Critics of ‘Hands Off’ protests mislead with photos, videos they say are proof of paid protestors

Soon after hundreds of thousands of people gathered in cities across the world to protest the Trump administration’s government program cuts, critics of the effort cast doubt on its authenticity.

"Exposed: Anti-Elon protests are staged & paid — bussed-in, scripted, clocked-out," conservative influencer Mario Nawfal posted April 6 on X. The post refers to billionaire and White House adviser Elon Musk, who was one focus of the protests. Musk leads Trump’s Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, which is a cost-cutting agency.

More than 1,000 "Hands Off" protests took place in 50 states and abroad, but Nawfal’s post focused on the Washington, D.C., event: "The anti-Elon, anti-DOGE, anti-Trump protests in D.C.? They aren’t grassroots. They are payroll-driven theater," the post said.

We examined Nawfal’s post and others like it and found the supposed evidence they presented that the "Hands Off" events were a pay-for-protest job did not hold up to scrutiny. Many posts misleadingly framed normal aspects of event organizing, such as printed signs and coordinated transportation, as signs of a paid conspiracy. Some posts mistook a viral satire video as fact, and others misidentified a paid signature gatherer for a protester.

"We don’t pay protesters. We don’t ‘stage’ protests," said Sarah Dohl, the chief campaigns officer of Indivisible, a nonprofit which has been a focus of claims about paid protesters. "What we do is support a nationwide network of grassroots organizers working to protect democracy."

We found no evidence that April 5 protesters in Washington, D.C., or elsewhere were paid to protest. Nawfal did not respond to a request for comment.

"Evidence" including signs, buses shows normal event organizing 

Nawfal’s post included four videos, three of which were first shared by Laura Loomer, a conservative activist and podcaster who has promoted conspiracy theories, including that 9/11 was "an inside job." Some of the videos appear to show a March for Palestine that was happening in Washington, D.C., the same day as the "Hands Off" protest. Nawfal’s post said protestors had "pre-made signs handed out assembly-line style."

Two of the videos showed large groups of people walking down Washington, D.C.’s 15th Street. Several protesters in the group carried signs that said, "Socialism Beats Fascism." Those signs match the political action group Democratic Socialists of America’s signs from the April 5 protest. That group did not respond to a request for comment.

Distributing signs at protests is not abnormal and not a sign that the people carrying them are paid, said Celina Su, a  City University of New York political science professor and expert in grassroots organizing.

"We want the grassroots to be somewhat organized," Su said. "This doesn't mean that they're in group think, like drinking the Kool Aid of propaganda. This means that there's been meetings talking about what their campaign priorities and they're like, ‘Yeah, let's focus on this.’"

Nawfal’s post also said "buses rolled in packed with hired protesters," and two of his other video clips focused on buses. One showed people disembarking a bus. Another showed a bus’s luggage area where two handmade signs appeared to have been stored. 

It’s not uncommon for people to ride buses into a big city — where parking can be both scarce and expensive — for a major event. "Those charter buses, to me, prove that this is a widespread sentiment, not that they were paid to express this sentiment," Su said.

Some protesters organized buses to travel into Washington, D.C., to participate in both the "Hands Off" protest and the March for Palestine. Local groups set up websites for people seeking to coordinate their travel to the events, including ways participants could pay for their own tickets. 

PolitiFact contacted several groups that helped organize April 5 events, including MoveOn, Indivisible and 50501, which was specifically formed to protest the second Trump administration. Each organization said it did not pay protesters to participate and was unaware of any organization that would. Similarly, the groups said they neither paid for nor organized buses to bring protesters to Washington, D.C. 

The last video in Nawfal’s post featured Bronson Alford, a conservative influencer who was filming interviews for Turning Point USA, a conservative advocacy group. 

In the video, Alford said that after he left for a 30 minute break, he returned to find the crowd had dispersed. "This place is dead… not a single protester in sight," he said in the video. "And just 20 to 30 minutes ago, it was completely packed with protesters."

He concluded the crowd’s absence meant "they were paid and their time was gone" or they are a "cult, and they all left at once." Nawfal had said in his post that "protesters all left at once — just like a shift change."

Turning Point USA did not respond to our questions about what time Alford’s video was filmed, but the landmarks seen in the video show he was standing near the Hirshhorn Museum, about a 15-minute walk from where the protest was focused, around the Washington Monument. 

