Donald Trump’s policies ignite Labour Day protests across US cities

On Labour Day, thousands of protesters took to the streets in cities across the United States to denounce President Donald Trump’s policies, demanding fair wages, stronger workers’ rights and protections for immigrants.

Demonstrations in New York, Chicago, Washington D.C., San Francisco and along the West Coast reflected deepening anger over economic inequality and immigration enforcement under the Trump administration.

Organised by labour advocacy groups including One Fair Wage, the rallies shone a spotlight on the stagnant federal minimum wage of $7.25 an hour. Outside Trump Tower in New York and Chicago, demonstrators chanted “Trump must go now” and “Lock him up,” casting the skyscrapers as symbols of inequality.

In Washington, signs declaring “Stop the ICE invasion” signalled outrage over aggressive immigration enforcement.

In Chicago, Evanston mayor Daniel Biss addressed marchers, warning that democracy was “under attack” and urging collective resistance against the president’s threats to deploy military forces against civilians. Tensions briefly escalated when a Trump supporter confronted protesters, but the situation subsided without major incident.

According to reports, unions and grassroots groups led marches up and down the West Coast, from San Diego to Seattle, denouncing what they described as a “billionaire takeover” of American democracy. Protesters linked stagnant wages, healthcare struggles and immigration crackdowns to systemic inequality, calling for broad structural reforms.

While the largest rallies unfolded in major metropolitan centres such as Boston, Detroit, Chicago and New York, smaller protests were also staged in towns from Scottsdale, Arizona, to Sioux Falls, South Dakota.

More than a thousand “Workers Over Billionaires” events were planned nationwide, organisers said, many supported by groups behind earlier summer protests such as No Kings Day and Good Trouble Lives On.

Labour unions, teachers, healthcare staff, police officers, auto workers and their families turned out in strong numbers.

In Detroit, thousands marched through the Corktown neighbourhood, with families pulling wagons and strollers alongside trade workers. Similar scenes played out in other industrial hubs, where local elected officials quietly joined workers on the streets, though they were asked not to shift attention away from union members.

The demonstrations also carried an element of festivity, with brass bands in New York leading chants of “New York is a working town,” while volunteers handed out chicken tacos to fellow demonstrators outside Trump Tower. Handmade placards ranged from attacks on billionaires to calls for protecting science and constitutional rights.

Event organisers declined to provide official turnout figures, but insisted the protests were significant in scale. “It’s important to show that there is opposition to the Trump-billionaire agenda in every community big and small,” said Saqib Bhatti, executive director of the Action Center on Race and the Economy. “It’s not just cities that are united… it’s also small towns that voted overwhelmingly for Trump.”

The White House dismissed the demonstrations. Taylor Rogers, a spokesperson, said in a statement that “no one has done more for working men and women than President Trump,” citing tax cuts, investments and job creation as evidence that the administration “always puts them first.”

For many, however, Labour Day, traditionally an occasion of celebration for American workers, became a day of political protest. With thousands mobilising under the banner of workers’ rights, unions and immigrant justice, the rallies signalled enduring opposition to Trump’s policies and a determination to sustain momentum in the months ahead.

With agency inputs