Federal officers use gas against protesters outside Ice facility
While the main protest march in downtown Portland, Oregon, was peaceful and local police officers helped block off streets and bridges for the marchers, a smaller protest outside an Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility in the city’s south waterfront neighborhood has already been met with force by federal officers.
Suzette Smith of the Portland Mercury reports on Bluesky that federal agents hurled gas canisters at protesters who gathered at the facility before a scheduled 5pm protest.
At the main rally, earlier in the afternoon, one of the organizers, Malcom Gregory Scott, a veteran and long-time activist, reminded the crowd that “Indivisible and 50501 did not organize today’s sunset protest at Ice. Our safety precautions and volunteers will not be in place, and no one should protest at ICE unless they accept the risks of possible detention, arrest, and injury.”
“So those who cannot support those who can,” he added, “and the young nonviolent protesters who take those risks every day— they are the iconic heroes of our times! They’re the vanguard, the sharp-witted tip of our absurdist proverbial spear! Let’s hear it for these fearless patriots! We need their courage now more than ever!”
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Closing summary
More than 2,700 demonstrations are taking place throughout the US in protest of the Trump administration, dubbed the No Kings protest. The previous iteration that marched in June was one of the largest single days of protest in US history, and today looks to closely match that record.
Indeed, San Francisco’s downtown No Kings march surpassed the number of participants at its June march as people again gathered at Ocean Beach to recreate the “No Kings” sign with their bodies.
Portland delivered a carnival atmosphere in the face of Donald Trump’s prediction of riots. An estimated 40,000 people marched through the city resplendent in inflatable animal costumes.
The march and rally in Atlanta, Georgia, drew an estimated 10,000 people including the senator Raphael Warnock and former Georgia gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams.
Chicago’s protest stretched on for 2 miles and wound past Trump Tower, where several marchers flipped off the building. The Chicago Tribune reported an estimated 100,000 people attended.
Republican governors in several US states placed national guard troops on standby in preparation for the nationwide protests. Governors in Texas and Virginia activated their state’s national guard troops.
Before the protests expected across all 50 states on Saturday, several protests in solidarity popped up across Europe.
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Donald Trump told Fox News, “I’m not a king,” as millions across the US were about to march against his second presidency, uniting behind a message that the nation should halt its slide toward authoritarianism.
This will conclude our coverage of the No Kings marches and rallies taking place across the nation today. Read here for more coverage.
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One of the handful of Trump supporters at the protest march in Portland, Oregon, on Saturday was a local conservative influencer and activist, David Medina.
Medina, who took part in the Capitol riot on 6 January 2021, and faced a felony charge before Trump’s mass clemency, was recently included in the entourage of influencers invited to accompany the homeland security secretary, Kristi Noem, on her tour of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility in south Portland.
After sparring with some of the protesters on camera, Medina stood by a garbage can in a riverfront park scanning his phone, near three other Trump supporters with a Charlie Kirk flag, as the estimated crowd of 40,000 demonstrators marched across the Hawthorne Bridge away from them.
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San Francisco marchers surpass June crowds
In San Francisco, hundreds of people gathered at Ocean Beach to spell out “No Kings” and “Yes on 50” with their bodies. Hayley Wingard, who was dressed as the Statue of Liberty, said she had never been to a protest before. Only recently she began to view Trump as a “dictator”.
“I was actually OK with everything until I found that the military invasion in Los Angeles and Chicago and Portland – Portland bothered me the most, because I’m from Portland, and I don’t want the military in my cities. That’s scary,” Wingard said.
Marchers in downtown San Francisco were estimated to number around 500,000, surpassing the estimate for participants in a similar march in June, said Michelle Gutierrez Vo, the president of the California Nurses Association, an organizer of the event.
House speaker emerita Nancy Pelosi marched along Market Street with the crowd, wearing a broken crown.
At a rally after the march, Joan Baez reveled in the large turnout. “You look beautiful,” she said. “There are many hundreds of thousands of you around the world. It may not be possible to turn the tide right now, but we can sure save some fishes.”
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If Donald Trump ordered a riot, Portland delivered a carnival on Saturday, as an estimated 40,000 protesters marched through its downtown, hundreds of them in the inflatable animal costumes that have quickly become the hall mark of the city’s response to the president’s false claim that the Pacific Northwest city is in a state of insurrection.
The marchers largely ignored what looked like a determined effort by a handful of counter-protesters in Maga hats to provoke conflict. “Ignore them,” a protester with dyed purple hair said. “Because there’s a sea of us that are like-minded and they’re just a little drop of shit.”
