Around 300 Gainesville protesters gathered on all four corners of the University Avenue and Main Street intersection on Monday, Presidents’ Day, to display their opposition to the current administration and steps President Donald Trump has taken since Jan. 20.
Gainesville Women for Democracy helped organize the event, and many local organizations spread information. But the protest was largely grassroots with attendees hearing by word of mouth versus a single organizing entity.
Several Facebook groups and local organizations posted information. North Central Florida Indivisible announced the event as the Not My President Protest for Democracy with the tagline “We the people not we the billionaires.”
David Arreola, a former Gainesville city commissioner for two terms, said the protest is part of the 50501 protests that have been happening across the nation since Trump’s inauguration. The 50501 protests started with the idea of having 50 protests in 50 states on the same day (Feb. 5).
The 50501 Movement came up with the “Not My President Protest” on Monday. Protests are happening or planned in Orlando, Miami and other cities across the nation.
The original idea has spurred on more protests, and Arreola said the plan is to continue the protests while putting pressure on politicians. He said the protest leaders organized a day, time and location but the issues people decided to tack to signs are their own.
He said everything is in reaction to the “seismic shift” in America since Trump entered office for a second time.
“This is in response to everything,” Arreola said, including executive overreach.
Signs focused on Elon Musk’s authority within the new administration, immigration policy, the Jan. 6 riots and banning books. Signs also responded to fears about the erosion of democracy, rises in fascism and growing tyranny under the current administration.
“Dump Trump” and “Hey hey, ho ho, Elon Musk has got to go” were chanted by the protesters while many drivers honked passing through the intersection.
On Feb. 5, the original 50501 protest, hundreds gathered in Tallahassee around the state capitol. Arreola said a group of around 110 people gathered in Gainesville at Congresswoman Kat Cammack’s office.
Arreola said he thinks the protests will continue to grow. The groups accept anyone unhappy with Trump’s actions in office, including anyone who voted for Trump and now regrets it, Arreola said.
Alachua County is one of six counties in Florida that Trump lost, with Kamala Harris earning 81,578 votes compared to Trump’s 52,939 votes.
Someone said they saw Lorelei there!
Lorelei’s drawing of Trump as Hitler was used a protest sign.
It amazes me how many people are railing against curbing waste and abuse of our federal tax dollars. Seems like a strange hill to die on.
You really show your stupidity.
WAKE UP. YOU GOT FOOLED. THE DICTATORS ARE TAKING OVER LIL, SHEEP LIKE YOU.
The Good Folks we will continue to Fight back.
Soon something the Fascists do will affect you than maybe you will wake up from your koolaid Coma !
God loves you DJ – and so do we my brutha. Lol. Buckle up-goin’ to be a great 12 years!
Everything the previous administration did (or failed to do) affected us. The election just showed who was in a Kool Aid coma and who understands that the course we were on was not sustainable.
Y’all MAGA thinking a convict and multi bankrupt man child is everybody’s salvation clearly shows who’s chuggin dat Kool Aid, believe me.
Thank for stating the obvious
The last four years took US to the brink of disaster
The greatest erosion of Democracy in our history
A dictatorship of the thought police driven by the elitist Soros crowd who care only about their twisted ideology and nothing about you
Curbing waste is the job of a bipartisan Congress, not unelected billionaires.
So, contact your Congress person to demand that this be done!
Kat Cammack sits in the House for Florida’s 3rd Congressional district. The result of that is that I do not have a “congress person” who represents me.
Good luck getting Dems to cooperate on anything that hits their political slush fund that is the current us budget
No so it is the job of the Ptesidency to control and manage tehr bloated corrupt bureaucracy
Do you really think it’s ok for unelected, in many cases unidentified people to have access to all our tax and health data? I find that absolutely terrifying, because they will misuse it to harm us and profit them. Most civil servants are dedicated people who care fiercely about their country. My father was a civil servant, he worked himself into an early grave for the good of his fellow Americans, often at his desk late at night and on weekends. What’s going on right now isn’t about curbing waste and abuse, it’s about destroying government, period. Then who will maintain our infrastructure: roads, dams, bridges? Who will manage vital services like Social Security, the VA, Medicare? They’ll just privatize everything — and THAT is where the real waste, fraud and corruption comes in. We’ll keep paying more and more and getting less and less. Medicare fraud is actually minimal: instead of making Americans wait until they are 65 to be free of the fear of being bankrupted by health costs due to the greed of private insurers, we should ALL be covered by it, and not have it undermined and wrecked as the current would-be dictators wish.
