Demonstrators condemn US President Donald TrumpAggressive deportation efforts, the war on Iran and other policies took to the streets of cities across the country on Saturday in the third round of “No to Kings” rallies.
More than 3,200 events were planned in all 50 states. The previous two No Kings events attracted millions of participants.
In Minnesota, a flashpoint in Trump’s crackdown on illegal immigration, a mass rally was held outside the state capitol building in Saint Paul. Many in the crowd there carried posters bearing the photos of Renee Good and Alex Pretti, who were shot dead by federal immigration officers in Minneapolis this year.
Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, the Democratic vice presidential candidate in 2024, told the crowd that their resistance to Trump and his policies makes them the “heart and soul” of all that is good in the US.
“They call us radicals,” Walz said. “You’re right, we are radicalized — radicalized by compassion, radicalized by decency, radicalized by due process, radicalized by democracy, and radicalized to do everything we can to oppose authoritarianism.”
U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont, a Trump critic who sought the Democratic presidential nomination in 2016 and 2020, was another speaker at the Minnesota event. Musician Bruce Springsteen also appeared and performed his song “Streets of Minneapolis” — a ballad that blasts Trump’s immigration crackdown and mourns the deaths of Good and Pretti.
“We will not allow this country to descend into authoritarianism or oligarchy in America,” said Sanders, an independent. “We, the people, will rule”.
Other large rallies took place in New York, Dallas, Los Angeles, Philadelphia and Washington, but two-thirds of the events were taking place outside major cities, an increase of nearly 40% for smaller communities from the movement’s first mobilization last June, organizers said.
In New York, a crowd that police estimated at tens of thousands stretched over more than 10 blocks in midtown Manhattan. Actor Robert De Niro, one of the organizers, said no president before Trump had posed “such an existential threat to our freedoms and security.”
Holly Bemiss, 54, said she and other New York rally participants were acting in the same spirit as her ancestors who fought in the American Revolution.
“We fought against having kings and we fought for freedom,” she said. “We’re just doing it again.”
On the National Mall in Washington, the crowd chanted pro-democracy slogans and held anti-Trump signs. Outside a high-rise assisted living center in Chevy Chase, Maryland, a group of elderly people in wheelchairs held signs encouraging passing cars to resist tyranny, “Hoke if you want democracy” and “Put out Trump.”
Thousands attended an event in Dallas that saw clashes between No Kings demonstrators and counter-protester groups, including one led by Enrique Tarrio, the former leader of the far-right organization Proud Boys.
Small clashes broke out as counter-protesters blocked roads. Dallas police eventually made several arrests.
Trump’s policies have fueled opposition, said Dallas protester Chris Brendel.
“One thing I will give Trump credit for is mobilizing the opposition. … I can no longer stand by and be silent simply for the sake of my sons, their friends and the future,” Brendel said.
Trump’s approval rating has fallen to 36%, the lowest point since he returned to the White House, according to a Reuters/Ipsos poll.
A spokesman for the Republican National Congress criticized politicians and Democratic candidates for supporting the rallies.
“These America-hate rallies are where the far left’s most violent and insane fantasies get a microphone and House Democrats get their marching orders,” spokesman Mike Marinella said in a statement.
March ahead of the midterms
With midterm elections later this year in the US, organizers say they have seen an increase in the number of people organizing anti-Trump events and registering to participate in deeply Republican states such as Idaho, Wyoming, Montana and Utah.
Contested suburban precincts that have helped decide national elections are seeing “huge” increases in interest, said Leah Greenberg, co-founder of Indivisible, the group that started the No Kings movement last year and led the planning of Saturday’s events. She cited examples in Bucks and Delaware counties in Pennsylvania, East Cobb and Forsyth in Georgia, and Scottsdale and Chandler in Arizona.
A call to action against the war in Iran
The No Kings movement launched last year on Trump’s birthday, June 14, drew an estimated 4 million to 6 million people to about 2,100 sites nationwide. The second mobilization in October involved nearly 7 million participants in more than 2,700 cities, according to a crowdsourced analysis published by prominent data journalist G. Elliott Morris.
That October event was fueled largely by a backlash against a government shutdown, an aggressive crackdown by federal immigration authorities and the deployment of National Guard troops to major cities.
Saturday’s events come amid what organizers said was a call to action against US and Israeli bombing of Iran, a conflict that is now four weeks old.
Morgan Taylor, 45, attended the protest in Washington with her 12-year-old son and said she was outraged by Trump’s military action in Iran, which she called a “stupid war”.
“No one is attacking us,” Taylor said. “We don’t need to be there.”
