Nat Kerman, Contributing Photographer

Hundreds of Connecticut residents rallied outside City Hall at noon on Monday to protest Trump administration policies on Presidents’ Day.

The rally was publicized on Reddit by 50501, a national movement that sprung up encouraging “50 protests, 50 states, 1 movement” responding to what organizers describe as President Donald Trump’s “anti-democratic and illegal actions.” New Haven’s protest was concurrent to a rally outside Connecticut’s State Capitol in Hartford, and comparably sized protests in other cities around the country.

Signs emblazoned with an assortment of slogans peppered the crowd. “Make America Constitutional Again,” “Democracy only dies in silence” and “Hands off Medicare” joined several cardboard strips of Holocaust-related epithets: “…and there was no one left to speak for me,” “Never Again” and “Hitler dismantled democracy in 53 days.”

The crowd’s chants, mostly uncoordinated, ranged from “Deport Musk,” referring to Elon Musk, the South African billionaire who heads the controversial Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, to “Trans rights are human rights,” responding to the administration’s early executive orders restricting athletic participation for transgender women and girls.

The protest was largely disorganized, with no prepared speeches and a wide variety of crowd-led chants. Yale students, who had a regular class schedule on Monday, largely did not attend.

On this year’s Inauguration Day in January, around 150 locals gathered on the New Haven Green in a “National Day of Action” to protest the new commander-in-chief. That event was primarily organized by far-left groups like the Party for Socialism and Liberation3.

Presidents’ Day, originally celebrated on the anniversary of George Washington’s birthday, was changed to occur on the third Monday in February each year in 1971.