Demonstrators thronged around the state Capitol in Hartford, filled a park in Stamford and crowded other venues in Connecticut as part of a national “Hands Off” day of action protesting President Donald J. Trump’s upending of the economy, immigration and every corner of federal government in little more than two months back in power. The estimated 1,300 rallies throughout the U.S. were billed as the single largest and loudest message aimed at a president who, in concert with the world’s richest man, Elon Musk, and a compliant Republican Congress has opened a world-wide trade war, curtailed foreign aid, slashed services and emptied federal agencies. Protesters at the Hands Off! rally at the state Capitol in Hartford on April 5, 2025. Credit: Mark Pazniokas / ct mirror “A little rain is not going to stop us from saving democracy,” Jim Chapdelaine of the activist group Indivisible told the crowd gathered in a chill rain, filling the plaza off the north portico of the Capitol and spilling into Bushnell Park. Capitol police estimated attendance between 2,500 and 3,000. Dr. Neal Testerman, a 95-year-old retired pathologist from Hartford Hospital, looked up at Chapdelaine from a wheelchair, a colorful crocheted blanket on his lap. He held a sign: “Born in 1929. I vote.” He was accompanied by his 74-year-old daughter, Sherrell, a retired public health nurse. Dr. Neal Testerman, center, and his daughter Sherrell, at his left, at the Hands Off! rally in Hartford on April 5, 2025. Credit: Mark Pazniokas / ct mirror Chapdelaine, a musician, composer and record producer with a side gig as a leader of Indivisible, said the events were a therapeutic outcry, a rallying point for future organization and political mobilization ahead of the municipal and midterm elections, and a jab at the congressional Republicans standing with the president. “All across the country people are stepping up and sending a clear message,” he said. “The hope is that this is ultimately going to drive Republicans across this country to finally step up and grow a spine, and to make a decision to push back on what we’re seeing against the president.” The Hartford demonstration was expected to be the largest in Connecticut, where protests were staged in small villages like Warren in Litchfield County, cities like Stamford and Danbury in Fairfield County, Enfield on the Massachusetts border and Killingly in the Quiet Corner of eastern Connecticut. People taking part in the “Hands Off” protest in Stamford on April 5, 2025. Credit: Emilia Otte / CT Mirror “This is the resistance,” said state Treasurer Erick Russell, the first openly gay Black man elected to statewide office in the U.S. “This is about people stepping up to save democracy itself.” Russell was one of the statewide elected Democrats who pinballed around Connecticut at the various demonstrations before gathering in Hartford, where he was joined by Lt. Gov. Susan Bysiewicz, Comptroller Sean Scanlon, Attorney General William Tong, and U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal. Russell had come from Torrington. Blumenthal and Tong from Stamford. “This is what democracy looks like,” Blumenthal said. A crowd of hundreds spilled from the steps of the Connecticut State Capitol building into Bushnell Park as protestors decried the actions of the Trump administration as part of the national “Hands Off” day of protest on April 5, 2025. Credit: Ryan Caron King / Connecticut Public Scanlon said the day was an affirmation of collective political power at a time when people are feeling adrift. “Every day somebody comes up to me and they say, ‘Sean, I feel hopeless. I feel powerless. What should I do?’ And I tell them, ‘Realize your power,’ because we have the power.” Tong was cheered in both cities when he told them he had sued Trump three times in the past week. Attorney General William Tong speaks to a crowd of protesters in Stamford on April 5, 2025. Credit: Emilia Otte / CT Mirror “We are taking the fight to Donald Trump and Elon Musk and the whole team in Washington,” Tong said in Stamford, a line repeated nearly verbatim in Hartford. Tong pointed to lawsuits he’d filed alongside other states’ attorneys general to stop the administration from cutting $11 billion in public health grants to states, and against two Executive Orders — one that would require voters to provide proof of citizenship and another that would dismantle several federal agencies, including one that oversees libraries and museums.  He also recounted the successes that he and other attorneys general have had in temporarily blocking orders from the federal government, including an executive order eliminating birthright citizenship and another attempting to immediately freeze all federal funds. He praised the checks and balances inherent in the U.S. government that allowed the judicial system to block orders from the executive branch.  “ I’m glad to see all of you out there, because what I see in other places is too much surrender, too much laying down, too much appeasement. Too much capitulation,” he said.   People taking part in the “Hands Off” protests in Stamford on April 5, 2025. Credit: Emilia Otte / CT Mirror Rep. Matt Blumenthal, D-Stamford, told The Connecticut Mirror that the cuts were having concrete effects on people’s lives.  “ These illegal cuts are destructive to real people’s lives here in Connecticut, whether they need access to Social Security, Medicaid or federally qualified health centers, or they’re a federal worker. They’re having huge destructive effects, and we’re out here to say, hands off, stop attacking our democracy,” he said. U.S. Rep. John B. Larson, the long-time congressman from the 1st District of Greater Hartford, was cheered in Hartford as the man who torched Musk as a no-show at a congressional hearing, an episode that went viral on social media and was featured by Rachel Maddox on MSNBC. “This is all about a tax cut for the wealthy,” Larson said. Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security all are in jeopardy, Larson said. Congressman John Larson speaks to a crowd of hundreds on the steps of the Connecticut State Capitol during Hartford’s “Hands Off” protest on April 5, 2025. Credit: Ryan Caron King / Connecticut Public Each protester seemed to bring their own special grievance or collection of overlapping grievances with the president, ranging from his gutting of USAID and abandonment of international relief to his hostility aimed at transgender athletes and service members. Fairfield resident Nicola Gates, who said she used to work in international development, is distressed by the administration’s foreign policy.  “I look at what has happened to USAID, and my heart breaks,” she said.  Susan McIntyre of Stamford said her company owns a poultry plant in Georgia. She said the administration has revoked the green cards of 1,600 of their employees, amounting to about 20 percent of their workforce.  “They’re from Haiti. They can’t go back,” she said of the workers. Chris Day of Greenwich held a giant Ukrainian flag and warned that he saw the situation in Ukraine as just the beginning.  “ It’s ‘Let’s take over Greenland. Let’s take over Canada’ … When does it stop? Who makes it stop?” he said. Demonstrators at the Hands Off! rally in Willimantic, where hundreds showed up in the rain on Main Street outside Willimantic Town Hall. Credit: Paul Stern / CT Mirror In Hartford, Nettie Parker and two friends said they were horrified by immigrants disappearing off the streets. Parker is an immigration lawyer struggling with whether to advise a client to keep a scheduled appointment with ICE. She held a sign proclaiming herself to be an “Immigration attorney against disappearing people. Including me..” “This is my third or fourth protest,” Parker said. One inspiration was the video of six masked federal agents arresting a 30-year-old Turkish doctoral student at Tufts University on a street in Somerville, Mass. “That really got to me.” The signs ranged from angry to pleading to funny. “Make American Something We’re Not Ashamed of Again!” “Wake Up.” “Hands Off My Hard Earned Social Security.” Mary Pat Bigley of West Hartford held one that wryly suggested disapproval of Trump’s reliance on TV talking heads for key appointments: “IKEA has better cabinets.” The vibe in Hartford was as varied as the signs, a mix of anger and fear, and humor — dark and otherwise. More than a few protesters declined to give their names. One of the prolonged chants was, “Love, not hate, make America great.” The rain resumed as the event wound down at 4:30 p.m. after 90 minutes of speeches. Chapdelaine suggested a tune. He began, and soon there were a thousand or more voices singing Woody Guthrie’s “This Land is Your Land.” He thanked them at the finish. “Stay with this,” he said. “Stay with this.” ...read more read less