As President Donald Trump attended Super Bowl 59 in the Caesars Superdome Sunday afternoon, more than 100 people gathered in downtown New Orleans to protest his visit and the new administration's policies.
The event was among a few recent protests in the city that have followed January's inauguration, and that hearken back to the mobilization of activists during the president's first term. It also followed a protest in Baton Rouge Wednesday, when hundreds of protestors gathered at the steps of the state capitol to protest Trump, Elon Musk and the Project 2025 agenda.
Protests were held at state capitols across the country.
Participants on Sunday called upon one another to oppose new Trump initiatives or comments on transgender rights, the Gaza Strip, immigration enforcement and more.
Some speakers described their personal stake in those policies, like Arely Westley, of Sanctuary NOLA Abolition Project. Westley spoke with an ankle monitor visible on her calf, which she said had recently been placed there by ICE.
"Sometimes we don't even get time to sleep at night, because we're afraid they'll come get us," she said, of anxieties among her fellow immigrants. "If we're not having peace and we're not going to sleep because we're afraid about everything they're doing, we're going to fight back."
Sheets of unrelenting rain did not seem to deter those in attendance, some of whom used their protest signs as makeshift umbrellas or incorporated the weather conditions in chants.
"Trump out of NOLA now! Rain will not take us down!" the group chanted as they marched from Armstrong Park up Rampart Street to Poydras Street, then back to the park.
It was not immediately clear if the president was aware of or had a response to the protest, which took place outside the Superdome's confines. A media contact for the new administration could not be located late Sunday night.
Despite a heavy law enforcement presence related to the Super Bowl, interactions between police and protesters appeared unremarkable, with officers on motorbikes or in cars both leading and bringing up the rear of the march.
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Participants at a rally and march hold up signs protesting President Donald Trump's appearance at Super Bowl 59 in New Orleans on Sunday, Feb. 9. 2025. The protestors touched on a wide range of the Trump administration's policies as they marched through downtown New Orleans, including those related to immigration and transgender rights.
Kat Stromquist / Gulf States Newsroom
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Participants at a rally and march hold up signs protesting President Donald Trump's appearance at Super Bowl 59 in New Orleans on Sunday, Feb. 9. 2025. The protestors touched on a wide range of the Trump administration's policies as they marched through downtown New Orleans, including those related to immigration and transgender rights.
Kat Stromquist / Gulf States Newsroom
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Participants at a rally and march hold up signs protesting President Donald Trump's appearance at Super Bowl 59 in New Orleans on Sunday, Feb. 9. 2025. The protestors touched on a wide range of the Trump administration's policies as they marched through downtown New Orleans, including those related to immigration and transgender rights.
Kat Stromquist / Gulf States Newsroom
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Participants at a rally and march hold up signs protesting President Donald Trump's appearance at Super Bowl 59 in New Orleans on Sunday, Feb. 9. 2025. The protestors touched on a wide range of the Trump administration's policies as they marched through downtown New Orleans, including those related to immigration and transgender rights.
Kat Stromquist / Gulf States Newsroom
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Participants at a rally and march hold up signs protesting President Donald Trump's appearance at Super Bowl 59 in New Orleans on Sunday, Feb. 9. 2025. The protestors touched on a wide range of the Trump administration's policies as they marched through downtown New Orleans, including those related to immigration and transgender rights.
Kat Stromquist / Gulf States Newsroom
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Participants at a rally and march hold up signs protesting President Donald Trump's appearance at Super Bowl 59 in New Orleans on Sunday, Feb. 9. 2025. The protestors touched on a wide range of the Trump administration's policies as they marched through downtown New Orleans, including those related to immigration and transgender rights.
Kat Stromquist / Gulf States Newsroom
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Participants at a rally and march hold up signs protesting President Donald Trump's appearance at Super Bowl 59 in New Orleans on Sunday, Feb. 9. 2025. The protestors touched on a wide range of the Trump administration's policies as they marched through downtown New Orleans, including those related to immigration and transgender rights.
Kat Stromquist / Gulf States Newsroom
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Participants at a rally and march hold up signs protesting President Donald Trump's appearance at Super Bowl 59 in New Orleans on Sunday, Feb. 9. 2025. The protestors touched on a wide range of the Trump administration's policies as they marched through downtown New Orleans, including those related to immigration and transgender rights.
Kat Stromquist / Gulf States Newsroom
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Participants at a rally and march hold up signs protesting President Donald Trump's appearance at Super Bowl 59 in New Orleans on Sunday, Feb. 9. 2025. The protestors touched on a wide range of the Trump administration's policies as they marched through downtown New Orleans, including those related to immigration and transgender rights.
Kat Stromquist / Gulf States Newsroom
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A man plays the tuba in the rain during a rally and march protesting President Donald Trump's appearance at Super Bowl 59 in New Orleans on Sunday, Feb. 9. 2025. The protestors touched on a wide range of the Trump administration's policies as they marched through downtown New Orleans, including those related to immigration and transgender rights.
Kat Stromquist / Gulf States Newsroom
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Bumi, a protestor's dog, wears a tag that says he "Hates [Donald] Trump," at a rally and march protesting President Donald Trump's appearance at Super Bowl 59 in New Orleans on Sunday, Feb. 9. 2025. The protestors touched on a wide range of the Trump administration's policies as they marched through downtown New Orleans, including those related to immigration and transgender rights.
Kat Stromquist / Gulf States Newsroom
Organizers said law enforcement agencies were aware of the event and its planned route, and a group of about a dozen legal observers could be seen flanking the event.
Advocates from groups including New Orleans for Community Oversight of Police, Queer and Trans Community Action Project, Southeast Dignity Not Detention Coalition and others signed on as affiliates to the march.
One person attending the rally, Jordan Peota, said he works as a teacher and is apprehensive about what might happen to students whose immigration status might be in question.
He said legal staff recently spoke with teachers about the possibility of ICE visiting their campus.
"[It] just really made it real for me that there's not much we can do, if they do come," he said.
Scott, a home health professional in New Orleans who asked to withhold his last name because he fears retribution, said he attended the protest because he fears a "fascist takeover" of the country, evoking the nearby National World War II Museum.
"Our prior generations fought and died for what this man, and this administration, is tearing through and destroying," he said.
Several people in attendance also held signs critical of Musk and his role in the new administration.
Despite the rain, several bystanders in football jerseys emerged from bars to film the protest or join in chants. One man leaned out of a car window and used profane language to express that he, too, disdains the president.
This story was produced by the Gulf States Newsroom, a collaboration between Mississippi Public Broadcasting, WBHM in Alabama, WWNO and WRKF in Louisiana and NPR.
![Bumi, a protestor's dog, wears a tag that says he "Hates [Donald] Trump," at a rally and march protesting President Donald Trump's appearance at Super Bowl 59 in New Orleans on Sunday, Feb. 9. 2025.](https://npr.brightspotcdn.com/dims4/default/dc62583/2147483647/strip/true/crop/1920x1183+0+213/resize/880x542!/quality/90/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fnpr-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2F12%2F93%2F3b4ba289440ebc7d9c90a40c7d19%2Fimg-0969.jpg)