“I could go over there and I could scream at them, but it won’t matter,” the protester, a young woman from neighboring Gresham, Oregon added. “This is what matters, people coming together.”
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Crowds at Atlanta, Georgia, march rival those of previous No Kings march in June
Atlanta’s march concluded without incident, traveling down streets hallowed in civil rights history from the Atlanta Civic Center to the state capitol building about 1.2 miles away. At least 35 other affiliated No Kings Day protests demonstrations progressed across the state, from Brunswick near the Ice detention center in Folkston on Georgia’s southern border, to Dalton in the heart of Marjorie Taylor Greene’s northwest Georgia district.
Initial crowds of about 10,000 in Atlanta contracted a bit as the day progressed, but turnout was roughly equivalent to those in June in Atlanta, and more widely dispersed across the state.
Erik Malewaski, a college professor who lives in Marietta – where protests also had been planned – attended the Atlanta event anyway.
“I did the Marietta protest last time, and I wanted to see exactly what would go down here, particularly I thought we may get speakers like Warnock and Stacey Abrams.”
As well he did. Both Sen. Rev. Raphael Warnock and former Georgia gubernatorial candidate Abrams described the actions of the federal government under President Donald Trump as fascist in plain terms.
“They want us to believe that we’re in danger if we speak up…that if we assemble like the First Amendment tells us we can, that there’s a problem,” Abrams said, arguing that the attacks on press freedoms and the firing of outspoken Trump critics like Karen Attiah and Jimmy Kimmel are discrete steps on a path to autocracy. “They want to break democracy forever.” said Abrams. “Their destination is to take our country from us.”
A panoply of speakers addressed both national problems such as draconian immigration enforcement and the erosion of civil liberties, as well as issues of sharp local concern, as when a representative of Play Fair ATL – a coalition of anti-homelessness advocates and rights groups – took the stage. Play Fair intends to hold Atlanta to commitments to refrain from sweeping homeless people from the city’s streets ahead of the World Cup next year, skeptical of mayor Andre Dickens resolve to resist demands by FIFA and Trump.
The suggestion that support for antifa – that is, antifascism – is tantamount to support for terrorism drew particular scorn from protesters.
“I think that’s absurd,” said Nicky Cooper, a software developer in Atlanta, She wore a shirt with an antifascist symbol on it to the rally. The labelling of people as somehow sympathetic to terrorism is chilling, she said. “I mean, we’re leaving a digital trail of this. You know? I have antifascism mentioned on my social media stuff. I mean, I’m not a ‘member’ of antifa, because how do you join antifa? So it’s like, who the hell are we looking for here?”
Comments by defense secretary Pete Hegseth to an assembly of high ranking military leaders last month featured prominently in the words of speakers and the reaction of protesters.
Brian Woods, 65, from Lawrenceville, is a former Army communications staff sergeant. “I thought it was unnecessary. It goes against what we know as military people.” He marveled at the decision to put that many leaders in the same room at the same time, potentially providing an immense military target to America’s enemies.
“He could have said that over one of their so-called secured lines,” a dig by a commo guy at Hegseth’s Signal chats. “They have a bulletproof mentality, so they just do things recklessly, without real thoughts that go into those types of conversations and communications.”
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At the march in Los Angeles, Pam Hope, 62, wore a shirt emblazoned with the Statue of Liberty and the words: “I am Aunt Tifa.”
Hope said she came because she is deeply worried about the direction of the country under Donald Trump, but also to push back on Republican claims that the protests are un-American and that anti-Trump activists are part of “antifa”.
“I love America,” she said. “I just believe America should be against fascism and bigotry.”
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It was a dance party in Los Angeles down First Street as protesters moved and grooved around the caravan-like truck pulling a live band.
Parents toted kids in strollers, pet owners walked their pups on leashes and a group of seniors pushed uphill with their walkers – part of a march that stretched several blocks.
The Dark Knight made an appearance in the Batmobile. One protester wore a brown grizzly bear costume, which he said was a symbol of California’s resistance.
Another protester, Kimberly M, who was only comfortable sharing the first letter of her last name, carried a sign that said: “ICE in my horchata, not in my streets.”
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Protest in Chicago 2 miles long
From Siri Chilukuri in Chicago:
Saturday’s No Kings protest in Chicago ended without incident with the last protestors filing into Grant Park around 3.45pm.
Along the route, drivers and Metra trains, the local commuter trains, honked in solidarity with protestors. One bus driver even put a Hands Off Chicago flyer on the dashboard.
