Hundreds of protesters from around Silicon Valley marched through downtown San Jose Monday as part of demonstrations taking place across the country over President Donald Trump and his policies.
Holding signs that read “Not my President” and “Fight the Fascists,” roughly 1,500 people gathered outside the San Jose Museum of Art on Presidents Day. More than a dozen protesters spoke to the crowd about their anger over Trump’s anti-immigration and anti-LGBTQ+ policies, among a slew of other executive orders that have stoked fear and uncertainty in the region and nationwide.
“I’m frightened and angry as a woman, as a supporter of all kinds of rights for different groups,” San Jose resident Holly Stump told San José Spotlight. “(Trump is) trying to make the executive function predominant over the other branches … and that is going to be very hard to endure.”
Presidents Day protests are being held across the country, organized by the grassroots coalition 50501, whose website reads “50 protests. 50 states. 1 movement.” The coalition first organized on Reddit earlier this year, and led dozens of protests on Feb. 5 against Trump’s policies.
Ariel, an organizer of the San Jose protest who didn’t want to her last name used for fear of retaliation, said protests like this show how many people are against Trump and his allies like Tesla CEO Elon Musk. She said people will keep protesting to voice their dissent against the Trump administration.
“Somebody has to stand up, somebody has to say, ‘I personally am not okay with this and I’m going to do something about it,'” she told San José Spotlight.
State Assemblymember Ash Kalra attended the protest and spoke briefly about resisting national pressure. He said he’s happy to see so many people attend the protest, and that more elected officials needed to be there. Many protesters asked out loud where elected officials such as Congressmembers Sam Liccardo and Ro Khanna were.
“Right now, the whole world is depending on California, we have to stand up along with other states that have Democratic leadership,” Kalra told San José Spotlight. “Each elected official needs to be courageous.”
Trump’s policies have sown fear and apprehension across Silicon Valley. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents have been spotted in East San Jose, causing chaos in the city’s immigrant communities. Nonprofits are still scrambling over budget uncertainties after Trump tried to freeze federal funds. There has been some resistance locally, including Santa Clara County suing the federal government over the administration’s attempts to rescind birthright citizenship.
Malia Keating, a 19-year-old Mountain View resident, spoke during the protest and said she was “pissed off” at the government. As a member of the LGBTQ+ community, Keating said she’s angry about the current administration’s degradation of transgender people and other groups within the community.
Palon Shuster, Keating’s mother, said her and her child have attended other protests in an effort to raise their voices against the administration.
“All your rights go away if you don’t stand up and speak out, and we are at the most serious inflection point in my lifetime,” Schuster told San José Spotlight.
Contact B. Sakura Cannestra at [email protected] or @SakuCannestra on X.
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.