DAY OF PROTEST: “No Kings” demonstrators once again flooded the streets of Washington, D.C., Los Angeles, New York City
“No Kings” demonstrators once again flooded the streets of Washington, D.C., Los Angeles, New York City
DAY OF PROTEST: “No Kings” Demonstrators Flood Streets Nationwide as White House Dismisses Movement
WASHINGTON — “No Kings” protesters again poured into the streets of Washington, Los Angeles, New York and thousands of other communities on Saturday, marking the third nationwide mobilization of a movement that organizers say is aimed at resisting President Donald Trump’s increasingly expansive use of executive power.
The demonstrations stretched from major urban centers to small towns in conservative states, underscoring how far the “No Kings” banner has spread since its earlier rounds last June and October.
In Washington, marchers moved past the Lincoln Memorial and into the National Mall carrying signs such as “Put down the crown, clown” and “Regime change begins at home.” In Los Angeles, protesters gathered near a federal detention center downtown, where authorities later used tear gas and made arrests after ordering crowds to disperse. In New York, civil-liberties advocates and demonstrators framed the protests as a direct answer to what they see as a campaign of intimidation and democratic erosion.
The White House brushed off the movement early Saturday in language that only sharpened the political contrast. Spokesperson Abigail Jackson said the events were the product of “leftist funding networks” with little real public support and dismissed them as “Trump Derangement Therapy Sessions” that mattered only to the press covering them.
That scornful response fit a pattern already established by Trump and his allies. After the previous round of “No Kings” protests in October 2025, Trump rejected the premise of the movement outright. “I’m not a king,” he said at the time. “I work my a-- off to make our country great. That’s all it is.” Reuters reported those remarks in its coverage of the October marches, when large anti-Trump crowds also turned out in cities across the country.
This weekend’s protests, however, appear to have been broader still. AP reported that organizers expected 500 more events than in October, and Reuters described the March 28 mobilization as the third national wave of “No Kings” rallies, with protests planned in thousands of cities and towns. Washington Post coverage said the movement has grown into one of the largest coordinated demonstrations in U.S. history, with turnout estimates in the millions and events spreading well beyond traditional Democratic strongholds.
At the symbolic center of the day was Minnesota, where organizers designated St. Paul as the flagship rally site. AP reported that the state Capitol event was expected to draw around 100,000 people and featured Bruce Springsteen, whose appearance gave the gathering a blend of protest energy and cultural spectacle. The Minnesota rally also carried extra emotional weight because it followed months of anger over federal immigration enforcement in the state and the deaths of two Minneapolis residents in encounters with federal officers, which organizers and speakers repeatedly invoked.
Yet despite the huge St. Paul event, the real story of the day was geographic breadth. Protesters turned out not only in Democratic strongholds like New York and Los Angeles, but in smaller places such as Driggs, Idaho, and towns across states Trump carried comfortably in 2024. Organizers said two-thirds of RSVPs came from outside major urban centers, including communities in Idaho, Wyoming, Montana, Utah, South Dakota and Louisiana, along with suburbs in key battleground states such as Pennsylvania, Georgia and Arizona. That suburban and small-town spread has become central to the movement’s claim that opposition to Trump is no longer confined to progressive city centers.
The grievances voiced on Saturday were broad, and that breadth is part of what has allowed the movement to expand. AP said participants were protesting not just Trump’s governing style, but also the war in Iran, aggressive immigration enforcement, anti-trans policies and the influence of billionaires over public life. Reuters likewise said demonstrators condemned both Trump’s immigration agenda and the ongoing four-week-old U.S.-Israel bombardment of Iran. In many cities, the message was less about one single policy than about a larger argument that Trump has pushed the presidency toward a more authoritarian posture.
That theme was visible in the name itself. “No Kings” is meant as a rejection of the idea that the presidency should operate above restraint or beyond accountability. Organizers affiliated with Indivisible and allied groups have framed the protests as a defense of constitutional democracy against personalist rule. AP reported that the movement’s organizers explicitly describe Trump as trying to consolidate and expand his power, while protesters themselves often use humor, costumes and mockery to puncture what they view as authoritarian theatrics.