People all over the Chicagoland area showed up for the rally and march, which Block Club Chicago reported was 2 miles long.
When protestors passed in front of Trump Tower, they flipped it off, as has become tradition, and shouted: “Shame! Shame! Shame!”
Deanthoni Wilkins, a 27-year-old medical student, was inspired by the magnitude of the protest.
“This is my second protest I’ve been to, and the largest I’ve been to, and it’s really inspiring to know I live in a place where people share [my] values,” said Wilkins.
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The day so far
More than 2,600 demonstrations are taking place throughout the US in protest of the Trump administration, dubbed the No Kings protest. The previous iteration that marched in June was one of the largest single days of protest in US history, and today looks to closely match that record.
Republican governors in several US states placed national guard troops on standby in preparation for the nationwide protests. Governors in Texas and Virginia have activated their state’s national guard troops.
Before the protests expected across all 50 states on Saturday, several protests in solidarity popped up across Europe.
Donald Trump told Fox News, “I’m not a king,” as millions across the US were about to march against his second presidency, uniting behind a message that the nation should halt its slide toward authoritarianism.
Connecticut senator Chris Murphy called Donald Trump the “most corrupt president in the history of America” at a No Kings rally in Washington DC.
In DC, Bernie Sanders headlined the event and gave various examples of Trump administration moves that he said put democracy at risk. He went on to denounce the billionaires who helped fund Trump’s campaign.
In Chicago, mayor Brandon Johnson spoke at a rally, saying: “We will not bend, we will not bow, we will not cower, we will not submit.”
The New York police department posted on social media that most rallies across the city had ended and that there had been no arrests, adding that more than 100,000 people had showed up to peacefully protest.
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Here are some more images of other No Kings protests under way in several US states including North Carolina, Florida, Arizona and Vermont.
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Screenwriter and director Tony Gilroy, who created the Star Wars series Andor, was among the thousands of people who gathered in downtown Los Angeles on Saturday afternoon for the No Kings protest.
Andor, starring Diego Luna as the protagonist, follows Cassian Andor’s journey as a thief-turned-spy for the Rebel Alliance – the good guys whose ranks eventually go on to include characters such as Luke Skywalker, Princess Leia and Han Solo – in a crusade to take down the Galactic Empire.
“We spent six years making a show about the fascist takeover of a galaxy, far, far away,” he said. “We didn’t think we were making a documentary.”
Gilroy said the show offered a clear model for what authoritarian rule looks like – and how to resist it.
“We spent a lot of time thinking about sacrifice and courage, and the incremental encroachment of authoritarianism and how it works,” he said. “ I think I would have been here anyway, but the show has only amplified my understanding of it – my understanding of the sort of karaoke fascist playbook, but also my appreciation for the varieties of courage it takes for people to resist.”
Gilroy was dismayed by the “vacuum” of leadership among the anti-Trump resistance but saw reason to be hopeful as he looked out at the gathering crowd of Angelenos waving American flags and No Kings posters.
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Rally in Portland turns into a massive march
The rally in Portland has turned into a massive march, with thousands of people now filling the city’s Hawthorne Bridge and the streets leading to the bridge.
I just witnessed a remarkable scene further back in the crowd, as protesters carrying handmade signs passed a trio of street performers, dressed as Donald Trump, whose head was entirely constructed of Cheetos and images of JD Vance and Kristi Noem.
Just behind the performers, a group of nine people in black clothing held a banner with the slogan “Organize to Attack the State” and chanted for “insurrection” and “revolution.”
At least one Portlander passing the group suggested that they looked like “fake antifa”.
As another marcher pointed out, genuine antifascists do not attend liberal rallies, they turn out to oppose rightwing rallies.
Fake or not, the small group was massively outnumbered by a crowd that included hundreds of people in animal costumes, making the protest feel more like a carnival than an insurrection.
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Crowds are amassing outside city hall in Los Angeles
Crowds are amassing outside city hall in Los Angeles, where many protesters are carrying American flags and organizers are handing out sunscreen and water.
A group is dancing to a live band as street vendors sell hot dogs and elote. There is a large contingent of inflatable costumes – I’ve spotted a frog, a shark and a duck.
Many people are waving Mexican flags, which have become a sign of resistance and protest amid the Trump administration’s violent immigration crackdown in the city.
There are plenty of signs denouncing Ice and Trump’s deportation campaign. “If you don’t care that he’s a felon, you shouldn’t care if someone is undocumented,” said one, referencing Trump’s 34 felony convictions by a New York jury.
Before the march is to begin, a speaker just led the crowd in a chant: “Fuck Trump. Fuck Ice.”
