50501 movement

50501 (short for "50 protests, 50 states, 1 movement", originally an abbreviation of "50 protests, 50 states, one day") is a political action organization founded to protest the policies and actions of the second Donald Trump administration in the United States. The group organized a nationwide demonstration on February 5, 2025, another nationwide "No Kings on Presidents Day" demonstration on February 17 (Presidents' Day), and a third demonstration on March 4, 2025. Thousands of people participated by gathering outside state capitol buildings and city halls during these protests.
Discussions of a nationwide protest started circulating on social media in late 2024. According to organizer Kay Evert, the movement started on Reddit, with activist organizations eventually joining in. The movement claims it was organized by grassroots activists and spread through social media. The movement used the hashtags "#buildtheresistance" and "#50501", with the latter standing for "50 protests, 50 states, one day". Protestors also expressed dismay about the role of Elon Musk and his actions in the federal system. One protester stated "I'm here because Elon Musk is where he's not supposed to be. He is in our pocketbooks," as well as concerns about accessing confidential and personal data, lack of legal jurisdiction, and the unelected status of Musk.
Signage included commentary about Musk and a spokesperson for the group emphasized that Musk is a target of the protest, stating "We are still very much calling for the removal of Elon Musk. We find it very concerning that there is a non-government official that has the access that he does," as well as the desire for stronger anti-discrimination policies.
The idea for 50501 started as a Reddit post by user Evolved_Fungi in late January, quickly gaining traction on social media. 50501's first protest occurred on February 5, 2025. The organization claimed there to be 72,000 protesters at 67 protests across 40 states. 50501's second protest happened on February 17, being called “Not my Presidents Day”. In early February, they officially partnered with Political Revolution, a group initially created to support Bernie Sanders' 2016 political bid (not Our Revolution, the political action organization founded as a continuation of Senator Bernie Sanders's 2016 presidential campaign). Political Revolution put up a live list and map of protests hosted by the 50501 movement shortly afterwards. K Starling, of We (the People) Dissent collected protests from four sites onto one list and an interactive map, for 22-28 March 2025 and 5 April 2025.
Another series of protests was organized on March 4 which was hosted in numorus state capitals and major cities across the US. The movement plans on hosting another rally in Washington, D.C. and other locations on April 5 with the support of the Womens March, a feminist organization that organized the third largest protest in American History in 2017.
When asked about the protests, Minnesota Representative Pete Stauber said: “For the past four years, we saw the Biden administration allow millions of illegal immigrants into this country unchecked and spend enormous amounts of money on things the American people didn’t need and couldn’t afford. Today, we are dealing with the ramifications of those terrible decisions. President Trump was elected by the American people to shake up the status quo and enact real change, and that is exactly what he is doing. I am glad to see the Trump administration reexamine our country’s spending, secure the border, and negotiate better deals with our nation’s trading partners. We are entering a new American era marked by strength and prosperity, and I think all of us in northern Minnesota stand to benefit from his leadership.”
When asked about the protest, Stuart Adams (president of the Utah State Senate) said, "I think people are a little frustrated, but I also think President Trump's moving forward, and it's not going to be business as usual. And I think some of it's actually refreshing that we've got a president who will hit issues head on, deal with them and try to try to get things changed.... I think we need to give him some time to see the results of his action. I think to actually criticize something before the policies actually have a chance to have the effect that they’re trying to achieve, I think is probably premature.".
South Carolina governor Henry McMaster commented: “I don’t know what happened in other states, but I mean they were protesting, they were well-behaved. That’s how you do it”.