Lastly, Nawfal linked to his March 31 X post that said one of the "Hands Off" event organizers, the progressive advocacy group Indivisible, had offered to pay people to protest Tesla and Musk. The post included screengrabs of Indivisible’s website with a link to an "Event Reimbursement Form."

The screenshot was from Indivisible’s congressional recess campaign, which encourages people to organize in their communities when Congress is on break. It offers groups that register with Indivisible "the option to apply for up to $200 in reimbursement for event-related costs," Dohl told PolitiFact in an email.

"Reimbursements require receipts, are submitted after the event, and only cover actual organizing expenses like venue rentals, printed flyers, posterboard, snacks, bullhorn batteries, or accessibility support like (American Sign Language) interpreters," Dohl said.

So far in 2025, Indivisible has distributed about $7,000 in reimbursements, during the February and March recess periods, Dohl said. There were no reimbursements distributed for the April 5 marches because they happened outside the April 12 to 27 congressional recess period.

Indivisible has a toolkit with downloadable signs and provided free event boxes to 200 "Hands Off" protester groups; the boxes included placards, stickers and paint pens. 

Su said premade signs, organized buses, reimbursements for expenses show organizers’ attempts to make political engagement more accessible.

Satire, a paid canvasser and buses misleadingly framed as showing ‘paid’ protesters  

We examined other social media posts sharing claims that protesters outside of Washington, D.C., were paid and found they were unsubstantiated. 

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Donald Trump

stated on March 17, 2025 in a Truth Social post

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• Texas State University buses were privately hired: Several social media users, including a Texas state representative, shared a video taken in a parking lot in New Braunfels, Texas, where people boarded buses with Texas State University branding. "Why are Texas State University buses being used to transport protesters against Trump, Elon, and DOGE? Who’s paying for them?" posted one X user. Texas State University issued a statement that the private company that runs the university’s bus system is allowed to charter its buses. A private group chartered the buses, not the university. 

• Viral TikTok of "paid protester" is satire: Other social media users shared a TikTok video of a woman who claimed to be a paid protester. But this video was from a self-described satire account. Its creator later removed the video and posted another video explaining that the first one was not real. 

• Paid canvasser, not protester in Utah: A TikToker who goes by Christian Drain posted a video taken outside the Utah State Capitol, featuring a man wearing a hoodie and holding a clipboard being questioned by someone off camera about how much he was being paid. The video’s caption read, "George Soros agitator admits he gets paid to protest." But the man in the video was a paid canvasser gathering signatures for the Protect Utah Workers campaign, not being paid to protest. In the video he is wearing a lanyard that says "paid circulator," and he has a badge that shows he was working for Landslide Political LLC, a political consulting group that hires canvassers.

• Craigslist posts offer cash to sell merchandise, 50501 denies affiliation: A screenshot of Craigslist offers circulated online, including by Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., as evidence that protesters were paid. But the screenshots show the Craigslist posts offering cash for people to sell protest-related merchandise, not to protest. Several of the posts mentioned 50501 was organizing the protests, but a 50501 spokesperson told PolitiFact that neither its Los Angeles nor Washington, D.C., organizing teams had knowledge of the ads, and it received no proceeds from anything sold. 

Concerns about paid protesters aren’t without merit. There are some prominent examples of it happening, and it has a term — astroturfing — referring to fake "grass" roots. 

However, "most in-person protests are less likely to be astroturfing," Su said. "If it's happening in unexpected places, in different sizes, if you see a diversity of folks," of different ages for example, those are all signs it is an authentic grassroots campaign. 

Our ruling

Social media posts claimed videos and photos showed Washington, D.C., protests against Musk are "staged & paid — bussed in, scripted, clocked out." 

PolitiFact examined numerous social media posts presenting supposed evidence that April 5 protesters were paid. None held up to scrutiny. 

Some videos misleadingly framed normal protesting and organizing activities — including similar signage and coordinated transportation — as evidence that protesters were paid.  An expert said those activities aren’t signs that people are paid to protest; they show organizers’ attempts to make political engagement more accessible.

Other supposed evidence included satire videos and Craigslist ads to sell merchandise.

We found no evidence to support the claim that April 5 protesters in Washington, D.C., or elsewhere, were paid. We rate this claim False.

PolitiFact Researcher Caryn Baird contributed to this report.