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A panoply of speakers in Atlanta addressed both national problems like draconian immigration enforcement and the erosion of civil liberties, as well as issues of sharp local concern, as when a representative of Play Fair ATL, a coalition of anti-homelessness advocates and rights groups, took the stage.
Play Fair intends to hold Atlanta to commitments to refrain from sweeping unhoused people from the city’s streets before the World Cup next year, skeptical of mayor Andre Dickens’s resolve to resist demands by Fifa and Trump.
The suggestion that support for antifa – that is, antifascism – is tantamount to support for terrorism drew particular scorn from protesters.
“I think that’s absurd,” said Nicky Cooper, a software developer in Atlanta. She wore a shirt with an antifascist symbol on it. The labelling of people as somehow sympathetic to terrorism is chilling, she said: “I mean, we’re leaving a digital trail of this. You know? I have antifascism mentioned on my social media stuff. I mean, I’m not a ‘member’ of antifa, because how do you join antifa? So it’s like, who the hell are we looking for here?”
Comments by defense secretary Pete Hegseth to an assembly of high-ranking military leaders last month featured prominently in the words of speakers and the reaction of protesters.
Brian Woods, 65, from Lawrenceville and a former army communications staff sergeant, said: “I thought it was unnecessary. It goes against what we know as military people.” He marveled at the decision to put that many leaders in the same room at the same time, potentially providing an immense military target to the US’s enemies. “He could have said that over one of their so-called secured lines,” Woods said. “They have a bulletproof mentality, so they just do things recklessly, without real thoughts that go into those types of conversations and communications.”
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Atlanta’s protest march concluded at 2pm without incident, traveling down streets hallowed in civil rights history from the Atlanta Civic Center to the state capitol building about 1.2 miles away. At least 35 other affiliated No Kings protests progressed across the state, from Brunswick, near the Ice detention center in Folkston on Georgia’s southern border, to Dalton in the heart of Marjorie Taylor Greene’s north-west Georgia district.
Initial crowds of about 10,000 in Atlanta contracted a bit as the day progressed, but turnout was roughly equivalent to those events in June in Atlanta, and more widely dispersed across the state.
Erik Malewaski, a college professor who lives in Marietta, where protests also had been planned, attended the Atlanta event anyway.
“I did the Marietta protest last time, and I wanted to see exactly what would go down here. Particularly, I thought we may get speakers like Warnock and Stacey Abrams,” she said.
As well he did. Both senator Rev Raphael Warnock and former Georgia gubernatorial candidate Abrams described the actions of the federal government under Donald Trump as fascist in plain terms.
“They want us to believe that we’re in danger if we speak up ... that if we assemble like the first amendment tells us we can, that there’s a problem,” Abrams said, arguing that the attacks on press freedoms and the firing of outspoken Trump critics like Karen Attiah and Jimmy Kimmel are discrete steps on a path to autocracy. “They want to break democracy forever,” said Abrams. “Their destination is to take our country from us.”
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I am in downtown Portland, where many thousands of No Kings protesters, many in inflatable animal costumes, are rallying in a riverfront park.
A small group of eight counter-protesters in Maga hats and Charlie Kirk shirts have been making their way through the crowd, trying to antagonize demonstrators by blaring air horns and shouting praise for Trump and transphobic slurs through megaphones.
The group is led by Tommy Allen, a pro-Trump streamer who was recently charged with assault by Portland prosecutors for punching a protester outside the Ice facility in south Portland during a skirmish instigated by Nick Sortor, a conservative influencer.
Their IRL trolling has led to jeers from some members of the crowd, but they have largely been ignored so far. One man, holding a sign in favor of trans rights, repeatedly screamed at the Trump supporters that they were “bootlickers”.
Other protesters alerted Portland police officers to the fact that Allen seemed to be trying to provoke conflict, while recording video, and that he was recently arrested. Officers on bicycles seemed to be tracking the movements of Allen and his group from a distance.
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New York police say no arrests amid more than 100,000 peaceful protesters
The New York police department posted on social media that most rallies across the city had ended and that there had been no arrests, adding that more than 100,000 people showed up to peacefully protest.
“The majority of the No Kings protests have dispersed at this time and all traffic closures have been lifted,” the NYPD wrote. “We had more than 100,000 people across all five boroughs peacefully exercising their first amendment rights and the NYPD made zero protest-related arrests.”
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Good afternoon from Los Angeles, where more than two dozen No Kings protests are planned across southern California.
