OLYMPIA — Scores of demonstrators — estimated between 1,500 and 2,000 — braved snowy conditions on Wednesday at the Capitol in Olympia, joining countless others protesting in capital cities nationwide.
The rallies’ purpose? Condemning President Donald Trump’s early actions and Project 2025, the expansive conservative blueprint for governing that has been associated with Trump. The Republican commander-in-chief has long denied involvement with the federal-policy agenda, but many of his early executive orders have aligned with its aims.
The Olympia gathering at Tivoli Fountain along Capitol Way was part of the “50501 Movement,” a term meant to represent 50 protests, 50 states, one day.
Attendees on Wednesday also blasted Elon Musk, the Trump ally and billionaire tech magnate who now enjoys unprecedented power within the federal government as head of the so-called Department of Government Efficiency.
“Fight Project 2025. Protest unjust deportation. Protest Trump and Musk. Stop fascism. Free America from tyranny,” an event page for the Olympia protest reads.
Signs at the rally echoed those sentiments, with slogans like “Impeach Trump,” “Immigrants welcome here,” and “Stop Project 2025.”
Washington author Zane Gustafson told the crowd that the U.S. needs a better vision of democracy. He cited decades of failure to address problems such as income inequality, health care cost and access, migration, racial justice and climate change.
“Our government’s failure to address these problems is how we got to this moment, where people are so cynical and broken down and desperate that they turned to an authoritarian silver-tongued devil,” Gustafson said, speaking into a megaphone.
Speaking to hundreds of protesters at a noon rally at the Capitol in Olympia, Wa. Zane Gustafson, author of the book “Polemic for Democracy,” share his fears regarding the current administration and his opposition to President Donald Trump’s Project 2025 agenda and specifically, Elon Musk. Steve Bloom/The Olympian
Another speaker, Violet Kawaguchi, told McClatchy that her organization, koinitiative.org, helps relocate LGBTQ+ people fleeing red states. She noted that Trump has signed a flurry of anti-transgender executive orders: “So that’s put a lot of people under threat.”
One such order signed on Trump’s first day back in the White House declared that only two sexes, male and female, would be recognized by the federal government.
Many LGBTQ+ people nationwide are scared and suicidal right now, Kawaguchi said, adding that trans people and immigrants will be heading to sanctuary states like Washington. Still, she urged those who are afraid to not despair.
“Part of the reason [the Trump administration has] put out so many executive orders right now, and so fast, is to confuse people and to promote anxiety, because it paralyzes people to stop them from organizing,” Kawaguchi said. “People have more agency now than at any point in history, and they don’t want people to understand that.”
Hundreds of protesters coming from all walks of life assembled in a steady snowfall for a noon rally at the Capitol in Olympia, Wa. in opposition to President Donald Trump’s Project 2025 agenda and specifically, Elon Musk. Steve Bloom/The Olympian
House Speaker Laurie Jinkins told McClatchy on Wednesday afternoon that despite the snow, the protest attracted more attendees than any other rally so far this session. It wasn’t a surprise to the Tacoma Democrat that Washingtonians turned up en masse.
Jinkins noted that a strong majority of the state’s voters backed Trump’s Democratic opponent, then-Vice President Kamala Harris, in the November election.
“He is our president, and it’s our obligation — and I said this in my opening comments — it’s my obligation to protect Washington’s way of life,” Jinkins said. “And I think they’re out there saying, ‘We’re going to do that, too.’”
Shortly after being elected Washington governor, then-Attorney General Bob Ferguson revealed the creation of a Project 2025-focused subcommittee.
Ferguson previously told McClatchy that the implementation of Project 2025 could put freedoms at risk, including LGBTQ+ and abortion rights, plus lead to mass deportations.
“We can’t be naive to the potential threats that aspects of Project 2025 represent for Washington state, if implemented,” Ferguson said at the time. “It seems prudent to me, as an incoming governor, to make sure that our transition team is considering options for how Washington can be prepared if some aspects of Project 2025 are, in fact, put in place.”