Judges are also “unelected”. They are appointed. Think of the power over us they wield!
The president of our country appointed a group of people to look into the misuse of our hard earned tax dollars. Just look at what they’ve uncovered in just a short time. Have you actually heard of where some of these outrageous sums are ending up? A lot of it is simply money laundering by corrupt government officials. Why has this abuse been allowed to go on for years and years? Because the corrupt politicians and government workers have been getting rich on our tax dollars. If we keep doing the same things we are doing, our country will go bankrupt. Period. Is that OK with you?
I don’t know if any of the appointed people have access to any of our specific health or financial data but I am sure that Google, Apple and Microsoft do.
That you for a sane reply
We already have hundreds of thousands of unelected, unidentifiable people who have access to your tax and health data. They are civil servants, just like your father. The problem is not the civil servants per se, it’s the massive growth of government that leads to wasteful spending. Important agencies like Social Security, the VA, and Medicare will stay in place. We just want them to be more efficient and accountable to the taxpayers who depend on them and who pay for their services.
They are not curbing waste. This is wholesale destruction of our government, its laws and our Constitution. Curbing waste requires informed, truly thoughtful, and planned actions. Veterans will suffer, children will suffer as will the elderly and countless others. I can guarantee Musk has never taken a civil service exam or gone through a thorough security clearance. He will make lots of money from his government contracts. I am disgusted with his immorality and lack of humanity
It was late Monday afternoon on Newberry Rd. We were having a late lunch at a MiaApa and a couple tables away were some older,disheveled couples b*tching loudly about the government taking away dogs in Gainesville and chastizing Trump’s DOGE team (with the focus on deputized Mr. Musk of course), etc. Very animated group but definitely not too good for the poor waitresses I can assure you (even complained about the prices as well!!!). Apparently they were part of the massive “300” that assembled in G’Ville (The movie “300” was much more entertaining than this group I can assure you – pass the Geritol) as I recognized a couple in the photos this morning. These are life’s losers and The True Believers that we see(and will continue to see until they expire) in these “massive” protests. Just smile at them and please don’t honk. They startle easily.
So, Where do I sign up to support a Trump/Musk rally? Redirecting trillions of dollars from DOGE to support so many things we “can’t afford”, like our Veterans, should be such a non-political issue.
yeah, we can’t afford the National Park Service, or the NIH or any such silly thing like the National Science Foundation. we sure can afford defense spending and golf trips and trips to mar-a-lago and daytona 500 and detaining aliens in gitmo. that surely will make ‘Merica great.
references:
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/feb/15/us-forest-service-national-park-service-layoffs
https://www.npr.org/2025/02/12/nx-s1-5292359/what-cuts-to-nih-funding-could-mean-for-american-universities
https://www.npr.org/2025/01/31/nx-s1-5282162/scientists-grants-frozen-trump-executive-actions-dei-deia
and my favorite reference:
https://www.cnn.com/2025/02/18/politics/mar-a-lago-trump-remote-work-golf/index.html
You love that NPR, Dude. Hope you can listen to it by December?!
Lil Dogie, is cutting VA benefits. He already cut 1,000 jobs from our VA here in Gville. Expect much longer wait times, delays getting surgery, and appts. You all voted for this. Enjoy.
and the Alachua County tradition of radical recreation continues….soon to be a major at UF…..
Musk is not an experienced auditor, nor does he know the details of all our government agencies. He’s a guy with $15 billion in federal contracts who gave Trump $250 million for his campaign. That was a smart – if corrupt – idea, unlike his paying $442 billion for Twitter/X, now worth 1/2 that. Given that he fired several hundred NSA employees who were tasked with guarding our nuclear stockpiles – and had to hustle to rehire them when he learned his mistake, and mistakenly came to the conclusion that 85% of SS accounts were fraudulent, and has fired medical researchers, he proves he doesn’t know what he’s doing. The inspector generals Trump fired – 5 of them were or had been working on Musk government contracts – did know what they were doing.
This is all a “government efficiency” ruse to cut loose funds for extending Trump’s rich guy tax cut, due to expire this year, and to hell with national debt that will add.
