Updated May 1, 2025 at 9:12 PM EDT
Protesters took to the streets nationwide on Thursday in May Day rallies opposing the Trump administration, hoping to seize the momentum of recent widespread grassroots protests against policies implemented by the administration.
May Day, celebrated by workers across the globe as International Labor Day, occurs on May 1 each year. Protesters used the labor holiday to decry what they view as attacks on the working class and immigrants.
As President Trump marked the 100th day of his second term, anti-Trump protesters continued to express a range of concerns with the administration's recent actions, including the elimination of thousands of federal jobs, immigration raids and billionaire Elon Musk's involvement in downsizing the U.S. government.
While several individual protests in cities across the country had smaller turnouts than local organizers expected, some cities had multiple rallies that took place simultaneously. In Washington, D.C., for example, a handful of demonstrations drew thousands of people throughout the nation's capital. Crowds marched through the streets, some waving flags representing their home countries or holding signs that read "Stop Trump's War on Workers" and "Immigrants Built This Country."
In Phoenix, protesters voiced their opposition to proposed cuts to Medicaid and veteran care and attacks on civil rights. One demonstrator, Elizabeth Brown, said she attended the march to support immigrant families.
"My nephew is married to someone from another country who's here legally," she said. "But with the way things are going, one day, they could pick her up and the children — we don't know."
Nearly 50 different community groups were present at the Phoenix rally to help mobilize supporters, according to event organizers. Local immigrant advocacy groups turned out the biggest crowds in terms of participation, said Erica Connell, Arizona's state liaison for 50501, a protest movement formed in response to what it calls an authoritarian shift in U.S. governance.
Downtown Los Angeles was the site of one of the several protests held throughout Southern California. Yvonne Wheeler, president of the Los Angeles County Federation of Labor, told LAist that, for her, the day was about unity.
"Immigrants are being deported and workers are under attack, and so we have to stay united and in solidarity with one another," she said. "One fight, one message, one struggle, one fight. Workers are united today."
Protests in some conservative parts of the country drew comparatively smaller crowds.
A rally in Jackson, Miss., drew about 150 protesters. One of them is Allison — a 35-year-old working mother who comes from a predominantly white, conservative Christian community. She said she decided to protest now because she feels the actions of the Trump administration no longer square with the conservative values she was raised on. She declined to give her last name out of fear of creating tension among family and friends.
"The reason why I came out today is my concerns for our country's democracy and adhering to the Constitution, which I feel like are American issues, not partisan issues," she said.
As an example, she pointed to the Trump administration's lack of compliance with the Supreme Court's order to facilitate the return of a Maryland man, Kilmar Abrego Garcia, to the U.S. after he was mistakenly sent to an El Salvador prison as part of the administration's widespread detention and deportation of certain immigrants.
A protest against the Trump administration's 'war on working people'
Organizers for the effort, called May Day Strong, say the administration and its billionaire allies pose a threat to labor rights, public services, and the safety of immigrants regardless of their legal status. Organizers have stated their opposition to violent forms of protest.
"This is a war on working people," organizers said on the May Day Strong events web page.
"They're defunding our schools, privatizing public services, attacking unions, and targeting immigrant families with fear and violence," they added. "We are reclaiming our power from corporate elites, and we will not be intimidated by Trump, Musk, or their billionaire backers. They've ruled for too long."
The White House has not responded to NPR's request for comment.
The U.S. does not officially observe the labor holiday, due to what historians say is an enduring resistance to working-class unity. Despite that resistance, America's working class has found ways to commemorate May Day since the 19th century.
The tradition began with a labor strike.
Why Americans protest on May 1
Before the 8-hour workday became standard, the organization now known as the American Federation of Labor planned a nationwide strike for May 1, 1886, to demand an 8-hour workday, as many workers were doing shifts twice that long.
The Chicago strike, known as the Haymarket Affair, turned violent when police clashed with civilians, and a bomb exploded. Although the bomb's intended target was unclear, four men connected to the protests were hanged for conspiracy to commit murder and became celebrated as the Haymarket Martyrs. The Pullman railroad strike also played a significant role in establishing May Day in the U.S. Workers from the Pullman Palace Car Company initiated a widespread work stoppage in May of 1894, prompting President Grover Cleveland to send federal troops to Chicago to break the strike.
This set the stage for the long history of co-opting May Day.
Inspired by the Chicago workers, the international socialist movement gained traction, with activists using May Day protests to spread Marxist literature. In an effort to detach May Day from labor movements, U.S. presidents have tried to redefine its significance. President Dwight D. Eisenhower declared May 1 as "Law Day" — to recognize how the rule of law protects civil liberties, and moved Labor Day as a federally recognized holiday to September.
During his first term, Trump echoed his predecessors by declaring May 1 "Loyalty Day," a time to celebrate the country's loyalty to individual liberties. There were similar protests and boycotts by immigrants and workers on previous May Days during his first presidency when they railed against Trump's border wall and mass deportations plans.
Organizers have not yet shared turnout numbers for the May Day events. But with the more than 1,000 events that were planned for Thursday in over 1,000 cities, Joseph McCartin, a professor of labor history at Georgetown University, said Thursday's protests are already historic.
"Nothing like this has ever occurred on a May Day in the United States in the past -- in terms of the breadth of these protests around the country, in terms of the variety of them, in terms of the different constituencies that they've mobilized," he said.
May Day protests held across the U.S. in 2006, might serve as a close comparison, McCartin said. Those protests were triggered by a Congressional bill that would increase penalties for illegal immigration. Some 2 million demonstrators rallied in 140 cities and 39 states.
This week's protests, however, are more heavily leveraging the power of grassroots networks to get ample protest events up and running quickly, the professor noted.
"What is remarkable about this May Day is the wide variety of issues that are being raised up, the spontaneity of it, and just the massive spread of it — the fact that it's happening in so many places," he said. "I think that we are seeing something that's gathering momentum."
NPR's Emma Bowman reported from Los Angeles. NPR's Windsor Johnson contributed reporting from Washington, D.C. Nick Karmia of KJZZ News reported from Phoenix, Ariz. Mississippi Public Broadcasting reporter Shamira Muhammad contributed from Jackson, Miss.
Copyright 2025 NPR
