Nearly 7 million demonstrators in small towns and cities across the country showed up for No Kings protests to rally against Donald Trump’s presidency, according to organizers.
The president declared he was “not a king” on Fox News Friday, but that didn’t stop millions of rally-goers in more than 2,500 locations across the United States from protesting the second Trump administration.
Saturday’s event marked the third mass mobilization since Trump reclaimed the White House — and one of the largest single-day nationwide demonstrations in U.S. history, surpassing the more than 5 million demonstrators who turned up to the first iteration of “No Kings” protests in June, organizers said.
“Today, millions of people showed that we, the people, will not be silenced,” Deirdre Schifeling, chief political and advocacy officer for the American Civil Liberties Union, said in a statement.
Protesters at rallies across the country shouted a common refrain:“Hey hey! Ho ho! Donald Trump has got to go!” Inflatable suits, Revolutionary War references, and posters depicting Trump in a crown were ubiquitous.
Organizers called the protests “overwhelmingly peaceful.”
More than 350,000 people across New York City protested on Saturday, organizers said, with New York City Police making zero arrests connected to the protests. Rallies from Charlotte, North Carolina, to San Diego, California also did not see any arrests, according to police.
As millions of Americans marched against him, Trump spent the day in Palm Beach, Florida. Some Democratic officials — including Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and Massachusetts Rep. Jim McGovern — made appearances at rallies, while several prominent Republicans urged Americans to stay home and watch college football rather than attend the protests, which they baselessly labeled “Hate America” rallies.
“We call it the ‘Hate America’ rally that’ll happen Saturday,” House Speaker Mike Johnson said earlier this week. “Let’s see who shows up for that. I bet you see pro-Hamas supporters. I bet you see Antifa types. I bet you see the Marxists on full display.”
Washington, D.C.
Taking the stage in Washington, D.C., where more than 200,000 demonstrators turned up, Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders immediately took aim at Johnson’s comments.
“Boy, does he have it wrong,” Sanders said. “Millions across thousands of cities across the country showed up not because they hate America, but because they love America.”
He warned that the American experiment is “now in danger,” citing several Trump actions, including sending masked federal agents into cities, the president’s lawsuits against media companies, and Trump’s threats to arrest and imprison his perceived political enemies.
“This moment is not just about one man’s greed, one man’s corruption, or one man’s contempt for the Constitution,” Sanders told the crowd. “This is about a handful of the wealthiest people on earth, who in their insatiable greed, have hijacked our economy and our political system in order to enrich themselves at the expense of working families throughout this country.”
He denounced the billionaires who helped fund Trump’s re-election campaign and attended his inauguration, specifically naming Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos and Mark Zuckerberg.
“We rejected the divine right of kings in the 1770s. We will not accept the divine right of oligarchs today,” he said.
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Miami
Down in Miami, where thousands of protesters gathered, Enrique Tarrio, the former Proud Boys leader, showed up alongside a videographer to the “No Kings” protests. In 2023, Tarrio was sentenced to 22 years behind bars in connection with the January 6, 2021 Capitol riot. He was among more than 1,600 people connected to the riots who Trump pardoned earlier this year.
“Walk away from the agitator,” organizers told the crowd using megaphones, the outlet reported. “Please do not engage with any outside agitators.”
“I support all these people, especially her with the bullhorn,” Tarrio said.
“These protestors are 100 percent expressing the same rights as during January 6,” said the person who was livestreaming Tarrio.
Chicago
Up north in Chicago, Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker addressed a massive crowd of 100,000 people in a city where Trump recently asked the Supreme Court to allow him to deploy National Guard troops after lower-court judges ruled against the move.
Pritzker, who has repeatedly resisted the Trump administration’s demands, spoke of resistance.
“History will judge us by where we choose to stand right now, today. Future generations will ask: ‘What did we do when fellow human beings face persecution? When our rights were being abridged? When our constitution was under attack?'” he asked. “They’ll want to know whether we stood up or we stayed silent.”
“Tyranny requires your fear, your silence, your compliance; Democracy requires courage,” the Democratic governor continued.
“Resistance means choosing solidarity over fear and means recognizing that an attack on free speech on immigrants’ rights on due process is an attack on everyone’s rights,” Pritzker told the crowd. “It means understanding that we’re either building a society based on human dignity, or one based on domination.”
Actor John Cusack also remarked on Trump’s Supreme Court appeal. Speaking to CNN, the Say Anything star had a direct message for the president: “No, you can’t put troops on our streets. You can’t create enough chaos to invoke the Insurrection Act so you can stay in power. We all know what your plan is.”
Cusack, a Chicago native, said the city has a message to the administration: “Go to hell!”
Atlanta
More than 35,000 protesters turned out in Atlanta, where Georgia Democratic Senator Raphael Warnock told the rally crowd that Americans should be “concerned” about Trump’s recent remarks to the military.
Last month, Trump told top military leaders in Quantico, Virginia: “This is going to be a big thing for the people in this room, because it’s the enemy from within, and we have to handle it before it gets out of control.” He told them that some of them would be involved in using U.S. cities run by Democrats as “training grounds” for troops.
“Listen to me: I I don’t care what your politics are today. I mean that,” Warnock said Saturday. “If you are an American citizen, you should be deeply concerned. And I know you are. That’s why you’re gathered here today. We should all be deeply concerned about an American president who stood in front of our military and said that the real concern is the enemy within.”
The senator also slammed Immigration and Customs Enforcement, which has led the administration’s mass deportation agenda.
“Agents of the government flying in Blackhawk helicopters into Chicago, rappelling down an apartment building in the middle of an American city,” he said. “Literally separating Black people from brown people. I’m a preacher, but I have to say this. What the hell is happening? And all of us have to be concerned.”
