‘The people are the power’

Thousands rallied across Washington state and the U.S. to protest Trump and Musk’s attacks on working families

SEATTLE, WA (April 7, 2025) — Hundreds of thousands took to the streets across the U.S. this past weekend with a message for billionaires and the anti politicians they own: the people aren’t backing down.

More than 1,300 rallies were held across the U.S., with dozens taking place throughout Washington state, drawing some of the biggest crowds yet as protests against the federal administration’s attacks on rights, institutions, and people continue to gain momentum.

At a mass rally at the Seattle Center, union workers and community gathered in the tens of thousands. Speakers decried the administration’s devastating cuts to public services, institutions, and the workers who support them; attacks on immigrants and queer and trans folks; attempts to deny foundational rights; attacks on healthcare and reproductive rights, and more.

Washington State Labor Council President April Sims spoke at the rally, calling out the Trump administration’s executive order targeting collective bargaining rights. “Let’s be clear: Trump’s executive order targeting federal workers? It’s not just policy, it’s union busting. It’s bald-faced retaliation against working people and their unions for standing up to this administration’s chaotic, cruel actions.”

WSLC President April Sims. Photo: WSLC

“It’s an attempt to silence a million federal workers,” continued Sims. “And more broadly, it’s an attempt to intimidate all 15 million union members in the United States and the 50 million more working people who say they would join a union right now if they could.”

Among dozens of Washington rallies, union workers and community also gathered in SeaTac and marched to the Federal Detention Center, and in Olympia rallying at the State Capitol. Thousands more lined streets in Kennewick, Spokane, Yakima, and rallied together from the Canadian border to the Columbia river.

While this administration’s actions are clearly designed to intimidate, working people aren’t backing down.

“We’re powerful because we know this truth: the people are the power,” said Sims, closing out her remarks. “Not the bosses, not the billionaires, not the White House, us. We decide. The people decide.”