going to tell governor Ayotte?  What are we going to tell the feds?”

“Hands off Medicaid!” the crowd chanted.

Speakers leaned Democratic, but among them was Gordon Humphrey, a former Republican U.S. Senator who later served as a Republican State Senator.  But he left the party when Donald Trump became president and is now an independent.  His message, delivered more succinctly than most of the other speakers, was to defend the separation of powers laid out in the Constitution.

Democratic Party organizers and officials were there, too, including U.S. Representatives Chris Pappas and Maggie Goodlander, State Representatives Matt Wilhelm and Heath Howard, and Sebastian Fuentes, now the party’s political director.

Fuentes, who immigrated from Peru, described coming to New Hampshire in pursuit of the American dream but found that the dream is out of reach for too many people.  “I know single moms that work in two jobs just to pay for rent and daycare,” he said.  “So what is this dream they talk about?  I know seniors and veterans living off a monthly check, even though they work their entire lives, and some of them went to war for us. So what is this dream they talk about?  And that is because politicians keep moving the goal post further away, especially politicians that work in that building behind us,” he said, gesturing to the State House.

When it was finally his turn to address the crowd, Congressman Pappas was shouted down by pro-Palestinian demonstrators.  While they held up flags and chanted, “Free, free Palestine,” a larger number of those present chanted, “Unite against Trump.”   Organizers from 50501, clearly distressed by the disruption, tried to calm the crowd and enable the Congressman to speak.  “You free Palestine people, we have no problems with you guys expressing your free speech, but you do not have a permit to be on State House property,” one of them said, implying they would be removed if they persisted.  Pappas, who last week launched a campaign for the U.S. Senate, stood aside for a few minutes while the hubbub continued and then left.

Shortly after Pappas left, his colleague, Rep. Maggie Goodlander came forward, speaking about love as the motivation for patriotic resistance to the Trump agenda.  “Since 1776,” she said, “right here in New Hampshire, we’ve been throwing off tyrants and kings, and we’re going to keep on doing that every single day, because this is a democracy of ‘We the People.’  So what are we fighting for?  We’re fighting for democracy. We’re fighting for freedom.” 

“No kings, no crowns, Donald Trump is going down,” the crowd chanted.

Goodlander was the final speaker and by the time she was done, the cold drizzle that began in the early afternoon was starting to get to people.  When the program ended, most of the remaining rally-goers wandered off, leaving a hundred or more people still out by the Main Street sidewalk waving their signs and drawing supportive honks from drivers.

Lark Moinoto, one of the 50501 organizers, estimated there had been 2000 people at the rally.  Hemmed in as I was near the speakers tent, I hadn’t been able to count, but the estimate seemed about right to me.  It was certainly the biggest demonstration I’ve seen at the State House for some time. 

Assessing the afternoon, Brittni Widdick, another of the organizers, said, “I’m still really hyped up and optimistic.”  Widdick said she had arrived at the State House before 11 a.m. “and there were already people here. And then I came and parked and started to unload my car around 11:30 and it was packed. And I wasn’t prepared for that.”  Some people have complained about the length of previous 50501 demonstrations, she said, and here were people showing up an hour early.  “So it’s very surprising,” she said.

She’s already thinking about the next rally, including the need for a bigger sound system.  But mostly, she’s thinking about what actions people can take, like showing up at the State House as the Kent Street Coalition does.  She emphasized the importance of “holding our Reps accountable, making sure they are casting votes in our direction, and then making sure that we are continuing to energize our people, so that on Election Day they show up.”

Election Day is a long way off, though.  In the short run, NH 50501 plans to launch a program they call “The People’s Compass” to help people connect with groups working on particular issues.   She thinks that will help people focus, instead of trying all at once to free Palestine and protect trans people and save veterans’ health care and make sure the public education system “doesn’t go up in flames.”

Another demonstration, marking the anniversary of the Lexington, Massachusetts uprising against King George III 250 years ago, seems likely on April 19. 

As I prepared to leave Concord, I asked Anna Petrova, a resident of Hancock, what the afternoon was like for her.  When she arrived in Concord and saw so many people, she said she nearly burst into tears.  “It was so good to be with other people that felt the way that I feel, and it was also incredibly joyful and uplifting to be here, because, of course, we’re all here because we’re either angry or we’re terrified or we want to make our voices heard, but the feelings of the protests were 100% joyful to me.”

If others feel the same and the Trump administration keeps heading in the same direction, the size of protests is likely to grow as the weather gets warmer and the days longer.  

Below, please read an earlier version

This story will be updated.

Crowds gathered at the State House and City Plaza in Concord Saturday for the noon to 5 p.m. “Hands Off!” rally, which is part of a nationwide protest of President Donald Trump and billionaire Elon Musk.

It was expected to be the largest of about 16 similar protests around the state and an estimated 1,200 across the United States.

Main Street in Concord was lined on both sides for a two block span with people holding signs while many people in the traffic back up sounded their horns in support of the demonstration.

Volunteers with the rally organizers wore yellow vests and could be seen keeping participants out of the street and off the State House steps.

There was very limited law enforcement visible other than a few cruisers circling the streets. A police spokesman didn’t have a crowd estimate except to say it was a “well attended” rally with some minor traffic problems because of the size of the crowd.

At the time of this article there were no known arrests and the group appeared to peacefully hold signs and listen to speakers over the public address system.

Hundreds of thousand of people reportedly gathered in protest at the National Mall in Washington, D.C.

Above, Photo in Concord By JEFFREY HASTINGS

KEARSARGE FOLKS SEND STRONG “HANDS OFF” MESSAGE
From Sandy Schmid:

On Saturday, April 5, in 37-degree rainy weather, 500 sign-carrying concerned people came to the New London Town Green to peacefully demand that their state and national leaders keep their hands off vital programs and rights. These citizens and voters joined rallies across the country to tell our leaders to keep their hands off our Medicaid, Social Security, education, environment, bodies, jobs, human rights, veterans, allies, local control, retirement accounts, allies and more. 

During this rally the following legislators came (Hope Damon, Karen Ebel, Suzanne Prentiss, Tom Shamburg, Karen Liot HIll) and some spoke as well as Colby Sawyer students Peter Gribben, Bailey Tremblay, and Dryden Eliason. Other knowledgeable speakers included Pat Rodgers, Rev. Lucretia Jevne, Jennifer Alford-Teaster, Sandy Schmid and John Moses. Along with drumming, chanting, people lining both sides of Main Street, and music, there was a lot of “good trouble” and desperate need for change from our leaders. 

Above Photo by JEFFREY HASTINGS

The New York Times headline Saturday said: “Mass Protests Across the Country Show Resistance to Trump“

The newspaper reported: “Demonstrators packed the streets in cities to bemoan what they considered a lack of strong opposition to the president and his policies.”

InDepthNH.org columnist Susan Dromey Heeter was visiting San Francisco, Calif., and shared the photo above of the demonstration there. Thanks Susan!

Jeffrey Hastings, Susan Dromey Heeter and Nancy West contributed to the earlier report.