TUCSON, Ariz. (KGUN) — For the second time in two weeks, Tucsonans took to Reid Park in Midtown as part of national ‘Hands Off ’ protests opposing actions of President Donald Trump and his administration.
Thousands of protesters lined 22nd Street from Alvernon to Country Club Saturday morning.
“The louder our voice, the more power we have – there’s power in the people,” said protester Suzie Moore McGregor.
Moore McGregor said she was protesting because she is terrified about what is going on in the government.
“He [Trump] is not a king, he works for the people – just like the postal worker, just like the military," Moore McGregor said.
She explained some of her concerns are wrongful deportations and tariffs.
“It’s going to drive our economy into the ground. We’re going to wind up in a major depression,” she said, regarding tariffs.
When talking about the country’s economy on Thursday, Trump said, “The numbers we’re taking in are astronomical, we’re taking in tremendous amounts of money with the tariffs. We were treated very unfairly on trade, and countries are having a hard time getting used to the fact that they can’t do that to us anymore – because we have a real president.”
Right now, many countries face a 10% U.S. tariff during a 90-day pause on reciprocal tariffs, while tariffs on most Chinese goods have been raised to 145%. China has a 125% tariff on American goods.
Another protester who lined 22nd Street was Deb Sandine. She attended with several of her friends.
“I just think that we need to take our country back,” she said. “Our leaders need to stand up to Trump and get Elon Musk out of our government – he’s never been elected.”
Trump created the Department of Government Efficiency, which Special Government Employee, Elon Musk, is a key leader of. In February, Trump praised Musk’s work in DOGE.
The President said, “He is finding tremendous fraud and corruption and waste."
Last month, job cuts were the highest recorded since May 2020, according to Challenger, Gray and Christmas, which reports that 216,215 of the 275,240 job cuts in March were in the federal government.“Random cuttings of people’s jobs with no thought behind it,” Sandine said.
She said she and her friends are going to continue fighting for what they believe in.
“There are other people thinking the same thing we are,” she said. “We’re very upset – we want our democratic leaders to do something and we have to do it ourselves, we’ll start it with grassroots protests.”
