Fewer than 100 people gathered Saturday along west Newberry Road in Gainesville to protest changes to federal healthcare programs and other initiatives of President Donald Trump’s administration.

Hard by the highway in front of the Oaks Mall at 10 a.m. it was hot, pushing 90 degrees.  But there was something of a chill in the air.

“People are afraid,” said Stephanie Parks, who partially covered her face with her protest sign while having a picture taken for this story. 

“My husband is scared, I’m not,” said Parks, who drove with several friends from Inverness to join in the demonstration. “He worries someone will hunt me down or something if I’m too public. So, when I go to events like this we decided to just say ‘I’m going to therapy.’”

The large block letters on Park’s homemade placard read, “JOIN US.  IT’S CHEAPER THAN THERAPY.”

Saturday’s protest was dwarfed by the June 14 “No Kings” rally in Gainesville where more than 2,000 demonstrated against President Trump’s policies when he observed his 79^th birthday and the Army’s 250^th anniversary with a military parade in Washington, D.C. 

Activists say the throngs at “No Kings” events nationwide were spurred largely by the debate leading up to the military parade and by immigration raids that prompted civic backlash — most notably in Los Angeles where the president deployed the national guard over the objections of the governor and mayor. 

Monique Costantino, with the group Badass Feminists of Gainesville, was attending her 24^th protest of the year Saturday.  She sees the Gainesville “resistance movement” as a glass half-full.

“We have actually seen a gradual increase in participation since we began,” Costantino said, without offering specific numbers. In a play on Richard Nixon’s “silent majority,” Costantino said there are many who oppose the dramatic actions and policy shifts at the state and federal level but aren’t “the type who go to demonstrations.”  

Gainesville Mayor Harvey Ward told Mainstreet he would have been at the Saturday protest but was in Cleveland attending a meeting of the Democratic Mayors Association.

“You can’t read too much into the attendance numbers at a protest in the late July heat,” Ward said, but added that he measures his responses to state and federal actions carefully in the current political environment.

“I’m very careful not to throw stones,” Ward said. “I’m very much aware of who has the power at the moment, and it’s not me.”

Ward said the city will cooperate, for instance, with the newly created state department of government efficiency (DOGE) as it audits the city in the governor’s quest to lower taxes by eliminating what he views as waste and abuse.

“We’ll see where it leads,” Ward said, adding that he’s prepared to play hardball if the governor moves “unlawfully” against Gainesville’s best interests.

Ward said he came away from the conference in Ohio this weekend convinced there is no malaise in the opposition.

“There’s plenty of fight left in America’s mayors,” Ward exclaimed.

Miami-Dade Mayor Daniella Levine-Cava, however, has been loudly criticized — even on billboards erected along city expressways — for not doing enough to challenge the governor’s seizure of county land for the “Alligator Alcatraz” immigrant detention camp.

Levine-Cava told Mainstreet she hasn’t taken the governor to court over the pop-up prison in the Everglades because she fears losing her job.

“We have a law in Florida that requires counties to cooperate with immigration,” Levine-Cava said. “The governor could remove me from office if I interfere. I think it’s not a good law, but I have to follow the law.”

Donna Turkey of Gainesville said participating in Saturday’s protest required some personal courage.

“I’m scared. I’m absolutely afraid of being targeted, I’m afraid of posting on social media. It’s fearful,” Turkey said. “Look at Stephen Colbert. Is South Park next?”

The Saturday protest in Gainesville was organized by Families First to advocate for restoring cuts to healthcare, safety, education and food programs in the federal budget plan approved this month, the so-called “big, beautiful bill.”

Tonya Camaratta, active in the Alachua County Democratic Committee, said married couples and families have reason to join in the protest.

“Millions of Floridians will see big increases in their Obamacare (ACA) premiums — big increases — January 1^st,” Camaratta said. “More than 1.2 million people in Florida will lose their Medicaid coverage if it’s not reversed.”

For Mary Kilgore, the Saturday protest was personal. The 84-year-old Gainesville resident received a Ph.D. from Harvard University and spent an entire career working in developing nations for USAID. The Trump administration has dismantled the aid agency and is attempting to strip her alma mater of billions in federal funding.

“The last time I got out on the street and protested anything was against continuing the Vietnam war,” Kilgore said. 

She said she will take to the street again next Saturday.