For many participants, the point was not only anger but visibility. In New York, New York Civil Liberties Union executive director Donna Lieberman said at a news conference that Trump and his supporters want opponents to feel afraid and powerless. “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.” Her remarks captured a recurring message of the day: mass turnout itself is meant to be a rebuttal to resignation.
The size of that turnout remains politically significant even where exact crowd counts are hard to verify. AP said organizers estimated the first two national protest waves drew more than 5 million people in June and 7 million in October. For this weekend, the expected figure rose to 9 million, though AP noted it was not yet clear whether that total had been reached. The Washington Post, citing organizers and participants, described the movement as record-breaking and one of the most extensive coordinated demonstrations yet seen against Trump’s second-term agenda.
Most demonstrations were peaceful, but not all were uneventful. In Los Angeles, AP reported that authorities deployed tear gas near the federal detention center and later arrested people for failing to disperse. In Denver, police declared an unlawful assembly after a small group blocked a road; officers used smoke canisters, and at least nine arrests were reported after some protesters allegedly threw canisters or other objects. Reuters also said violence broke out in Dallas and Los Angeles, leading to arrests and injuries.
Even with those incidents, the larger picture was one of scale and persistence. The “No Kings” actions no longer look like a one-off eruption. They now resemble an organized cycle of protest with recurring national dates, increasing coordination and growing cultural visibility. Washington Post reporting this week said the movement had expanded from earlier large demonstrations into a nationwide network of activism that has energized volunteers, encouraged more local candidacies and spread into places once seen as resistant to overt anti-Trump protest politics.
That growth has unsettled Republicans enough that they have answered with increasingly aggressive rhetoric of their own. In addition to Jackson’s dismissal from the White House, AP reported that the National Republican Congressional Committee branded the demonstrations “Hate America Rallies” and accused the far left of using them as a platform for extremism. That line echoes earlier Republican criticism from October, when House Speaker Mike Johnson defended calling previous “No Kings” protests “hate America” rallies on ABC News.
Still, the protest movement’s backers argue that mockery from the White House only helps their cause. Saturday’s crowds included not just activists and elected officials but labor leaders, celebrities and ordinary residents who said the goal was to show that visible, nonviolent resistance remains possible even under an administration they view as hostile to dissent. AP reported that Sen. Bernie Sanders, Joan Baez, Jane Fonda and other prominent figures joined or addressed events, while Reuters said actor Robert De Niro appeared in New York and denounced Trump as a threat to democracy.
There was also an international dimension. AP reported that demonstrations were held in more than a dozen other countries, including Britain, France and Italy, while the Washington Post said solidarity protests took place in at least 15 countries. That overseas participation does not carry the electoral relevance of the U.S. marches, but it adds to the movement’s attempt to cast Trump not just as a domestic political opponent but as part of a broader global pattern of right-wing authoritarianism.
For Trump, the protests pose a familiar challenge but not necessarily an immediate one. He has shown before that mass demonstrations do not automatically force policy reversals, and his political appeal has often thrived on confrontation with visible opposition. Yet repeated protests of this size can still matter, especially if they sustain volunteer energy, shape media attention and help define the climate heading toward the midterm elections. Reuters noted that the demonstrations come as Trump faces declining approval ratings and renewed criticism over both immigration enforcement and the war in Iran.
What Saturday proved above all is that the anti-Trump resistance still has the capacity to fill streets at national scale. Whether organizers truly hit their 9 million goal may remain unclear. What is clear is that “No Kings” is no longer a symbolic slogan attached to a few coastal marches. It has become a recurring national protest brand, with thousands of events, a widening geographic footprint and a message built around one core accusation: that Trump governs not as a constrained constitutional president, but as a leader constantly testing how much power he can seize before the public pushes back.
And on Saturday, across Washington, Los Angeles, New York and far beyond, that pushback was impossible to miss.
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