Quick Take
An estimated 1,000 people took to the street in front of the Santa Cruz County courthouse Monday to express their anger at President Donald Trump, Elon Musk and all the chaos in Washington. Protests took place all around the country on Presidents Day.
On a uniquely American holiday, hundreds of Santa Cruzans showed up Monday to engage in a uniquely American constitutional right.
About a thousand people showed up on the Presidents Day holiday in front of the Santa Cruz County courthouse to protest a number of issues, all of them tied to the actions of President Donald Trump and his administration since he took office four weeks ago.
Amid a more or less constant chorus of honking cars passing by on Water Street, presumably most if not all in the support, the protesters waved signs, shouted slogans and engaged in call-and-response chanting — “What do we do when we’re under attack?” shouted a man leading a column of people walking down Water Street toward Ocean Street. “Stand up, fight back!” came the response from the crowd.
The event was part of a nationwide anti-Trump protest movement known as “Not My President Day,” an offshot of another protest campaign called “50-50-1,” which sought to stage protests in every state capital on Feb. 5, itself a social media campaign launched on Reddit. Dozens of protests took place on Monday throughout the U.S. from Boston to Orlando, Florida’ Aurora, Colorado, to Green Bay, Wisconsin; Tulsa, Oklahoma, to Portland and Salem, Oregon.
“We organized this in literally two days,” said Jenny Evans of Indivisible Santa Cruz. “Things are happening so quickly, that people just show up.”
Evans and Indivisible co-organizer Angela Marshall said that Santa Cruz has one of the largest memberships of the nationally based organization in California, with nearly 3,000 names on its mailing list.
Dinah Davis of Santa Cruz was at the event on Monday. She also attended the famed Women’s March in Washington, D.C., following Trump’s first inauguration in 2017. Asked why she was at the event, she said, “I cannot stand what Trump and [Elon] Musk are doing to our country.”
THE TRUMP PRESIDENCY AND SANTA CRUZ COUNTY: Find Lookout’s continuing coverage here
Rob Darrow, also on hand, responded to the same question with, “We’ve got to stand up to the federal government. We’ve got to make a show. Y’know, it’s hard to know what to do. But forming groups, community, all that stuff is important.”
Noel Lightborn was singing a spiritual alongside her friend Kerry Haas. “The coup is cuckoo,” she said. “I’m here because I’m a grandma and I want to leave a better world for my children.” Her friend Haas said, “This is a kleptocracy. They’re closing down the national parks and they want to get resources out of all the public lands. Those are our lands.”
There was at least one counterprotester at the event. A man who identified himself as “Hector, a proud born-and-raised Santa Cruzan,” walked down the sidewalk in front of the protesters loudly proclaiming, “Mexicans for Trump!”
“I had just left the gym,” said Hector, gesturing toward Santa Cruz Power Fitness on Water Street. He had driven past the protest and on impulse parked and got out. Several people confronted Hector as he made his way down the street. At one point, one man got very close to him, screaming at his face and touching his shoulder. “Don’t touch me, because if you do, I get to touch you back,” said Hector. The other man returned later to apologize.
Several protesters expressed deep concern about what they view as threats to democracy, pointing to efforts by Trump and tech billionaire Musk to slash the federal workforce, freeze funding and curb the powers of government agencies as pushing the country toward an authoritarian regime. “This is a coup of billionaires, that’s why I’m here,” said Caitlin Johnston, a teacher from Felton who attended the protest wearing a headpiece in the shape of a rainbow.
Protesters carried placards with critiques of both Trump and Musk. Nancy Birang, who lives in the Santa Cruz Mountains, held a sign reading “Elon and tech teens hands off our data!” and said she was protesting to help preserve democracy. “This is going to an authoritarian oligarchy where you won’t even have the right to vote,” Birang said.
The demonstration drew a diverse crowd. Darius Mohsenin, a well-known Santa Cruz landlord, said this was his first protest. “A lot of folks know me in town. They probably think I’m a conservative Trumper. But for somebody like me to come out to a protest – and this is probably the first time I’ve ever protested – that’s saying something about the country we live in and the situation going on.”
Members of Indivisible Santa Cruz County rushed to organize the event over the weekend, spreading the word on social media and email. Amanda Harris Altice, who helped organize the protest, said the event was meant as a call to action. “Donald Trump today is not our president, he does not stand for the values that we represent,” she said.
Throughout the demonstration, the sound of honking cars could be heard as protesters chanted “Not my president.” Matt Bartlett, who lives from Scotts Valley and carried Mexican and Canadian flags, said that the turnout nearly matched a similar protest he attended earlier this month in Sacramento. “This is a really good thing to do for local courthouses and I sure hope it’s happening all over,” he said.
Santa Cruz resident Susi Miller carried a sign that read “There’s only one immigrant taking people’s jobs,” an apparent reference to Musk, who was born in South Africa. “It’s a very dark time. I feel powerless,” she said. “But when I see people coming out like this I feel like we have a chance.”
Tamsin McMahon contributed to this report.
Have something to say? Lookout welcomes letters to the editor, within our policies, from readers. Guidelines here.