Hundreds of thousands of people attended more than 1,000 “Hands Off!”-related protests nationwide focused on President Donald Trump and billionaire Elon Musk.

Including in Maryland.

The “Hands Off Social Security” protest kicked off Saturday morning with protesters gathering outside the administration’s headquarters in Baltimore County.

Organizers said they intend to push back against the “greatest threat” Social Security has ever faced.

Speakers included former Gov. Martin O’Malley, who was head of Social Security for part of the Biden administration. The midmorning crowd skewed older, with some attendees suggesting that their younger counterparts likely made the trek to D.C. instead.

After being welcomed by the applause of hundreds in Woodlawn, O’Malley led a chant that had rumbled throughout the crowd several times previously Saturday morning: “Hands Off!”

“Let’s hear it from ya for Social Security!” O’Malley said, joking that he hadn’t seen so many people in the courtyard “since we adjusted on-site work rules.”

O’Malley laid into Musk, whom he referred to as the “unelected co-president,” and the cuts his DOGE organization has made across the federal government, including Social Security.

“Bitcoin might be a Ponzi scheme — but not Social Security,” O’Malley said.

O’Malley said that those who can’t work, including the elderly and those with disabilities, are the “wasteful inefficiency that Elon Musk is going after,” before telling the crowd that “you and I are different” in their belief of what America means.

“The greatness of our country is not the amount of wealth we amass, nor is it the size of our armies. It is the care and compassion that we demonstrate for one another to feed the hungry, to shelter the homeless, to heal the sick, to care for widows and orphans,” he said, each example permeated by a large “Yes!” from the crowd. “This is our greatness as a people. And this is why we are never going to give up in this fight for Social Security.”

He then asked the crowd if they could be numbed into passivity, to which they responded with a resounding “Hell no!” As the response transformed into a chant, O’ Malley held his microphone out to the crowd.

Speaking before O’Malley, Lisa Bogacki traveled two hours Saturday morning from Berks County, Pennsylvania, to share why she has “more experience with Social Security benefits than anyone would ever want to.”

The 59-year-old physical therapist hasn’t reached retirement age yet, but she previously collected survivor benefits on behalf of her children after her husband died 15 years ago of sudden cardiac death at 42. Bogacki said her daughter, 10 at the time, asked if they would have to move into a new home “because we didn’t have daddy anymore.”

Bogacki told her she would do everything in her power to make sure that didn’t happen — a promise she would have broken without Social Security, she said. She added that the payments worked and ended exactly as they were supposed to.

Now Bogacki is worried the widow survivor benefits she calculated into her retirement plan won’t come through.

“It’s a promise from their father who paid into the system his entire working life,” Bogacki said. “It’s a promise to all of us who pay into the system our entire working lives.”

When asked how she felt about addressing the large crowd, Bogacki pointed to the sign she brought: “Even the Introverts Are Here.” She was joined by her friend and neighbor, 63-year-old Brydee Farmer, who offered to make the trek before Bogacki even asked.

“I would drive another two hours if I could put my sign up and scream and yell at the Trump-Elon administration,” Farmer said. Her rainbow-bordered sign read “Cory Booker Sent Me,” referring to the senator’s record-breaking 25-hour marathon speech.

Attendees walked the courtyard snapping pictures of each other, and many were drawn to Lisa Swain and Peggy Krastel, Baltimore County librarians with signs calling to “book” Trump and Musk. They had drawn little books, with titles like “Chicken Soup for the Oligarch Soul” and “Idiot’s Guide to the Bill of Rights.”

“I don’t like what’s happening. It’s very frightening,” Swain said. “I’m afraid they’re going to take away my Social Security and my ability to do my job as a librarian. I don’t like this at all. It scares me to death.”

They both questioned where the abuse and fraud is in library spending, arguing that “we barely get any money.”

For both of them, Saturday morning was their first protest, but they were already contemplating continuing to make noise in Catonsville — where several Woodlawn attendees said they were heading next — or even D.C.

The large crowd dispersed after the speeches, with a little less than 100 people gathering next along Security Boulevard. They encouraged drivers to show their support and many obliged, laying on their horn as they passed or giving protesters a series of beeps, reminiscent of the noise near the Owings Mills Tesla dealership last month.

Standing in the median, Baltimore County Council Member Izzy Patoka said “This is America first, right here.”

“This is about us and we need to stand up for our families,” Patoka said. “I’ve never seen the nation in this condition.”

More than 150 political groups worked together to organize what could be the single biggest day of protest of the second Trump administration.

Tens of thousands of federal employees have lost their jobs in recent months because of cuts implemented by the Trump administration. Many of those cuts have been driven by Musk and the so-called Department of Government Efficiency, which have been targeting government spending.

The broad cuts to federal programs and departments have had ripple effects across the country, including in Maryland. The state’s proximity to Washington, and the high number of federal contractors and employees, have made Maryland particularly vulnerable.

Officials with Social Security, which is headquartered near Baltimore, said sweeping changes are coming to the agency, including cutting 7,000 positions and closing offices around the country. About 10,000 Marylanders worked for the agency last year.

Earlier this week, nearly 3,000 jobs were cut across 11 federal offices in Maryland as part of mass layoffs within the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Nonprofits affiliated with the Johns Hopkins University have also laid off thousands of workers in response to federal funding cuts.

‘Hands Off!’ protests

The movement’s website lists three demands: An end to the “billionaire takeover” and “rampant corruption” of the Trump administration; an end to slashed funds from Medicaid, Social Security and other federal programs; and an end to attacks on immigrants, trans people “and other communities.” Organizers said one of their core principles is a commitment to nonviolent action.

In Maryland, protests were organized at the Social Security Administration and in areas including Baltimore, Catonsville, Frederick, Hagerstown, Westminster, Bel Air, Salisbury and Ocean City.

A protest in Baltimore on Saturday was organized by the Free State Coalition, an affiliate of the 50501 protest movement. Organizers of the event said they expected more than a thousand people to show up.

Organizers asked attendees to bring non-perishable food for a food drive benefiting The Food Project, a local group that employs young people and provides food in Baltimore.

The "Hands Off!" rally in D.C. drew thousands to the National Monument.

Kelley Robinson, president of the Human Rights Campaign advocacy group, spoke at the Washington protest, criticizing the Trump administration’s treatment of the LBGTQ+ community.

“The attacks that we’re seeing, they’re not just political. They are personal, y’all,” she said. “They’re trying to ban our books, they’re slashing HIV prevention funding, they’re criminalizing our doctors, our teachers, our families and our lives. This is Donald Trump’s America and I don’t want it y’all. We don’t want this America, y’all. We want the America we deserve, where dignity, safety and freedom belong not to some of us, but to all of us.”

Thousands of people also marched in New York City’s midtown Manhattan. In Massachusetts thousands more gathered on Boston Common holding signs including “Hands off our democracy,” “Hands off our Social Security” and “Diversity equity inclusion makes America strong. Hands off!”

The Associated Press contributed to this article.