Massive protests across the country, including in downtown Los Angeles, are planned for Saturday after President Donald Trump’s sweeping tariff policy rolled out earlier in the week.
Southern Californians will congregate at DTLA’s Pershing Square starting at 4 p.m. on Saturday for the Hands Off! Los Angeles Fights Back rally — part of a nationwide series of protests against Trump and billionaire Elon Musk, who has taken a large role at the White House.
“They’re taking everything they can get their hands on—our health care, our data, our jobs, our services—and daring the world to stop them,” the protest’s webpage reads. “This is a crisis, and the time to act is now.”
As part of the new tariff rollout, the U.S. will now charge international trade partners a tax on goods imported into the States, including a 34% tax on imports from China, a 20% tax on imports from the European Union, 25% on South Korea, 24% on Japan and 32% on Taiwan.
Canadian and Mexican imports are still taxed at a rate of 25% as of a Trump order last month.
The stock market plunged at a historic rate on Thursday and Friday in response to the new policy, which critics say will impact working and middle class Americans more than anyone else. The S&P 500 had its worst week since March 2020 when the Covid-19 pandemic shut down much of the country’s consumerism.
On Thursday, JP Morgan upped its prediction of a recession occurring in the near future from 40% to 60%.
