On Presidents’ Day 2025, over 300 people gathered outside San Francisco City Hall and about 60 people in front of a Tesla showroom on Monday afternoon to protest Donald Trump’s executive power and his ally, Elon Musk.
The protest at City Hall was organized by an online grassroots organization called 50501. The name is symbolic of the group’s goal of “50 protests, 50 states, one day.” The group promoted the event, which is a decentralized democracy movement, through Reddit. The protest at the Tesla showroom was organized by a grassroots organization called Indivisible.
Prassan is a Bay Area resident who was an attendee of the event and also went to the protest at San Jose City Hall on Feb. 5, organized by 50501.
“It’s motivated me to be more active,” said Prassan in response to the actions of Trump and Musk. “Grassroots effort gets the spark started. I’m inspired. I’m making calls, but still, a lot of work is needed, so I am trying to get my friends involved.”
The crowd was energized with lots of people carrying signs loaded with words of anger and outrage. Mexican flags and rainbow flags waved as a group formed a circle around a woman, who was named Sue and only wanted to be referred to by her first name out of fear of retaliation.
“There is a message we need to get out there,” Sue shouted repeatedly. “This is going to affect everyone cutting and gutting Medicaid and Medicare, [Future Farmers of America] and civil servants who have experience with the systems that run our life, but don’t feel hopeless because we fought him once and we’ll fight him again. And in 2026, the Democrats are gonna take power — don’t give up hope. Call reps five times a week. Tell them ‘don’t raise the debt ceiling to keep a check on him [Trump].’”
In contrast to the majority of the crowd there, Joel Kamisher was in attendance to raise awareness about local issues. Despite the events occurring at the national level, there are many issues in our local communities that need attention, too, according to Kamisher. He protested the new City Hall administration’s proposal to cut the crossing guard program because of budget deficit issues. Kamisher has been a crossing guard for ten years and an SEIU 1021 union rep for eight years.
“Cutting the crossing guards is shortsighted,” Kamisher said. “We protect people and the city from lawsuits. We keep kids safe and act as a neighborhood watch which is a good alternative to policing.”
Kamisher also promoted reaching out to local officials like the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency Board of Directors to voice concerns.
After an hour, the protest at City Hall ended and a smaller crowd marched to the Tesla showroom at Van Ness Avenue and O’Farrell Street. Some protesters sprayed graffiti on the store’s windows and entrance.
San Francisco resident Robert Irminger, a former labor organizer, said he was at the protest to bring attention to the fact that people are unhappy with what is going on in Washington.
“The antidote to despair is action,” Irminger said in reference to his experience as an organizer. “I’ve seen things like this lots of times. I’ve been doing this for 40 years. I will participate in actions like these. For me, the real power lies in the working class and the ability of working people to work in concert for their own ends.”
