The ‘No Kings’ protests that took the United States by storm on Saturday marked an outpouring of dissent against the Donald Trump administration. Named ‘No Kings’ as a nod against authoritarian governance, the roots of the protests stemmed from President Trump’s immigration crackdowns, assaults on free speech, and reshaping of government institutions.
Organised by the No Kings coalition, the protests drew an estimated five million participants across all 50 states, in over 2,100 cities and towns. These demonstrations were timed to coincide with a military parade held in Washington DC to commemorate the US Army’s 250th anniversary. The date also happened to mark Trump’s 79th birthday.
A woman gestures at mounted police moving in to disperse protesters in Los Angeles (Etienne Laurent/AFP)
While the protests have been scheduled for a while, their scale was enhanced by recent events in Los Angeles, where Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) raided workplaces and arrested 44 people who were alleged to have entered the country illegally.
These raids triggered a week of demonstrations, some escalating into car-burnings and violence, prompting Trump to send in 2,100 National Guard members and deploy 700 Marines to Los Angeles in defiance of local officials.
The No Kings Coalition, using platforms like X and encrypted apps to coordinate across thousands of locations, achieved unprecedented numbers, with organisers claiming it was the largest single-day anti-Trump protest of his second term.
Police officers stand by as people start marching in New York (Eduardo Munoz/Reuters)
Demonstrations varied in tone and size. In New York, Chicago, Denver, Austin, and Los Angeles, massive crowds marched with anti-authoritarian chants, waving American and Mexican flags, and carrying anti-Trump signs.
As the Associated Press reports, Philadelphia’s rally featured a woman in a foam Statue of Liberty crown leading an anti-Trump sing-along, adapting the popular song YMCA by replacing ‘young man’ with ‘con man.’
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A crowd of protesters fill Liberty Plaza in front of the Georgia State Capitol in Atlanta on Saturday (Elijah Nouvelage/AFP)
Atlanta’s 5,000-capacity event overflowed, with thousands outside the state Capitol, while Seattle drew over 70,000 people.
Houston’s protests resembled a block party according to the New York Times, with Mexican music, food, and people jumping into fountains.
A drone view shows protesters holding a We the People sign in Bennington County, Vermont, a town of 37,000 people (Michael Beach/Reuters)
Rural protests, including three dozen in Indiana and events in Mobile, Montgomery, and Tuscaloosa, Alabama, reached Trump strongholds.
Despite the coalition’s nonviolence pledge, isolated clashes occurred, although questions of reciprocity remain. In Los Angeles, police used tear gas and crowd-control munitions to clear people out after the protests ended.
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Elsewhere in Los Angeles, protestors gathered outside a federal detention center guarded by a line of Marines and other law enforcement. This was the first time the Marines have appeared at a demonstration since they were deployed to the city.
Bubbles float past US Marines stationed outside the Federal Building in Los Angeles (Ringo Chiu/AFP)
Portland police fired tear gas at protesters outside an ICE building, and in Salt Lake City, a shooting during a march left one critically injured, with three in custody, including the suspected shooter.
In Culpepper, Virginia, a 21-year-old driver was charged with reckless driving after injuring a protester by accelerating an SUV into a crowd.
In Minnesota, Governor Tim Walz cancelled his St. Paul rally appearance after a man fatally shot a Democratic State Senator, an action Waltz described as being political in nature. Despite that thousands marched in Duluth, Rochester, and St. Paul.
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Congressman Chuy Garcia in Chicago (Chuy Garcia/ Facebook)
Political representatives and non-profit groups were also involved.
Representative Chuy Garcia gave a speech in Chicago, the ACLU spoke in New York and Philadelphia, and union leaders were active across the country.
Protesters line the street in downtown Anchorage, Alaska (Bill Roth/AP)
Governors, including North Carolina’s Josh Stein, Maryland’s Wes Moore, and Arizona’s Katie Hobbs, supported peaceful protest whereas governors in Virginia, Texas, Nebraska and Missouri activated their State National Guards to maintain order.
In Washington DC, where the parade took place, about 500 protesters gathered in Lafayette Park, near the White House, the same spot where five years earlier, Trump had controversially deployed the National Guard to clear demonstrators before walking to a church for a photo op with a Bible.
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Protesters rally at Lafayette Square during a No Kings protest in Washington, DC, on the day of President Trump’s military parade (AFP)
A banner reading “All Hail Commander Bone Spurs” – a nod to Trump’s exception from the wartime draft because of bone spurs in his foot – hung nearby.
Trump had warned that parade disruptions would face “heavy force,” though the White House later affirmed support for peaceful demonstrations.
Globally, the protests inspired solidarity movements in Europe, Asia, and Africa. In Canada, the “Tell Trump to Toque Off” protests opposed Trump’s tariffs and remarks about Canada as a potential 51st state.
“Today, across red states and blue, rural towns and major cities, Americans stood in peaceful unity and made it clear: we don’t do kings,” the No Kings Coalition said in a statement Saturday afternoon after many events had ended.
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Police officers patrol the area around a No Kings protest in Philadelphia (Yuki Iwamura/AP)
However, while the protests may have captured attention rivalling (or perhaps exceeding) that of the military parade, the demonstrators’ physical presence may oversimplify the nuance of public opinion. A CBS/YouGov survey from last week showed that 54 per cent of Americans approved of Trump’s deportation policies, with 42 per cent feeling safer.
