Protests stretch from major cities to small towns

People turned out for No Kings rallies across the United States on Saturday, with demonstrations reaching from New York City, in a heavily Democratic state with nearly 8.5 million residents, to Driggs, Idaho, a town of fewer than 2,000 people in a state Donald Trump carried with 66% of the vote in 2024.

The movement’s organizers said this latest wave of protests was their largest yet. They estimated that the first two rounds of No Kings events drew more than 5 million people in June and 7 million in October. For Saturday, they said they expected 9 million participants, though it was still too early to say whether that mark had actually been reached. More than 3,100 events were registered nationwide, about 500 more than in October, covering all 50 states.

Minnesota gets the marquee event

Organizers picked the rally at the Minnesota Capitol as the national flagship event, and they treated it accordingly.

Bruce Springsteen headlined the gathering, telling the crowd: “Your strength and your commitment told us that this was still America,” he said. “And this reactionary nightmare, and these invasions of American cities, will not stand.”

Before Springsteen appeared, organizers played a video message from actor Robert De Niro. He said he wakes up depressed every day because of Trump, but felt better on Saturday because millions were protesting. He also congratulated Minnesotans for running ICE out of town.

The program also included singer Joan Baez, actor Jane Fonda, Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, and a long list of activists, labor leaders, and elected officials.

Protesters at the Capitol held up a large sign that read, “We had whistles, they had guns. The revolution starts in Minneapolis.”

Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers, told the crowd, “Donald Trump may pretend that he’s not listening, but he can’t ignore the millions in the streets today.”

The list of complaints keeps growing

Trump’s immigration enforcement push, especially in Minnesota, was only one part of the grievances on display. Protesters also condemned the war in Iran, attacks on transgender rights, and the influence of billionaires over the economy. In Washington, speakers and marchers added the usual mix of bells, drums and slogans, because apparently subtlety was not the point.

In Washington, hundreds marched past the Lincoln Memorial and into the National Mall carrying signs reading “Put down the crown, clown” and “Regime change begins at home.” Protesters chanted “No kings” while others rang bells and beat drums.

Bill Jarcho, who came from Seattle, joined six people dressed as insects wearing tactical vests marked “LICE,” a spoof of ICE, as part of what he called a “mock and awe” tour.

“What we provide is mockery to the king,” Jarcho said. “It’s about taking authoritarianism and making fun of it, which they hate.”

Police in San Diego said about 40,000 people marched there.

In New York, Donna Lieberman, executive director of the New York Civil Liberties Union, said at a news conference that Trump and his allies want people to be afraid to demonstrate.

“They want us to be afraid that there’s nothing we can do to stop them,” she said. “But you know what? They are wrong - dead wrong.”

Organizers said two-thirds of RSVP responses came from outside major metropolitan areas. That included places in conservative-leaning states such as Idaho, Wyoming, Montana, Utah, South Dakota and Louisiana, as well as politically competitive suburbs in Pennsylvania, Georgia and Arizona.

Republicans dismiss the rallies

The White House brushed off the protests as a project of the left rather than a sign of broad public unrest.

White House spokesperson Abigail Jackson called them the product of “leftist funding networks” and said they lacked real public support.

“The only people who care about these Trump Derangement Therapy Sessions are the reporters who are paid to cover them,” Jackson said in a statement.

The National Republican Congressional Committee was even less charitable.

“These Hate America Rallies are where the far-left’s most violent, deranged fantasies get a microphone,” NRCC spokesperson Maureen O’Toole said.

Demonstrations also spread overseas

The protests were not limited to the United States. Ezra Levin, co-executive director of Indivisible, said events were also planned in more than a dozen other countries across Europe, Latin America and Australia. In countries with constitutional monarchies, he said, the events were being labeled “No Tyrants.”

In Rome, thousands marched with chants directed at Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni. Her conservative government suffered a heavy defeat this week after a referendum on streamlining Italy’s judiciary failed. Demonstrators there also carried banners opposing Israeli and U.S. attacks on Iran.

In London, people held signs saying “Stop the far right” and “Stand up to Racism.”

In Paris, several hundred people gathered at the Bastille. Most were Americans living in France, joined by labor unions and human rights groups.

“I protest all of Trump’s illegal, immoral, reckless, and feckless, endless wars,” organizer Ada Shen said.