In California, San Diego and San Francisco have been identified as the “anchor” cities for the No Kings protests, but a major demonstration is expected to kick off in downtown Los Angeles, at Gloria Molina Grand Park.
Here activists are encouraging voters to pass “Prop 50” – a ballot initiative to redraw California’s congressional boundaries to give Democrats an additional five seats to offset the Republican-drawn and Trump-sought gerrymander in Texas.
Earlier this morning, a group of protesters formed a human banner on Ocean Beach in San Francisco that read, according to the local ABC affiliate, “No Kings Yes on 50”.
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Reports are coming in that more than 200,000 people in the Washington DC area rallied near the US Capitol during the No Kings protest today. The event is of the largest nationwide mobilization since president Trump returned to office.
Millions took to the streets today across more than 2,700 cities and towns, marking a day of defiance against Trump’s authoritarianism, billionaire-first politics, and the militarization of American cities.
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Many people at protests across the nation appear inspired by “Operation Inflation”, an initiative where demonstrators wear colorful and inflatable costumes to protests, usually resembling an animal or Pokémon-type character.
The trend started with a protester dubbed the Portland Frog, who began dressing in an inflatable frog costume to attend Ice protests.
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In New York, Chuck Schumer joins No Kings protesters
The Senate minority leader, Chuck Schumer, has joined the No Kings protesters in New York.
“I proudly marched side-by-side with labor unions and so many more of our fellow citizens in NYC,” he wrote on social media. “We have no dictators in America. And we won’t allow Trump to keep eroding our democracy.”
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In Chicago, mayor Brandon Johnson says: 'We will not bend, we will not bow, we will not cower, we will not submit'
From my colleague Siri Chilukuri in Chicago:
The No Kings protest kicked off in Chicago, Illinois, at Grant Park’s Butler Field at noon. There are at least 10,000 people as the speeches begin. An intergenerational group of protesters has gathered, most with signs opposing Ice’s presence in Chicago or mocking Donald Trump.
Many flags, signs and T-shirts read, “Fuck Ice”, and others read “Hands Off Chicago”, a rallying cry that began when Trump first announced his intent to send the national guard into the city. Other signs read “Resist Fascism” and “Hands off our Constitution”.
Mayor Brandon Johnson spoke to the crowd, which erupted in cheers when he took to the stage.
“They have decided that they want a rematch of the civil war,” he said.
“We are here to stand firm and stand committed that we will not bend, we will not bow, we will not cower, we will not submit. We do not want troops in our city.”
The crowd erupted in chants of “Fuck Donald Trump” while the Illinois representative Jonathan Jackson spoke to the crowd. Later, as ACLU Illinois’s communications director Ed Yohnka spoke, the crowd chanted: “USA! USA! USA!”
Illinois governor JB Pritzker, Senator Dick Durbin, Lt Gov Juliana Stratton, Representative Chuy García, President of the Cook County board of commissioners Toni Preckwinkle, as well as local aldermen and state representatives were in attendance.
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In Washington DC, Bernie Sanders says: 'This moment is not just about one man’s greed, corruption or contempt for the constitution'
The senator Bernie Sanders took the stage to address the Washington DC No Kings rally. The Vermont senator was met with thunderous cheers upon his appearance.
He began by addressing the House speaker Mike Johnson’s earlier comments, saying Johnson “called these rallies ‘Hate America events’. Boy, does he have it wrong.” He added that millions across thousands of US cities showed up “not because they hate America, but because they love America”.
Sanders then gave various examples of Trump administration moves that he said put democracy at risk, including federal masked agents deployed to American cities, the president’s threats to arrest and imprison his perceived political enemies, and his lawsuits against media organizations.
“This moment is not just about one man’s greed, one man’s corruption, or one man’s contempt for the constitution,” he said. “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 went on to denounce the billionaires who helped fund Trump’s campaign and attended his inauguration, calling out Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos and Mark Zuckerberg by name.
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Here are a few more photos from the Washington DC No Kings protest, expected to be among the largest of the more than 2,600 demonstrations across the country.
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As the protests are happening across New York City today, the New York police department said it is spreading out across the city to monitor events.
“The NYPD will be out to make sure everyone can peacefully and safely exercise their first amendment right,” the department posted on social media. “As a reminder, there will be zero tolerance for any illegal activity or anyone who breaks the law.”
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In Connecticut, Chris Murphy calls Donald Trump the 'most corrupt president in the history of America'
Connecticut senator Chris Murphy called Donald Trump the “most corrupt president in the history of America” at a No Kings rally in Washington DC.
