February 05, 2025 04:10 PM UTC

Thousands Turn Out To Protest Trump In Downtown Denver

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• by: Colorado Pols

I’ve seen just as many anti-Elon Musk signs as anti-Trump signs at this protest in Denver. @DenverChannel #copolitics pic.twitter.com/HPBabVWFPT

— Brandon Richard (@BrandonLRichard) February 5, 2025

As the Denver Post’s political team Seth Klamann and Nick Coltrain report from the Colorado Capitol today, what’s being described by all accounts as an unexpectedly large crowd of thousands has turned out as part of nationwide “50501” protests–for 50 protests in fifty states on one day against President Donald Trump and the presently escalating crackdown on immigrants.

Perhaps you’re there now:

A growing crowd of thousands that began gathering shortly before noon quickly spilled onto Lincoln Street, fully blocking it. Protesters carried signs criticizing Trump, his billionaire adviser Elon Musk, the Trump administration’s Project 2025 plan, and anti-immigrant rhetoric generally.

One chant took aim at Trump, while another, in Spanish, said that “a town united will never be defeated.” Signs included, in Spanish, one reading “immigrants are the heart of this country” and another depicting Musk’s recent Nazi-like salute…

As the demonstration unfolded in Denver, parts of the crowd broke off to march along area streets, including up Colfax Avenue in either direction and down Broadway, resulting in Denver police closing certain streets.

Although these protests were originally organized to protest against immigration policy, a much broader scope of alarming actions by the Trump administration since his inauguration seems to be fueling today’s turnout–in particular the world’s richest man Elon Musk’s sweeping attempt to gut federal spending and redirect what’s left to politically approved ends. From AP’s nationwide coverage:

Protesters in Philadelphia and at state capitols in California, Minnesota, Michigan, Texas, Wisconsin, Indiana and beyond waved signs denouncing President Donald Trump; billionaire Elon Musk, the leader of Trump’s new Department of Government Efficiency; and Project 2025, a hard-right playbook for American government and society…

Catie Miglietti, from the Ann Arbor area, said Musk’s access to the Treasury Department data was especially concerning. She painted a sign depicting Musk puppeteering Trump from his outraised arm — evoking Musk’s straight-arm gesture during a January speech that some have interpreted as a Nazi salute…

“DOGE is not legit,” read one poster on the state Capitol steps in Jefferson City, Missouri, where dozens of protesters gathered. “Why does Elon have your Social Security info???”

After Trump’s unequivocal victory in last November’s, opponents lacked the immediate motivation to organize large protests like the January 2017 Women’s March that brought the largest non-sports crowd to downtown Denver in history. Trump’s popular vote support gave him political momentum that deflated the immediate resistance he endured after winning in 2016 without it.

With Trump’s second-term misdeeds piling up like an Acela train wreck, Team Normal is remembering how to fight back.