All over the country, people spent Presidents’ Day protesting the current occupant of the White House, and that includes right here in Connecticut. Hundreds of people gathered outside the state capitol to say they think the Trump administration is going too far.
Hundreds of people around Connecticut joined nationwide protests on Presidents Day in opposition of President Donald Trump.
Rallies were held in Washington, D.C. and in cities around the country, including Hartford and New Haven.
“Basically, fight for all of our rights, not just my own rights but the rights of children growing up in this country,” Hanna Westby, of Middletown, said while protesting outside the state Capitol.
Protestors said they wanted to send a message to both Trump and Elon Musk, the special government employee tasked with cutting spending at the Department of Government Efficiency.
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“We did not elect Elon Musk and he’s an unelected official stealing our data and just tearing apart our government,” Christine Perez, of Danbury, said.
Republicans in Connecticut were quick to defend Trump and his performance for the first 30 days of his second term in the White House.
“I think we’re doing a lot to help this country, the amount of unnecessary spending that they’ve covered has been amazing,” Anastasia Yopp, of Newington, said.
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Republicans said Trump has delivered on his campaign promises, namely looking for ways to cut government spending.
They also said voters wanted Trump to focus on immigration. Connecticut Republican Chairman Ben Proto said Democrats were overreacting when they declared the country is in a constitutional crisis.
“The president is doing exactly what he promised he was going to do on the campaign trail, which I think is one of the issues that the Democrats have is they've never seen that before,” he said.
But protestors said they believe Trump is dismantling the federal government and eroding rights for various groups.
They think Trump is testing the limits of his powers as president and worry what will happen if he ignores a judge’s decision limiting them.
“We have respect for our presidents in the past who had respect for rule of law and had respect for people,” David Rabinowitz said at the protest in New Haven.
