The crowds began to gather in front of Town Hall in East Hampton and at Steinbeck Park in Sag Harbor around 11:45 on Saturday morning as part of the Hands Off! rallies held concurrently across the country and in Mexico to protest the actions of the new Trump administration.
The Sag Harbor and East Hampton protests, each hundreds strong, were organized by Indivisible of Eastern Long Island, a branch of the larger Indivisible group that has been working to establish local collective action organizations.
“Donald Trump and Elon Musk think this country belongs to them,” the Hands Off website reads. “They're taking everything they can get their hands on, and daring the world to stop them.”
Erica-Lynn Huberty, a member of Indivisible of Eastern Long Island, said a big factor behind the protest was the funding cuts to various institutions. “We’ve got vulnerable people in our community, elderly people, people without food, that are being directly hit,” she said at the Sag Harbor rally. “There are library programs that have been canceled this week and we thought it was really important to join in the now-international march today.”
In East Hampton, several hundred people, including Supervisor Kathee Burke-Gonzalez and Councilwoman Cate Rogers, as well as Jeff Bragman, a former councilman, and Susan McGraw Keber, a former town trustee, lined Montauk Highway outside Town Hall. Traffic was at a near standstill along the stretch of roadway, the protesters spilling onto the asphalt from both sides and police officers urging them to stay off the road.
As in Sag Harbor, people waved flags and carried signs and banners. “Hands Off Democracy,” “Resist,” and “Defy Fascism” were among the messages. “Dump Trump: Don’t Make America His 7th Bankruptcy,” read another. One posed a question: “Can My State Become Canada’s 11th Province?”
Demonstrators also took aim at Mr. Musk, the world’s richest man and leader of the so-called Department of Government Efficiency, which has made multiple misleading and erroneous claims about cost-cutting efforts. Musk’s Tesla Inc., which sells electric vehicles, has seen its stock lose more than 50 percent of its value since mid-December 2024 amid declining sales throughout the world. “Throw Teslas Into Boston Harbor,” read one sign at the East Hampton demonstration.
In Sag Harbor, Hilary Thayer Hamann, another member of Indivisible of Eastern Long Island, said turnout was bigger than expected. Two hundred people had registered for the Sag Harbor protest online, “but I would say it’s maybe at 300,” she said.
Many of those gathered had multiple reasons for turning out, among them threats to Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid, and the environment, as well as the war in Ukraine and the ongoing conflict in Israel and Palestine. But the overarching theme of the day was the perceived overreach of the Trump administration, and the desire to send a message that there is a strong and vocal opposition. John Burns, who served in the Navy from 1969 to 1973, was walking with a bright yellow “Don’t Tread on Me” flag waving in Saturday’s strong winds. “I think it’s meant to make a statement,” he said of the flag, “and to tell the lunatics in office now 'hands off.' They’re just getting too crazy and wild.”
A line of protesters in Sag Harbor stretched from K Pasa, at Main Street and Ferry Road, to the top of the North Haven bridge, while a large group gathered in Steinbeck Park. Many cars honked as they passed the protesters on the bridge, and in some cases cars stopped and those inside filed out to join the protesters.
Lila Montero, just 10 years old, and her grandmother Aida Montero were two such people. They hopped out of a car with their homemade signs and took a prime position on the bridge.
It was Lila’s first protest, and the most important issues to her were spelled out on her sign. “Hands Off Libraries,” it read, and it also advocated for “Gun Violence Prevention.”
“We need to do our part,” her grandmother said, “because this is the democracy we want to keep and we do not bow to a king. Our government was not set up for that and our liberties protect that.”
Just a few feet down the bridge, and on the other side of the age scale, was a multi-generational family of protesters led by Tinka Topping, who is 100. She was with her daughters Jenno Topping and Kathy Engel, and Ms. Engel’s daughter Ella Engel-Snow.
Like many in attendance, they had many grievances, but for them one seemed to take precedence: Ms. Engel and Ms. Engel-Snow wore shirts reading “Jews Say Stop Arming Israel,” and Ms. Topping and her mother held signs bearing the message “Jewish Elders Reject the Trump/MAGA/Zionist Alliance.”
“We’re fighting for the soul of humanity,” Ms. Engel said.
Shortly after 1 p.m., a microphone was passed around the crowd for comments on the damage the Trump administration had already done. Among the speakers were Katie Baldwin, a co-founder of Amber Waves Farm in Amagansett, and Patricia Hope, a former teacher, former president of the East Hampton School Board, and Ms. Thayer Hamann’s mother.
“You are the provers in the proving ground, so stand tall and straight and proud,” Ms. Hope told the crowd. “Justice is not earned by silence,” she continued. “The system is patient but not merciful. Taking away the First Amendment: Don’t f**k with Americans, they don’t like it.”
John Avlon, the author and former CNN anchor who was the Democratic Party’s nominee to represent New York’s First Congressional District last year, also spoke, following an appearance at a Hands Off! event in Riverhead. “This is about neighbors stepping up for neighbors who know that America is great when America is good,” he said.
“Part of any authoritarian power grab is attempts to overwhelm people,” Mr. Avlon continued, “to make them feel down on their luck and down on their heels and look down. But we refuse to look down, we’re going to look forward.”
After stepping away from the microphone, Mr. Avlon reflected on the crowds he had seen in Riverhead and Sag Harbor. “The energy is palpable,” he said. “This does not happen unless people are concerned about their country and their community.”
The youngest speaker of the afternoon was 16-year-old Finny Dianora-Brondal, who focused climate change and the environmental impacts that he and his generation will have to live with.
“When they pulled out of the Paris climate agreement for the second time, I was devastated,” he told the crowd, “not only because it's not right that the richest country on earth isn't doing its part to strengthen the global response to climate change, but also because this has detrimental effects on our planet.”
“This scary reality could be what my generation and future generations will have to inherit,” he said.
Buoyed by the turnout at Saturday’s protests, Ms. Hurberty was also looking ahead. “We’re going to be organizing town halls,” Ms. Huberty said. “We’re going to be organizing other demonstrations, and offering support to anyone that needs it in any organization out here.”
