When Rachel Izzo woke up Saturday morning, she wasn't sure if a protest would happen. It was cold, her friend had canceled work, and it had been a long work week. But she decided she needed to leave.

"I said, if I don't come to this event, I'm going to be mad," Izzo admitted, clutching a poster on a clothes hanger. symbol of long term Abortion rights movement. "If I didn't show up, I would...stand back and let it happen. I didn't want to be a part of it."

She was one of thousands of people protesting on the National Mall as part of the People's March, a mobilization organized by one group. coalition of left-leaning and progressive organizations Opposition to President-elect Donald Trump’s upcoming second term agenda.

Nearly eight years ago, hundreds of thousands came to Washington for the Women's March, just one day after Trump was first inaugurated. it represents Largest single-day protest in U.S. history.

This year, as Democrats and left-leaning voters grapple with the realities of a second Trump term, many are also grappling with the question of what an effective opposition might look like.

"I'm tired of fighting. But who's going to do it?

For Izzo, who works as a nurse in the District of Columbia, Trump's second election victory stung. She told NPR that as a sexual assault survivor, she worries about how the president-elect will control the Justice Department. she is a Federal investigation into sex crimes policing In New York City.

"If Trump shuts this down, it's going to be very difficult. So that's one of the reasons I'm here. I mean I don't want them to win," she said. "I'm tired of fighting. But who's going to do this?"

Izzo isn't the only one feeling so exhausted. Multiple protesters and organizers said they were tired or knew others in the community who were resigned after Trump's decisive victory last fall.

That may have been a factor in Saturday's turnout. Organizers told NPR more than 50,000 people attended. That’s one-tenth of the number eight years ago when half a million people gathered in Washington, D.C. 4.6 million people National marches.

"There were 10 to 20 times more people than the first time," estimated Karen Elkin of northern Virginia as she stood near the Lincoln Memorial and looked across the Reflecting Pool.

“There were about ten people living in my house, from all over the country,” she added. “And there are zero people living in my house this time.”

People's March should be different

"We never intended to try to match or exceed the first march," People's March organizer Tamika Middleton said in an interview with NPR before the protest. "We're in a different place, in a different moment."

Middleton serves as general manager of the Women's March, the organization that led the logistics for Saturday's demonstration.

While previous Women's Marches tended to center on gender equality and protecting abortion access, Middleton said the People's March targeted broader issues affecting voters.

"At this point, we have to not just mobilize people to come out and say, hey, on this day, I'm going to express my dissent or my resistance to the Trump presidency," she said. "We have to get people to show up and then continue Show up because every day we are preparing to attack immigrants, LGBTQ people, poor people, and women.”

Middleton believes marches are the best way to grow the movement, even though some feel politically exhausted.

Robert Cohen is a history professor at New York University who studies protest movements in the United States. He believes the level of opposition could still change as Trump implements his agenda.

"Being strategic and trying to come up with new approaches is not necessarily a sign of weakness, nor is it necessarily a sign that you are completely demoralized and won't take action when this administration does terrible things," he said. "It just means 2025 is not 2017.”

Cohen added that protest movements have fluctuated in size in recent history, noting that they declined in 1968 after the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. but in 2020 after the murder of George Floyd Later, protests resumed and large-scale movements broke out again.

“This is a really good example of a seemingly ineffective movement coming back stronger than ever,” he explained.

Anti-Trump Activities in 2025

Trump's victory in 2016 left North Carolina's Leshea Long feeling lonely. Now, this time, she says she knows what to expect.

"I've been filling myself with joy and everything for the past three months because I know... what the day-to-day life of this battle is going to be like," she said

Long told NPR she plans to remain politically active, working with abortion rights groups and going after her elected officials with appeals and petitions.

Looking around, she said she was less worried about the size of the People's March than it was eight years ago.

"We're going to take this issue back to our states or our cities, our towns, and we're going to talk about it," she vowed. “This will open the door to conversation.”

Larry Stopper disagrees. This full-time activist leads Democratic organizing efforts and anti-Trump actions After retiring in 2016. He said it was heartbreaking to see Trump win last fall.

"I'm defeated," he told NPR before the People's March.

Over the past few years, his focus has shifted to local organizations in Virginia. He did not enter the area to attend Saturday's protest.

“What I learned from marching, marching, marching and watching what happened after the march was that it wasn’t going to change anything,” he said. “If I wanted to change things, I had to do something that would affect change, and marching was not Like this.”

Back at the march, Washington, D.C. Methodist pastor Scott Bostic heard similar sentiments. He said part of the reason he marched was to send a message to those who didn't.

"This is an extremely important time for us to continue to encourage each other and continue to try to give hope to other people," he said. "I've talked to a few people who feel a little helpless that we're in this place again. So. I think it’s important to stand up and encourage other people.”

He was holding a poster of a black woman that he had spotted while walking around. It read: "Our future, our democracy."

"I want one," he said. “I want my daughter to have one too.”