Thousands Across Riverside County Protest Trump Administration

When President Donald Trump was elected last November for a second term, 13-year-old Miriam Beardemphl said she was absolutely devastated.

“To be honest, I’m terrified about the future,” she said, noting that she and many of her friends and family members are part of the LGBTQ+ and other marginalized communities. “But if I can do anything to change it for the better, I want to.”

So when a stranger handed her a megaphone at the Riverside Hands Off protest Saturday night, she knew exactly what to do. Standing on the bench of a nearby bus stop, Miriam began leading those around her in a series of chants in protest of actions taken by the Trump administration.

“I wasn’t really expecting this,” her father, Kraig Beardemphl, said. “She just picked it up and started and got everybody around here going.”

The evening protest in downtown Riverside capped off a day of nationwide demonstrations, with at least seven separate events across Riverside County — starting with a morning rally in Palm Springs where organizers said more than 2,500 people showed up outside of City Hall.

“My hope is for people to come and feel not so alone and to realize that they have a voice, they can make a difference and they’re ready to take the next step and get more involved,” Emily Vogt, co-coordinator of the event, said.

Vogt said that she had a friend who wouldn’t go to previous protests because she was concerned that being photographed at one could be harmful to her.

“Then she saw [Sen.] Cory Booker do his record-breaking speech, and she said, ‘If he can do that, then I can get myself to a protest,’” Vogt said. “And she’s now recruiting her neighbors to go.”

That end of Booker’s speech kicked off the rally on an emotional note, with KGAY Palm Springs Morning Host John Taylor asking those in attendance if they were ready to pick up where Booker left off.

“Cory Booker yielded the floor,” he said, as the crowd broke out into cheers, “are you ready to take the floor?”

The event featured a number of speakers, including Riverside County Democratic Party Chair Joy Silver, Lt. Gov. Eleni Kounalakis and Rep. Raul Ruiz (D-Indio).

“We’re going to fight them in the courts, and we’re going to fight them at the polls and we are going to fight them with our organizing,” Kounalakis, who is a part-time resident of Palm Springs, said to raucous cheers from the crowd. “We are going to fight them every single day until the next election.”

Kounalakis, in an interview with The Riverside Record, said she felt it was important to be at the event to “send a message to people around the country, this is not over, and we still have a country and a democracy to fight for,” noting that her appearance was not in service to her run for governor.

“Our country is bigger than that right now, and that’s not why people are here,” she said. “They’re here to have camaraderie and to know they’re not alone.”

Ruiz, who was not originally slated to speak at the event, told The Record that he came out to show that he shares the concerns of those who came out to protest and that he was willing to fight to lower costs, create opportunities and protect the Constitution.

“This is a war, a war for them to amass more power and more wealth at your expense,” he said to the audience. “This is a war against our democracy to create the autocracy and the dictatorship that Donald Trump wants for America. 

“This is a war against our Constitution, neglecting the rule of law where Congress determines what gets funded and what agencies are created,” he continued. “He is attacking our Constitution and what we know to be the balance of power amongst three ‘equal’ branches of our government.”

Ruiz said that Congress had “acquiesced its authority” to the Trump administration under Republican control. When asked by The Record what he was doing to fight against the things he spoke about, he said Congress was taking a threefold approach.

“One is to make sure that we provide all the support that we can for our judicial branch to push back on [Trump’s] illegal violations of our Constitution that are hurting the American people,” Ruiz said. “In Congress, we’re continuing to mobilize to demonstrate an alternative path that we want to have in order to lower the cost of living, in order to protect everybody’s rights and to protect the co-equal branches of government. 

“In our communities, we’re communicating more than ever before through our social media so that no lie is left unanswered and so that we mobilize to create the public sentiment needed to make sure that we protect the America that we love here,” he continued.

Less than 10 miles away, as the speeches continued in Palm Springs, about 1,500 people lined the streets outside Rancho Mirage City Hall holding signs and encouraging cars driving by to engage with the protest by honking their horns in support.

“My father was a foreign service officer, and he would just be turning in his grave right now if he could see how Trump and [Elon] Musk are dismantling all of our institutions and our government,” Rancho Mirage resident Fred Gustin said. “That’s why I am out here, to try to save our Social Security and our Medicare — those are two things that are very important to me.”

Rancho Mirage resident Robert Wagner, who came with his wife Lisa, said it felt as if all of the nation’s values were under attack.

“This has shaved off years of all of our lives to indulge a handful of billionaires who don’t care at all about regular people,” Lisa added. “And I’m tired of it.”

Outside of the Coachella Valley, smaller protests were happening in San Jacinto and the unincorporated community of Idyllwild, where at least 200 people showed up.

“I think we might be at the point where most people are past the freeze or flight response that happened when Trump actually won the election, and now are more into the ‘OK, well, now what do we do,’” organizer Mary Rider said. “So I’m hoping people will go away feeling like, ‘Yes, this is the only way, not only for me to feel good, but also for us to use our power.’”

And in Southwest Riverside County, where a number of Trump-supporting candidates have recently been elected to local school boards and city councils, a pair of demonstrations — one in Murrieta and one in Temecula — gave protesters hope.

“I think there’s been a lot more support than I personally was expecting,” Temecula resident David O’Connell said. “So I think that these protests are effective at spreading awareness and people are finally waking up to the fact that we’re literally repeating Nazi Germany as we speak.”

In Murrieta, organizers estimated 400 people came out for the protest. In Temecula, organizers estimated 500 people came out to protest the Trump administration taking over all four corners of the intersection of Rancho California and Ynez roads.

“A lot of the people who showed up today had no idea there was an event,” Robert Blackman, organizer of the Temecula demonstration, said. “They literally just stopped and parked and joined in, and we had extra cardboard and extra pens, so people were just making their own signs on the spot.”

The family-friendly event included demonstrators of all ages, including Joe Passaro and his 10-year-old daughter Arianna.

“She wanted to come,” Passaro said. “And this is one thing that we think kids, especially, need more exposure to show that you can speak your mind peacefully and loudly while not necessarily hiding behind what your parents think or what other people expect of you.”

Across all seven protests, organizers said there were no issues with counterprotests nor was there a need for police intervention.

Back in Riverside, Miriam continued to lead chants in support of the LGBTQ+ community, the press, veterans, scientists and educators. And as the sun went down, chants from the crowd continued, occasionally drowned out by car horns — mostly in support.

“If you want to protest for what you believe in, you must protest,” Miriam said before getting back up on the bus stop bench to begin chanting. “Fight, fight, fight to make things right or else things aren’t going to get much better.”