Protestors took the streets across Long Island to express their dissatisfaction with President Donald Trump – particularly in response to his recent tariffs.
The organizing group Hands Off held numerous protests in both Nassau and Suffolk, including in Riverhead, Patchogue, Sag Harbor, Port Jefferson Station, Greenport, East Hampton, Farmingville, and Mineola. The protestors’ chants – and the honking horns of support and opposition – dominated major roadways.
“This is not normal,” John Avlon, the former CNN anchor who made a Democratic bid to unseat U.S. Rep. Nick LaLota (R-Bay Shore) last fall, told protesters in Sag Harbor. “Our democracy is in danger. This is a ‘we the people’ moment. What did Lincoln tell us? He said that democracy is government of, for and by the people. And that’s what’s under threat right now.”
The Hands Off protests were part of a coordinated, nationwide effort demonstration. More than 1,400 protests were held across all 50 U.S. states, gathering hundreds of thousands of participants, with some saying millions.
Protestors rallied for housing, Medicare/Medicaid, LGBTQ+ rights, veterans’ rights/benefits, people of color rights, immigration rights, women’s rights, and more to tell the Trump administration to keep their ‘hands off’ these people and their freedoms, organizers said.
Hundreds of protesters rallied at the East End locations despite the rain. At the Port Jefferson Station protest, hundreds gathered across the intersections of County Road 347, Route 112, and Canal Road.
“The history of our country is to support its citizens, and that is what we are hoping will happen,” Judy Black of the North Brookhaven Democratic Club said at the Port Jefferson Station protest. “These are peaceful protests across New York State, across Long Island, across the country, and we really want our government to work for the people that it represents. It is not to represent the very wealthy.”
More than 2,400 people gathered outside the Nassau County Court House for the Hands Off protest in Mineola, according to estimates from organizers Engage LI and Show Up LI, who were originally expecting around 1,000 people.
“I think ‘hands off’ was a really great message, because right now, pretty much everything that we care about and all the services that people depend on are under attack by this administration,” said Rachel Klein, one of the Engage LI organizers. “So if you care about your Social Security being affected, your healthcare, your Medicare, your Medicaid, the immigrant community, libraries and museums — everyone is impacted. If you’re not already, you will be eventually.
“So I think if you care about our democracy and our American way of life, this is the time to speak up and show up,” she said. “And people really did.”
In addition to Trump, protestors took aim at Elon Musk, Trump’s senior advisor and de facto head of the Department of Government Efficiency.
“The people who bought Teslas, like myself, are people who all support the environment,” Port Jefferson protestor Ken Rosenblatt said. “We’re environmentalists. We’re doing things for clean air. It was great. What he did at that point in time was fantastic, but somehow or another, he went off, whether it’s a mental thing or whatever it might be, he went off to the crazy side.
“The people who are working for Tesla are good, working American people. But what [Musk] is doing to this country is just the opposite of all the people who supported him, who bought stock in the company and all the rest. He has turned his back on the people who got him to where he is today.”
Others pointed out the rapid pace the Trump administration appears to be moving at to implement its agenda.
“More than 50% of the American voting population did not vote for Donald Trump, and every day he does more and more damage to the great nation that we are,” Dee Hansen, president of the North Brookhaven Democratic Committee, said. “And we’re out here to say, no, we don’t believe in his policies. We want them to change. We want them to stop. Not only does it hurt individuals, it hurts families. It hurts the nation.”
Various other groups arrived at the Port Jefferson Station protest to show their support, including the Islip-Smithtown Branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP).
“We don’t like the way the direction of the country is going at this point,” Joe Lescinski, a member, said. “The idea of so many rights being ignored, being taken away, people losing their jobs, people being deported without legitimacy, including the poor man that’s sitting in a jail down in Central America wrongly, and the other things – the wholesale cuts in education, the Environmental Protection Agency, we’re just concerned we’re going down a direction we should not be moving in, and it’s certainly not reflective of the democratic values in this country.”
A noteworthy attendee at the Port Jefferson Station Hands Off protest was Dave Calone, who ran for Suffolk County Executive in 2023 as a Democrat, losing to current County Executive Ed Romaine. Calone called for Romaine to stand up against the national Republican Party.
“He’s the kind of person who understands what’s happening,” Calone said of Romaine. “I know he understands that families are being squeezed here on Long Island and in Suffolk County because of the Trump tax policies and because of these tariffs. And I would love to see him stand up and hold his own party accountable for this. I think he knows it, and I think he can do it, and his voice would be respected and heard.”
Joining the Mineola crowd were U.S. Reps Tom Suozzi and Laura Gillen, State Senator Siela Bynoe and Nassau County Legislator Debra Mulé, all Democrats.
One of the most prominent demographics at the protests across Long Island was seniors. Their concerns about Medicare and Medicaid, their retirement savings and their children’s and grandchildren’s futures, Klein said, are what compelled them to brave the rain on April 5.
“People said they didn’t think they’d have to be protesting this when they’re in their 70s and 80s,” Klein said. “People with mobility issues showed up.”
The ultimate goal of these Hands Off protests — the ones across Long Island and across the country — was visibility, she said. To let neighbors know that the current situation is not normal, and the administration’s actions are more than just unpopular — there’s a “mass resistance” to them.
“These were regular people out there — these are your neighbors, your teachers, your mailman,” Klein said. “This is not some, like, radical fringe movement. This is regular, everyday people who are very concerned about what’s going on, sounding the alarm, showing up in groups.
“We can’t take the right to protest for granted anymore in the U.S.”
