Thousands of people took to the streets across Broward, Palm Beach and Miami-Dade counties Saturday to join nationwide protests against the Trump administration.
Some wore masks and marched down Hollywood Boulevard with a casket, inside of which lay “Lady Liberty.” Others donned “The Handmaid’s Tale” bonnets and red robes. They carried American flags and signs reading “Deport Elon Immediately,” “Putin Envy,” and “We need to wake up from this nightmare.” One woman painted Trump as a pig riding in a Cyber Truck.
The majority of protestors couldn’t pinpoint which issue worried them most; their concerns varied from democracy to immigration, education, Social Security, LGBT rights, healthcare, climate change, research funding, and national parks. Multiple people carried lists of all of the issues they were worried about attached to their signs.
Donna Greene, 62, was among them. She stood at Young Circle in downtown Hollywood dressed as Marie Antoinette, carrying a bright blue parasol in one hand and a sign in the other reading “Musk & Trump say let them eat cake.” The last time she wore the costume was 15 years ago at a march in Tallahassee over education funding.
“It’s much more relevant now,” said Greene, a substitute teacher and active Broward school district volunteer, as people stopped to take pictures of her. “Which is a very sad commentary.”
Greene’s list of over a dozen concerns, taped to the back of her sign, included education — “which is the foundation of everything,” she said — national parks, cancer research, Social Security, and women’s bodies.
“Everything is being destroyed in front of our eyes,” she said. “I don’t know where we even begin looking anymore.”
Separate “Hands Off!” protests unfolded Saturday in Hollywood, Miami, Boca Raton and West Palm Beach, joining demonstrations across the country. Turnout far exceeded expectations, with organizers estimating a couple thousand at each of the Hollywood, Miami and Boca Raton protests and about 500 in West Palm Beach.
By late morning in Hollywood, about 2,000 people had gathered in the sun, double the number protestors were anticipating.
“It’s really hard to follow all the bad stuff that’s going on in Washington,” said Tom Tighe, 67. Next to him, his wife, Joeleah Tighe, 60, got choked up as she explained that her 92-year-old mother just ran out of money and had to go on Medicaid.
“We knew she’d be okay because we can help her,” she said. “So many people in her position can’t fight for themselves.”
For Heather Loggins, who came with her two sisters, Jessica Loftus and Chas Loftus, Saturday’s protest was “really emotional.”
Asked what issues she was protesting on Saturday, Loggins said, “everything, really.”
“I’m speechless by what’s going on,” Chas Loftus said.
Though Hollywood’s crowd leaned older, many young people and children were also in attendance.
Saturday was the first protest Valeria Cano, 16, and Nisa Yilmaz, 14, had ever attended. The two joined their friends carrying a giant red banner reading “TRAITOR TRUMP.” They chose to come out because they live close by and because they’re worried about immigration, women’s rights and the economy.
“I don’t like his economic views,” said Yilmaz. “He makes the poor poorer.”
Cano added, “I should be able to do what I want with my body.”
Yilmaz, an immigrant from Turkey, and Cano, whose mother immigrated from Venezuela, also worried about the immigration crackdown. Both teens said their mothers were Trump supporters, though Yilmaz said her mother regrets voting for him and gets annoyed when her daughter talks to her about what he’s doing.
“She’s like, ‘I get it,'” Yilmaz said.
Around noon, the group began marching down Hollywood Boulevard toward the office of Todd Delmay, a Democratic candidate for the Florida House, chanting “Hey hey, ho ho, Trump and Musk have got to go,” passing brunch-goers and workers at nearby businesses and holding up traffic.
Once they reached the parking lot outside Delmay’s office, the crowd heard from speakers including Delmay, Broward School Board Member Sarah Leonardi, Coral Springs Vice Mayor Nancy Metayer Bowen and Hollywood Commissioner Caryl Shuham.
Delmay is challenging Hillary Cassel, who switched from Democrat to Republican in December, in the 2026 election.
“Who does that in this environment?” he said.
Representatives Jared Moskowitz and Debbie Wasserman Schultz were also invited to Saturday’s protest but did not attend, organizers said. Laurie Flink, who works with Wasserman Schultz, did attend on her behalf.
The Hollywood, Miami and West Palm Beach protests were organized by the South Florida chapter of the 50501 movement, in conjunction with the Broward chapter of Indivisible, whose Palm Beach County chapters also organized the Boca Raton protest.
Holly Litt, one of the 50501 organizers, told the South Florida Sun Sentinel she was pleasantly surprised by the turnout Saturday.
“I hope it sends a message to the representatives of our state that speak for us that we want the administration to listen to the American people,” she said.
In Boca Raton, organizer Elin Shusterman said people arrived early, lining Palmetto Park Road and Boca Raton Boulevard near City Hall. The police told organizers there were about 2,500 people, one of the biggest protests Shusterman had attended since she became an activist at 15 years old.
“They just kept coming,” Shusterman said.
A few counter-protestors joined the crowds Saturday, but they carried on peacefully. At Young Circle, one man stood in the crowd with a MAGA hat and a Trump flag, talking to protestors about education and the Jan. 6 insurrection. One protestor, Sam Houle, 26, said he asked the man if he wanted the Department of Education to be defunded and he said no, but that he wanted to make sure that the funding was being used correctly.
“It looked like healthy discourse,” said Litt.
Later, as the crowd marched along Hollywood Boulevard, a few Trump supporters heckled them, yelling, “this is not gonna end well for you people,” but the protesters kept marching and did not engage, Litt said.
In Boca Raton, meanwhile, some Trump supporters drove by in a car a few times, Shusterman said, “but I think it was just too overwhelming for them.”
