Rallies around the country have grown since President Donald Trump’s reelection, with some attendees being first-time protesters against issues ranging from university funding cuts to the new administration’s immigration policies. 

Local first-time protesters in Pittsburgh said they are choosing to show out in response to a nationwide surge in protests, threats to free speech and other issues. 

Rowan Wechsler, a first-year political science major and the first-year representative of College Democrats at Pitt, attended his first protest on Thursday for free speech protection in higher education. Wechsler said similar rallies across the country motivated him to protest.

“What inspired me to protest, truly, is grassroots activism is the basis of all change,” Wechsler said. “When protest and civil disobedience come from the ground up in a vast amount of different places, you can see that it will have an impact, because it shows the joint anger of so many Americans.”

Wechsler said he was hesitant to protest before today for fear of counterprotesters recording, trying to humiliate attendees or inciting violence. 

“I don’t want to be the target of a violent or social attack because I’m standing for what I believe in,” Wechsler said. 

Brianna Campagna, a sophomore rehabilitation science major, attended the same protest as Wechsler and said she held similar fears about protesting.

“I do have a fear of protests, because obviously you never know what could happen,” Campagna said. “People from the other side turning out could become dangerous very quickly, and that’s something that scares me.”

Despite her reservations, Campagna said she believes “right now [there] is a dire need to protest” for change.

“If people don’t band together and show that a certain topic needs support, a certain thing needs support, then nothing’s gonna change,” Campagna said. “You need people to band together and to become one unit to have a call for change.”

Robyn Russell, a local community member, attended her first protest at an Earth Day rally on April 19. Russell said she was protesting in solidarity with marginalized communities that aren’t able to.

“I had the day off and I didn’t want to get out of bed, but people in Palestine, Ukraine, just average minority communities around me, they don’t get the rest,” Russell said.

As someone with asthma, Russell said she hadn’t protested before because she was worried that tear gas might be used. City police used tear gas on protesters during the George Floyd marches in 2020 and threatened to use it during the encampment protests in 2024 at the Cathedral of Learning.

“I’m asthmatic, and I know they use tear gas in some of [the protests], and I was worried about dying like that one lady did,” Russell said.

Russell said she believes the Trump administration’s policies need to unite the community and transcend political affiliations.

“Republican [or] Democrat, this is not okay. Everybody should be worried,” Russell said. “I don’t care what your politics are anymore — we’re all the human race. We should be fighting for each other, not against each other like they want us to.”

The frequency and size of protests have been growing nationwide since Trump’s reelection. According to the Harvard Kennedy School’s Crowd Counting Consortium, protests between Jan. 22 and the end of March have more than doubled compared to 2017. February saw over 2,000 protests compared to the 937 that occurred during the first year of Trump’s first term.

Campagna encouraged other students and community members to try protesting to make their voice heard.

“It’s not as scary as it sounds or seems. Everyone is very passionate and happy to be there. I would say find a few friends that are willing to do the same, go out, start with a small rally and go from there.” Campagna said.

Wechsler encouraged people to take diverse forms of action, including protesting, voting and spreading awareness.

“We can’t just sit back and watch, you have to get up, get out, take some action – whether it’s through protesting, whether it’s through helping a local leader win or whether it’s through educating people who just need to be educated,” Wechsler said. “Change starts on the smallest level and it grows to the biggest level. That’s how change works.”