More than 1,000 protests in cities all across the U.S. are planned for Saturday, April 5.
Gerry Gripper is one a half a dozen organizers for the demonstration in Ironwood.
“Our central message, our rallying cry, if you will, is “hands off” and when we say hands off now and on Saturday, we're saying that we want the current administration in Washington DC to take hands off our Veterans Administration, our Department of Education, climate change, libraries, Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security, all of those trusted institutions and programs that we have come to rely on, as American citizens,” said Gripper.
Many of the budget cuts and layoffs have been part of the Trump Administration’s effort to reduce what it calls wasteful spending and fraud.
Elon Musk and the Department of Government Efficiency have a goal of cutting $1 trillion in Government spending by the end of this fiscal year.
According to the DOGE website, it’s already saved an estimated $140 billion through things like grant cancellations, asset sales, and workforce reductions.
A number of polls, including ones from Fox News and NBC news, found that while people like the idea of reducing government spending, majority are not on board with how DOGE is going about it.
Gripper says he’s not opposed to identifying “waste, fraud, and abuse” but would like to see it approached with a scalpel rather than a chainsaw or sledgehammer.
“There's such a distinct difference between those two approaches, we believe that the former approach of taking a scalpel, if you will, rather than a sledgehammer, is the best way to approach this,” said Gripper. “Not to go in and, what was said in DC recently, let's go in and break things and we can figure out later what to do.”
While the protests are coordinated under a nationwide mobilization, Hands Off 2025, each event is expected to be different based on what local organizers have planned.
Gripper says while he and the other organizers of the Ironwood protest haven’t decided on a formal name, it’s going to include the “include the concept of Indivisible, following suit with the national Indivisible group.”
According to Gripper, they’re planning on a peaceful protest in Ironwood Saturday focused on the decisions of the Trump administration and not an attack on any politician.
“We're simply talking about decisions that an administration is making, and we're opening and encouraging this event to include everyone who believes that our country, regardless of partisanship or party or affiliation, should collectively come together and say, ‘Enough already. Hands off,’” said Gripper.
Ironwood is one of several communities in the region where protests are expected to take place.
According to the Hands Off website, there are also ones planed in Rhinelander, Eagle River, White Lake, Phillips, and Park Falls.
They all start at noon, except for Eagle River which is scheduled for 11:00 a.m.
