Anti-Trump rallies pop up in thousands of US cities for 'No Kings' protest
Demonstrators decrying US president Donald Trump's aggressive deportation efforts, war in Iran, and other policies took to city streets across the country on Saturday in the third round of the "No Kings" rallies.
More than 3,200 events were planned in all 50 states. The two previous No Kings events attracted millions of participants.
In Minnesota, a flashpoint in Trump's crackdown on illegal immigration, a massive rally was held outside the state capitol building in Saint Paul. Many in the crowd there held aloft posters bearing photos of Renee Good and Alex Pretti, whom federal immigration officers fatally shot in Minneapolis this year.
Minnesota Governor Tim Walz, the Democratic vice presidential nominee in 2024, told the crowd that their resistance to Trump and his policies makes 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 of Vermont, a Trump critic who sought the Democratic presidential nomination in 2016 and 2020, was another speaker at the event in Minnesota. Musician Bruce Springsteen also appeared and performed his song "Streets of Minneapolis"—a ballad that blasts Trump's immigration crackdown and laments 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 happening outside major cities, a nearly 40% jump 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 more than 10 blocks in midtown Manhattan. Actor Robert De Niro, one of the organizers, said that no president before Trump has posed "such an existential threat to our freedoms and security.”
Holly Bemiss, 54, said she and other New York rally attendees 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 one high-rise assisted-living center in Chevy Chase, Maryland, a group of elderly people in wheelchairs held signs encouraging passing cars to “Resist tyranny,” “Honk if you want democracy” and “Dump Trump.”
Thousands attended a Dallas event that had clashes between No Kings demonstrators and counterprotest groups, including one led by Enrique Tarrio, the former leader of the far-right organization the Proud Boys.
Minor scuffles erupted when counterprotesters blocked streets. Dallas police eventually made several arrests.
Trump's policies have galvanized the opposition, Dallas protester Chris Brendel said.
"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," Brendel said.
Trump's approval rating has fallen to 36%, its lowest point since his return to the White House, according to a Reuters/Ipsos poll.
A spokesperson for the National Republican Congressional Committee criticized Democratic politicians and candidates 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," spokesperson Mike Marinella said in a statement.
Marching ahead of midterms
With midterm elections later this year in the US, organizers say they have seen a surge in the number of people organizing anti-Trump events and registering to participate in deeply Republican states like Idaho, Wyoming, Montana, and Utah.
Competitive suburban areas 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 planning of Saturday's events. She cited examples in Pennsylvania's Bucks and Delaware counties, East Cobb and Forsyth in Georgia, and Scottsdale and Chandler in Arizona.
A call to action against Iran war
The No Kings movement launched last year on Trump's birthday, June 14, drew an estimated 4 million to 6 million people across roughly 2,100 sites nationwide. The second mobilization in October involved an estimated 7 million participants in more than 2,700 cities, according to a crowdsourcing analysis published by prominent data journalist G. Elliott Morris.
That October event was largely fueled 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 the bombardment of Iran by the U.S. and Israel, a conflict that is now four weeks old.
Morgan Taylor, 45, attended the Washington protest with her 12-year-old son, and said she was enraged by Trump's military action in Iran, which she called a "stupid war."
"Nobody's attacking us," Taylor said. "We don't need to be there." (REUTERS)