WEST MICHIGAN — The motivation among Ottawa County residents continues to grow over frustrations with the Trump Administration's controversial policies.

President Donald J. Trump has signed nearly 100 executive orders so far in 2025, with more anticipated, putting him on pace to overtake president Biden's 162 executive orders signed throughout his entire term — potentially before the end of the year.

Many of Trump's supporters view the actions as simply fulfilling campaign promises, while opponents view them as an unconstitutional abuse of executive power.

International Women’s Day Rally

GRAND RAPIDS — The “Unite and Resist” women's rally took place on March 8 at Rosa Parks Circle in downtown Grand Rapids, bringing together more than 2,000 demonstrators, according to WOOD-TV8. The event marked one of thousands of demonstrations around the globe. 

The Grand Rapids rally featured a plethora of signs in support of women’s rights, with slogans like, “Women’s rights are human rights,” “Diversity and inclusion are GOOD” and “Real men support women's rights.”

The event culminated with a march through downtown, passing the Grand Rapids Community College downtown campus. 

“What an empowering day at the women's march in Grand Rapids,” said state Rep. Kristian Grant, D-Grand Rapids, on social media. “I spoke beside so many powerful women, and it reminded me why we must always show up and speak up!”

The messaging was not limited to domestic issues, as protestors waved pro-Ukrainian and Palestinian flags along with anti-Trump and anti-DOGE signs, referring to the U.S. Department of Government Efficiency led by billionaire Elon Musk.

Free speech protest near GVSU campus

ALLENDALE — A small demonstration gathered near the Allendale campus of Grand Valley State University on March 9.

The group, like many demonstrations across the country, gathered to show their support for college students' right to free speech after Trump posted on his Truth Social platform about punishing universities and students in response to what he called “illegal campus” protesting.   

Shortly afterward, the Trump Administration pulled $400 million of federal funding from Columbia University and detained Columbia student activist Mahmoud Khalil, a legal permanent U.S. resident who is also married to a U.S. who played a central role in protests against the Israel-Hamas war on the Ivy League campus last year.

Ottawa County residents gathered on March 8 at the entrance of the GVSU Allendale campus and were met with a medley of honks, revved engines and shouts from cars as students arrived back on campus from spring break. 

“We are here in response to Trump's post on Truth Social that he would defund universities, deport international students and expel — and possibly arrest — domestic students, who are each carrying out what he says are illegal protests without any definition of what he deems to be an illegal protest,” said Cathy Seaver, who helped organize the protest. “I take Trump at face value. He says a lot of things and, for me, the right to protest is absolutely fundamental to our democracy.”

A young man with the group, who was granted anonymity for fear of retaliation, said it was his first time protesting. Laughing to himself, he acknowledged that it was kind of ironic that he was protesting about protesting. 

“This is definitely a good joke somehow — I’m not really the type to protest, but once I found out college students were being pressured to not protest, I decided that I needed to protest,” he said. 

As colleges and universities struggle nationally to adapt to the executive branch's new rules on university protests, many have moved to ban campus protests entirely, including the University of Michigan. The move came after pro-Palastanian protests purposefully disrupted campuses across the country last year, including the use of encampments, in an effort to bring to light the Israel-Palestine conflict.

In February, the American Civil Liberties Union of Michigan filed a federal lawsuit against the University of Michigan for its alleged violation of a group of protesters’ First Amendment rights after the university issued “trespass bans” that the protesters claim are an act of “unconstitutional restraint on speech” and a violation of their due process rights.

Meanwhile, GVSU has joined a growing list of American colleges and universities that were notified they are under federal investigation for what it calls “racial preferences” in academic opportunities or scholarships and for allegedly not protecting Jewish students from anti-Semitism.

GVSU issued a statement March 13 confirming that the U.S. Department of Education's Office of Civil Rights notified the university of the investigation.

Transgender protest on GVSU campus

ALLENDALE — Just three days after the small off-campus demonstration, GVSU's main campus hosted speaker Chloe Cole, an American activist who opposes gender-affirming care for minors and supports bans on such care following her own de-transition.

The event was organized through the GVSU chapter of Turning Point USA, a nonprofit group that advocates for conservative politics on campuses nationwide.

During Cole's speech, which took place in the school's Kirkhof Center, most media were denied access to the event. 

“I got a ticket to the event beforehand because I saw that you needed one for admission, but then when I tried going inside with my camera equipment they denied me access to the event, claiming my equipment wasn’t allowed,” said Ethan Outman, a GVSU student journalist. “After arguing for my right to get in, they conveniently decided it was a fire risk to let any more people inside.”

Reporters from MLive and WOOD-TV8 also were denied access, Outman said. A reporter from Grand Rapids TV station FOX-17 was able to access the event.

During her speech, Cole spoke of transitioning to male at the age of 13, getting a double mastectomy at 15, then de-transitioning a year later, FOX-17 reported. 

“I was just a kid, and like any kid, I was wrestling with insecurities and the uncertainty that naturally comes with being a young adolescent,” Cole to the audience of roughly 60. “We must keep fighting until every state, every court, and every medical board and hospital understands that this mutilation of our youth is unconscionable, that our families deserve better than this.”

Just outside of the Kirkoff Center, a counter-protest of pro-transgender students, faculty, clergy and community members gathered for a trans-rights vigil. 

Student attendees expressed deep gratitude for the outpouring of support from the broader community.

“I felt that it was important to come out and to show my support today … just to make sure that those in our community who are really facing a tough time right now know that they are valued, that they are loved,” said Angie Brown, who drove from Grand Rapids to attend the vigil. 

Meanwhile, Ottawa County commissioners Joe Moss and Sylvia Rhodea attended the event in support of Cole.

The pair founded and operate far-right fundamentalist group Ottawa Impact, which held a controlling majority of the county board of commissioners in 2023 and 2024 — a tumultuous tenure that led to seven lawsuits within 24 months against the county.

"DEI and trans ideologies are an exploitation of our most vulnerable, a betrayal of reality, and a means to erode our foundational values," Moss posted on social media.

Moss said he supported the event "to expose the evil behind the trans agenda on a campus filled with young adults that need the truth."

"No child is trapped in the wrong body. A boy is a boy. A girl is a girl. Made in God's image and inherently valuable," he said on his commissioner Facebook page.

Moss did not respond to ONN's request for comment.

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Micah Talbot, a transgender student, spoke about their experience with what they felt was conservative media bias, saying it is not as easy to transition as Cole and organizations like Turning Point USA make it out to be. 

“The media portrays it like it’s really easy to get access (to transitional medical care). It’s really not," they said. "It’s much harder, and this anti-trans rhetoric is making it even harder to get those things."

Talbot said it took two months for them to get a therapist to finally sign off on receiving hormonal therapy treatment, and even after that, they had more hoops to jump through before getting their desired medical care. 

— Christopher Thome covers business and development for Ottawa News Network. Contact him at cthome@ottawanewsnetwork.org.