Washington DC—Tens of thousands from a coalition of hundreds of groups rallied and marched through downtown Washington DC in opposition to the incoming president and his agenda on the eve of his second inauguration, Saturday. It was the same president and agenda they rallied and marched against on the eve of his first inauguration in 2017.
Their issues and rallying cries were plainly written on their signs and were as evident in their voices as they echoed off the granite walls of the office buildings they passed. They paused frequently and when they passed the windows at the seat of power in the White House and Old Executive Mansion their voices rose there as well. But with inauguration weekend at hand and many government officials having already cleared out their offices there were few to hear them. (video of People’s March 2025)
The throngs of protesters were swarmed by scores of reporters and independent media influencers often tripping up their pace and stopping their progress. As many as 100,000 marched proving that their will to resist is strong and they remained determined to resist against the incoming president’s agenda to strip more individual rights and diminish any more norms of democratic government.
The People’s March 2025 looked and felt just like the women’s march of 2017 only this time it was comparatively much smaller and those gathered were therefore able to form columns and navigate through the streets. In 2017 nearly a million, by some estimates, were crowded in such a concentrated mass of humanity onto the National Mall that it was impossible for them to effectively form any column or organize a march anywhere through the city.
The People’s March 2025 was certainly not as big as the historic Women’s March of 2017 but it didn’t need to be to prove its point. What it lacked in numbers was offset by a resolve to resist. And they demonstrated that there was plenty for them to resist.
This inauguration year there were many carrying homemade signs and banners with the similar words and messages, and voices echoing the same chants as in 2017. “I can’t believe I have to do this again,” read one, “Resist,” read another, “No King,” read yet another.
The People’s March 2025 will not go down in history as epic march compared with the historic marches of the past. But it does signify the beginning of what is likely to be a contentious period of resistence in Washington DC.
Many wore embroidered pink pussy hats and carried signs about access to reproductive healthcare as they did in 2017. Other sign texts ruminated the climate emergency, buoyed the Black Lives Matter Movement, demanded passage of the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) (it already has gained enough States’ legislative approvals to be enacted), demanded protections for the rights of the LGBTQ community and immigrants not fully made citizens, and many other groups.
The People’s March 2025 demonstrates that there are still many concerned about the direction this country is going. There is deep-rooted dissatisfaction with rulings from the Supreme Court, excessive expenditures of defense spending while education and social programs suffer, and the signage of the People’s March 2025 reflect those issues and more. The incoming administration has centered the interests of the billionaire class as many of the new president’s political nominees are ultra wealthy and billionaires. The billionaire class has bought into and infused itself throughout government and that does not bid well for anyone—left leaning or right, according to Senator Bernie Sanders.
The resistence has tasted Trumpism before and spat it out then. It watched the MAGA party meltdown and its assault of the U.S. Capitol during an insurrection in 2021 yet it kept its cool and held itself together. The incoming president squirmed and slid out of three trials and certain findings of guilt and the resistance again remained calm. On January 6, 2025 the resistence did not break into and raid the U.S. Capitol when the president won a hotly contested campaign, unlike his followers did. The resistance is therefore ready and able to spat out Trumpism and oligarchy yet again this time around.
