Anti-Trump Missoula Protest Sequel Fizzles

Two weeks after Missoula’s courthouse lawn swelled with thousands for the nationwide “Hands Off” protest, a sequel rally returned Saturday with far less fanfare—and far fewer bodies. About 200 demonstrators by several counts, again backed by 50501 and Indivisible, gathered midday in what felt more like a group lament than a movement revival.

The themes were familiar: outrage at President Trump, distaste for Elon Musk, opposition to immigration enforcement, and a curious new refrain—calls to “bring deportees back” to the United States. As with the original event, homemade signs abounded, the crowd trended older, and the protest energy felt more ritual than revolutionary.

Samuel Redfern, representing the Montana Conservative Liberty Alliance and the Montana Veterans Association, was on-site and shared photos from the event taken by him and his colleagues.

“Attendance and energy seemed down at the Missoula protest today,” Redfern shared. “The key protest themes were about President Trump, DOGE, and Elon Musk, as well as immigration and bringing deportees back to the USA. The majority of the crowd were aging progressives with very few youth involved.”

He added that many of the attendees seemed motivated by fears over losing Social Security and Medicare—“myths,” he said, “that continue to drive these small crowds.”

If the first protest was a cathartic scream, this one was the exhausted sigh that follows. Missoula’s activist base showed up to chant, wave signs, and relive the glory days of organized outrage—but the sequel proved what most sequels do: the spark is gone, and no one’s buying another ticket.