The senator addressed the government shutdown, describing it as an “unplanned vacation” that Republicans have been on from the nation’s capital for five weeks, he said.
“Trump does think that he’s a king and he thinks he can act more corruptly when the government is shut down. But he cannot. He doesn’t have new powers, extra powers during the shutdown,” Murphy said.
He added: “The truth is that he is enacting a detailed step-by-step plan to try to destroy all of the things that protect our democracy: free speech, fair elections and independent press, the right to peacefully protest. But the truth is he has not won yet. The people still rule in this country.”
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Thousands march in Washington DC, where Bernie Sanders will headline
Crowds are also gathering by the thousands in Washington DC, where the senator Bernie Sanders will headline today’s rally.
In northern Virginia, many protesters were seen walking on overpasses across roads heading into DC, and several hundred people gathered in the circle near Arlington national cemetery, near where Trump is considering building an arch across the bridge from the Lincoln Memorial, Reuters reported.
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Raphael Warnock also decried masked Ice agents:
“Showing up in communities all across our country – imagine this – agents of the government flying in Blackhawk helicopters into Chicago, rappelling down an apartment building in the middle of an American city. 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.”
Warnock said he would stand firm on the shutdown of the federal government until the threat of skyrocketing premiums created by the One Big Beautiful Bill Act are abated. He railed against firings at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and political interference with healthcare.
“The CDC is not a hazard to our health. Robert F Kennedy is a hazard to the health of the American people and its doctors,” Warnock said.
Warnock described redistricting efforts by Republicans as gerrymandering, “by trying to squeeze your voices out of the democracy. There’s a world for that. It’s called fascism. ... And if they convince you that they have already won, then you lose your fight. But you must never lose your fight. You must never lose your courage. You must never give up your voice. Because your voice is your human dignity and your human dignity is connected to you.
“If this budget were an EKG, it would suggest that our elected representatives have a heart problem and are in need of moral surgery. ... I’m saying to you that when you show up on a Saturday morning like this, let me tell you what you’re doing, you are the moral surgeons in America who are trying to heal our country.”
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In Georgia, Raphael Warnock lambastes Trump’s comments to military leaders
Describing the crowd at the Atlanta Civic Center as “moral surgeons” for our democracy, the senator Rev Raphael Warnock lambasted Trump’s comments to military leaders calling Democrats “the enemy within”:
“As the pastor of Doctor King’s church, Ebenezer Baptist Church, Dr King said we will have to repent in this generation, not only for the violent actions and vitriolic words of the bad people, but because of the appalling silence and indifference of the good people.
“I heard an American president stand up the other day and say to generals, in our military, that we’ve got to stand up, he said, against the enemy within. Listen to me. I don’t care what your politics are today. I mean that. 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.”
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At least 10,000 people at field of Atlanta Civic Center to march to capital
Crowds are still increasing, but at least 10,000 people have filled the field of the Atlanta Civic Center in preparation for a march to the Georgia capital. Permitting was a question up until a day before the march, but Atlanta’s mayor, Andre Dickens, gave his assent.
“I love all the American flags. You know why? Because we love America,” said Andrea Young, executive director of the Georgia ACLU as speakers began addressing the crowd. “We are here to say we love America too much to give it over to a wannabe king.
We are governed by laws, by a constitution, a Bill of Rights, and we are here to say no kings. We say no one is above the law. And no one is below the law.”
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People are gathering in Times Square in New York City by the thousands for No Kings day as protests kick off on the east coast.
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Bernie Sanders to headline Washington DC No Kings rally
Vermont senator Bernie Sanders will headline the Washington DC No Kings rally near the US Capitol building in what is anticipated to be the largest grassroots mobilization since Trump returned to office.
“I am looking forward to joining millions of Americans across the country at a ‘No Kings’ rally tomorrow. I’ll be speaking here in Washington, DC. I hope to see you there,” Sanders wrote on social media.
In an accompanying video, he added: “People fought and died throughout the history of this country to preserve our democracy. We’re not going to let Trump or anybody else take it away.”
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Democratic officials across the US have posted in support of the No Kings protests.
The Senate minority leader, Chuck Schumer, wrote on Saturday morning in a social media post: “Do not let Donald Trump and Republicans intimidate you into silence. That’s what they want to do. They’re afraid of the truth. Speak out, use your voice, and exercise your right to free speech.”
California’s governor, Gavin Newsom, wrote: “I urge our nation to use this weekend’s No Kings marches as a declaration of independence against the tyranny and lawlessness currently running this country. Use your voice. ACT PEACEFULLY. Protect yourself and your community. THERE ARE NO KINGS IN THE UNITED STATES.”