The word “billionaire” seems to be a trigger word for some people. When someone works hard and grows companies and creates jobs to become a billionaire, it helps everyone. By the way, a billionaire doesn’t have that much money in his or her pocket. That money is invested in American businesses that provide the services and goods and jobs that people want. If you don’t like what Musk has to offer, then don’t buy his cars and don’t post on X. That way, we’re all sure to be poorer and no one will be a billionaire.
Hahaha
The man is worth $392 BIllion. Stock for his products has tanked, globally, due to his adventures in the US Federal government. Do you really think a guy like this cares about the average American? He doesn’t invest in America, he invests in himself, his companies Twitter(X), etc.
If you think all billionaires got their wealth honestly though hard work and use is for the betterment of the country you might want to audition for the role of Pollyanna. There is massive corruption and greed out there.
Jazzman,
You nailed it on the head. To add to your thought, he wants to eliminate the cap on the national debt.
“President-elect Donald Trump now wants to eliminate the statutory debt limit entirely after pushing Republicans to hold the nation’s credit hostage under Democratic presidents.” (President-elect Donald Trump speaks during a news conference at Mar-a-Lago, Dec. 16, 2024, in Palm Beach, Florida.)
Trump NEVER had the desire to do the work of a president, he just wanted to avoid prison. Therefore, Elon Musk saw an opportunity to add to his bank account, and, of course, he knew Delusional (and not-so- very-bright Trump) would feel honored to have him (world’s richest man) on his team. Therefore, Musk paid for Trump to get elected ~ and, in exchange, Trump gave Musk the keys to our government, and Musk knows he needs to destroy everything in order to line his pockets. Trump is delighted with the set-up, because he (world’s greatest sloth) doesn’t need to do much work; he equates money with brains, and he thinks just the presence of the world’s richest man makes him [Trump] look brilliant and, even, richer than he actually is! We CAN’T let our Democracy be destroyed; it takes the work of each one of us to fight back everyday! Protest, Write Letters; Donate!!!
PS Musk paid $42 billion for Twitter, not $442 billion. It is now worth about 1/2 of what he paid for it.
Yep, his worth is $392 Billion. Good catch.
So this group opposes saving the taxpayer money. Probably not tax payers.
When our Veterans lose their benefits because of Musk, let me know how that works out for them. The people who only fly private planes cut funds for the FAA, so much for the lives of people who fly commerical airlines. Rich people are for rich people. Not the average American.
I am a Veteran and know of no LIVING or LEGAL veteran who has lost their benefits. That’s scare tactics, Same with SS and Medicare. If you are a LIVING AMERICAN CITIZEN, you have NOTHING to worry about.
Thank you, editors, reporters, and staff for covering this demonstration. I urge you to delve more deeply into the protesters concerns and why they see the trajectory of Trump, Musk, and his administration. It is plain to anyone who has read George Orwell’s “1984” and Professor Timothy Snyder’s book “On Tyranny” that we are well on our way to a Dictatorship.
Wow and what were the last 4 years
He was an American president. Not Putin’s puppet.
There were more than 1300 protesters. Perhaps your reporter was there too early.
Wasteful spending?
1. UF would loose $45 million in NIH funding alone. But, that was surely wasteful spending. See https://www.wcjb.com/2025/02/17/university-florida-faces-medical-research-cuts-due-trump-administration-policy-changes/
2. I took a Scout Troop to Cumberland Island National Seashore this weekend. All but one National Park Service Ranger has been let go as of Friday. National Park Service must be wasteful spending. Preservation work obviously stopped. How will these historic monuments and natural wonders be maintained for the future?
These are but two examples with some degree of evidence beyond “I heard on ____ (social media site like Truth Social or X)”
The VA announced that staff at Gainesville and Lake City’s VA hospitals will be cut. Who are the “experts” looking at these, because Musk is not an expert on the VA or any government agencies except maybe the ones he makes money off of. Where is Congress, which according to the Constitution – remember that – has the power of the purse. The president, let alone some rich dude off the street who gave him a lot of money doesn’t have the power to close agencies established by the Congress.
Apparently MAGA means not paying attention to laws or the Constitution and thinking that can end well.
Nobody elected President Musk and yet y’all MAGA are OK with he and his boys (who nobody knows what security clearance, if any, they hold) poke around your neighbors’and fellow citizens’ Social Security numbers income tax and other private information.
Those of you all right with that are the ones truly duped here.
300 people out of 80,000+ in Alachua County constitutes a crowd or a movement? Laughable.
Typical Gainesville liberals of retirement age with nothing better to do.