CHICAGO — Hundreds of thousands of people in the U.S. and around the world rallied Thursday in May Day protests that united many in anger over President Donald Trump’s agenda from aggressive tariffs that are stoking fears of global economic turmoil to his administration’s immigration crackdowns.

In the United States, organizers framed this year’s International Workers’ Day protests as a pushback against what they see as the administration’s sweeping assault on labor protections, diversity initiatives and federal employees. Protesters lined streets in many cities from New York to Philadelphia to Los Angeles and held a boisterous rally outside the White House in Washington.

Huge turnouts

In Chicago, thousands of people rallied in a West Side park before marching through downtown to the lakefront. Some played drums and danced while others chanted “No justice, no peace!” The crowd included union workers, immigrant rights advocates, pro-Palestinian activists and students calling for better-funded public schools.

“We need to stand up and fight back,” said Latrina Barnes, a 48-year-old certified nurses assistant, adding that worries Medicaid and Medicare might be affected under the Trump administration inspired her to protest in a May Day rally for the first time.

Some rallygoers used humor to protest, displaying a Trump puppet, an inflatable Trump baby chicken and a Trump pinata shaped like a bull.

In Atlanta, hundreds gathered at a downtown park across from the state Capitol. The crowd included some retired U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention workers. The CDC is headquartered in Atlanta and is expected to lose around 2,400 employees due to cuts.

“We really want to stand up for all of our fellow laborers who were laid off or just fired with no real reason,” said Deblina Datta, who worked on global immunization efforts before retiring in 2023. “We really want to make a cry that without the CDC, bad things will happen.”

European rallies

French union leaders condemned the “Trumpization” of world politics, saying demonstrations throughout the country were fueled by anger over U.S. military and trade influence in Europe. Far-left leader Jean-Luc Mélenchon accused the U.S. of pushing Europe toward conflict and economic subservience.

“If the North Americans don’t want our goods anymore, we can just sell them to others,” he said.

In Italy, protesters paraded a puppet of the American president through the streets of Turin.

In Germany, union leaders warned that extended workdays and rising anti-immigrant sentiment were dismantling labor protections.

In Bern, Switzerland, thousands marched behind banners denouncing fascism and war — part of a wider backlash against the global surge of hard-right politics.

In Spain, thousands marched in Madrid, Barcelona and other cities, with demands ranging from a shorter workweek to answers for a historic power outage that blacked out the Iberian Peninsula earlier this week. Trump’s name also surfaced.

“The world has changed a bit with Trump’s arrival,” said Ángel López, 56, a worker from Madrid.

“The arrival of the far right to a country like the United States is a major global shift.”

Taiwan’s President Lai Ching-te cited the new U.S. tariffs under Trump as he promoted a sweeping economic package aimed at shoring up jobs and industry. In the Philippines, protest leader Mong Palatino warned that “tariff wars and policies of Trump” threatened local industries and people’s livelihoods.

In Tokyo, demonstrator Tadashi Ito, a union construction worker, said he feared the rising cost of imported raw materials.

“Everybody is fighting over work, and so the contracts tend to go where the wages are cheapest,” he said. “We think peace comes first. And we hope Trump will eradicate conflict and inequalities.”