Former vice-president Kamala Harris said in a video posted to social media: “In our country, the power is with the people, and tomorrow I encourage everyone to get out there in peaceful protest of what is happening in our country and express our voice around the country we believe in.”
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“They have a ‘Hate America’ rally that’s scheduled for October 18 on the National Mall,” the House speaker, Mike Johnson, said on Fox News on Friday. “It’s all the pro-Hamas wing and, you know, the antifa people. They’re all coming out.”
The Republican Minnesota congressman Tom Emmer said the party’s “terrorist wing” was holding the “Hate America” rally. “Democrats want to keep the government shut down to show all those people that are going to come here and express their hatred towards this country that they’re fighting President Trump,” said the House majority leader, Steve Scalise. The transportation secretary, Sean Duffy, embellished the story on Fox, referring to the demonstrations’ “paid protesters” and adding: “It begs the question who’s funding it.”
These people are, of course, slandering the second round of No Kings marches, following those on 14 June, which dwarfed Trump’s pitiful birthday party military parade. This time the events – more than 2,500 of them, according to organizers, planned for every state – promise to be even larger.
Trump’s allies are trying to overwrite the patriotic, historically resonant words “No Kings” with insinuations of treasonous violence.
Everyone participating in the protests must prove them wrong. Nonviolence, both rigorously disciplined and open-hearted, must define 18 October.
Trump tells Fox News: 'I'm not a king'
Donald Trump told Fox News, “I’m not a king,” as millions across the US were expected to march against his second presidency, uniting behind a message that the nation should halt its slide toward authoritarianism -- and that kings should not rule the country.
“A king! This is not an act,” Trump said in a preview clip of an interview scheduled for the upcoming edition of Fox News’ Sunday Morning Futures. “You know – they’re referring to me as a king. ‘I’m not a king.”
Saturday’s planned No Kings demonstrations build on massive protests in June. Events are scheduled in more than 2,700 locations, ranging from small towns to large cities, among them some who have sued the Trump administrations over its actions targeting them.
Allies of Trump have derisively referred to the demonstrations as “Hate America” events. The gatherings were planned as Trump has sent in federal troops in certain cities to either support immigration agents seeking to deport as many people as possible or to ostensibly fight crime, even though at least some of those communities had been reporting steep reductions in violence.
No Kings solidarity protests pop up across Europe
Ahead of the huge No Kings protests expected across all 50 states of the US on Saturday, several protests in solidarity have popped up across Europe.
In Berlin, Germany:
In Madrid, Spain:
In Rome, Italy:
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Some Republican states activate National Guard ahead of No Kings protests
Republican governors in several US states have placed National Guard troops on standby in preparation for a nationwide protest to oppose Donald Trump and his policies.
Governors in Texas and Virginia have activated their state’s National Guard troops, although it is unclear how visible the military presence will be.
Donald Trump has cracked down on US cities, attempting to send in federal troops and adding more immigration agents. He is seeking to criminalize dissent, going after left-leaning organizations that he claims are supporting terrorism or political violence. Cities have largely fought back, suing to prevent national guard infusions, and residents have taken to the streets to speak out against the militarization of their communities.
Trump’s allies have sought to cast the No Kings protests as anti-American and led by antifa, the decentralized anti-fascist movement, while also claiming that the protests are prolonging the government shutdown.
Greg Abbott, the governor of Texas, has said he will send the state’s national guard to Austin, the state’s capital, in advance of the protests. He said the troops would be needed due to the “planned antifa-linked demonstration”.
Democrats denounced the move, including the state’s top Democrat Gene Wu, who argued: “Sending armed soldiers to suppress peaceful protests is what kings and dictators do – and Greg Abbott just proved he’s one of them.”
Recovery from a recent surgery for colon cancer will not stop James Phipps, 75, from attending Saturday’s No Kings demonstration in Chicago, Illinois. “I have a burning desire to be a part of the protest.” he said, “because that’s all I’ve done all my life.”
Phipps, born in Marks, Mississippi, was involved in the civil rights movement in the 1960s from the age of 13, when he was part of racially integrating his local high school and organising with the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee. At 15, he became involved in the Mississippi Freedom Labor Union (MFLU), which organised sharecroppers for better wages.
At the time, the MFLU was organising cotton pickers. “They were paid 30 cents an hour, working in the hot sun, 10 hours a day, which was $3, two and half cents per pound of cotton,” said Phipps. “It broke their necks, backs, pelvis and knees.”
“They had no medical care,” he added. “That’s one of the key things in my mind right now.”
