Demonstrators decrying US President Donald Trump’s deportation efforts, the war in Iran and other policies took to city streets across the country on Saturday in the third round of the “No Kings” rallies.
Organizers said more than 3,200 events were planned in all 50 states after the movement’s two previous nationwide events drew millions of participants. Large rallies occurred in New York, Dallas, Philadelphia and Washington, but organizers noted that roughly two-thirds of No Kings events were outside major cities, a nearly 40% jump for smaller communities since the first mobilization last June.
In Minnesota, a flashpoint in Trump’s crackdown on illegal immigration, a massive rally was held outside the state capitol in Saint Paul. Many attendees carried posters with photos of Renee Good and Alex Pretti, US citizens fatally shot by federal immigration officers in Minneapolis this year. Minnesota Governor Tim Walz, the Democratic vice presidential nominee in 2024, told the crowd their resistance to Trump and his policies made them “the heart and soul” of everything good about the US.
“They call us radicals,” Walz said. “You’re damn right we’ve been radicalized – radicalized by compassion, radicalized by decency, radicalized by due process, radicalized by democracy, and radicalized to do all we can to oppose authoritarianism.”
US Senator Bernie Sanders addressed the Minnesota event, and musician Bruce Springsteen performed “Streets of Minneapolis,” a ballad criticizing Trump’s immigration crackdown and lamenting the deaths of Good and Pretti. “We will not allow this country to descend into authoritarianism or oligarchy in America,” Sanders said. “We, the people, will rule.”
The National Republican Congressional Committee criticized Democratic politicians for supporting the rallies. “These Hate America Rallies are where the far-left’s most violent, deranged fantasies get a microphone and House Democrats get their marching orders,” committee spokesperson Mike Marinella said.
In New York, police estimated tens of thousands stretched 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.” Rallygoer Holly Bemiss, 54, compared the protest to her ancestors’ fight 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, crowds chanted pro-democracy slogans and held anti-Trump signs. Outside a high-rise assisted-living center in Chevy Chase, Maryland, elderly people in wheelchairs held signs urging passing cars to “Resist tyranny,” “Honk if you want democracy” and “Dump Trump.”
Thousands attended a Dallas event that saw clashes between No Kings demonstrators and counterprotest groups, including one led by Enrique Tarrio, the former leader of the Proud Boys. Minor scuffles erupted when counterprotesters blocked streets, and Dallas police made several arrests. Dallas protester Chris Brendel said Trump’s policies had galvanized opposition: “One thing I’ll give Trump credit for is mobilizing the dissenters. I can’t stand by and be silent anymore simply because of my boys and their friends and the future.”
In Los Angeles, retired Burbank resident Theresa Gunnell said she took part because it’s “important for everybody to make a stand against authoritarianism, fascism, and greed.” She added, “All Trump is doing is making himself wealthy while taking away from regular Americans.”
Federal authorities reported incidents in Los Angeles as well. The US Department of Homeland Security said two people were arrested for assaulting federal law enforcement after about 1,000 people surrounded a federal building; officials said two officers were hit with cement blocks and were receiving medical care following the incident at the Roybal Federal Building. The Los Angeles Police Department said multiple demonstrators were arrested for failing to disperse near a federal prison, and federal authorities had deployed tear gas after some people threw objects over a fence.
Organizers said the rallies were also part of a push ahead of November’s midterm elections, which will determine control of the US Congress. They reported increased organizing and voter registration in deeply Republican states such as Idaho, Wyoming, Montana and Utah, and surges in competitive suburban areas that have shaped national elections, including parts of Pennsylvania, Georgia and Arizona. Leah Greenberg, co-founder of Indivisible, which started the No Kings movement and helped plan Saturday’s events, said interest in those suburban areas was “huge.”
Trump’s approval rating has fallen to 36%, its lowest since his return to the White House, according to a Reuters/Ipsos poll.
The first No Kings event, held on Trump’s birthday, June 14 last year, drew an estimated 4 million to 6 million people across about 2,100 sites nationwide. A second mobilization in October involved an estimated 7 million participants in more than 2,700 cities, according to a crowdsourcing analysis by data journalist G Elliott Morris. That October surge was fueled in part by backlash to a government shutdown, an aggressive federal immigration crackdown and the deployment of National Guard troops to major cities.
Saturday’s rallies also reflected opposition to the US and Israel’s bombardment of Iran, a conflict organizers said was now four weeks old. At the Washington protest, Morgan Taylor, 45, attended with her 12-year-old son and said she was enraged by Trump’s military action in Iran, calling it a “stupid war.” “Nobody’s attacking us,” Taylor said. “We don’t need to be there.”