Read more about how some of the largest labour unions in the US are involved in organising the No Kings protests, with more than 2,600 demonstrations planned across all 50 states:
Organisers say there are more than 2,500 protests planned across the country. Take a look at where they are expected to take place:
The protests start at different times depending on location. The No Kings website has details for each location.
What to know about the anti-Trump No Kings protests
Millions are expected to show out for protests on Saturday at more than 2,500 locations across America, from small towns to large cities, to speak against the Trump administration.
No Kings, the coalition behind a mass demonstration in June, is again calling people to the streets to send the simple message that Donald Trump is not a king, pushing back against what they see as increasing authoritarianism.
Several US cities now have a militarised presence on the ground, most against the will of local leaders. Trump has promised to crack down on dissent as part of an ongoing retribution campaign. Still, organisers say they expect to see one of the largest, if not the largest, single day of protest in US history.
What are the No Kings protests?
A coalition of left-leaning groups is again leading a day of mass demonstrations across the US to protest against the Trump administration. The coalition spearheaded a previous No Kings protest day in June, drawing millions to the streets to speak out against the president on the same day Trump held a military parade in Washington.
The protests are called No Kings to underscore that America does not have kinds of absolute rulers, a ding against Trump’s increasing authoritarianism.
“‘NO KINGS’ is more than just a slogan; it is the foundation our nation was built upon,” a website for the protests, nokings.org, says. “Born in the streets, shouted by millions, carried on posters and chants, it echoes from city blocks to rural town squares, uniting people across this country to fight dictatorship together.”
Where are they happening?
Organisers say there are more than 2,500 protests planned across the country, in the largest cities and in small towns, and in all 50 states. It is part of a distributed model where people protest in their own communities rather than travelling to large urban hubs to show that discontent with Trump exists in all corners of the US.
For the 18 October day of action, organisers have identified several anchor cities: Washington DC; San Francisco; San Diego; Atlanta; New York City; Houston, Texas; Honolulu; Boston; Kansas City, Missouri; Bozeman, Montana; Chicago and New Orleans.
The protests start at different times depending on location. The No Kings website has a map with details for each location.
Read more about who organised the protests, why organisers are asking protesters to wear yellow, what Trump has said about them and more in our Q&A here:
Updated
Donald Trump has promised to crack down on dissent and sent troops into US cities. His allies are claiming antifa, the decentralized antifascist movement, is behind plans to protest. He’s looking for any pretext to go after his opponents.
Still, this Saturday, even in cities with troops on the ground, millions of people are expected to march against the president as part of a second “No Kings” protest. The last No Kings protest in June drew several million people across more than 2,000 locations. This time, more than 2,500 cities and towns nationwide are hosting protests.
Read more about the preparation’s for Saturday’s protests here:
Opening summary
Hello and welcome to the Guardian’s coverage of the protests due to take place across the country on Saturday, dubbed ‘No Kings’ in protest at the Trump administration.
Leaders of the movement estimated during a press conference on Thursday that there will be more than 2,500 demonstrations throughout the US. “We do not expect there to be any need for the National Guard to be deployed, but if the Trump administration attempts to do that as a way to intimidate peaceful protests, we are prepared for that,” they added.
Leaders of the coalition also said that they don’t anticipate anything other than a peaceful protest, and don’t currently have any information that would suggest any outside agitator groups are planning to disrupt the coordinated demonstrations.
Millions of people turned out for similar protests on Saturday 14 June as Donald Trump held a military parade in the streets of Washington DC.
The protests took place at about 2,100 sites nationwide, from big cities to small towns. A coalition of more than 100 groups joined together to plan the protests, which are committed to a principle of nonviolence.
No Kings organizers estimated the day’s events drew millions of people, in all 50 states and to some cities abroad. These included more than 200,000 in New York and over 100,000 in Philadelphia, plus some small towns with sizable crowds for their populations, including the town of Pentwater, Michigan, which saw 400 people join the protest in their 800-person town, the No Kings coalition said.
The protests were largely peaceful, though some – in Los Angeles and Portland – were later deemed unlawful assembly by law enforcement and met with teargas.
The tenor of the day was also marked by political violence. There were two early morning shootings of two Democratic lawmakers in Minnesota, one of whom was killed along with her husband, in what local officials called a politically motivated attack. The state’s police and governor cautioned people to not attend demonstrations across the state “out of an abundance of caution”.
Earlier this week, Robert De Niro urged Americans to “stand up and be counted” in the protests, characterising Trump as an aspiring tyrant who aims to end American democracy.
