Millions of people are expected to protest against theTrump administrationon Saturday at roughly 2,000 sites nationwide in a demonstration dubbed “No Kings”, planned for the same day as the president’s military parade and birthday.
Interest in the events has risen since Trump sent national guard and US Marine Corps troops to Los Angeles to tamp down mostly peaceful protests against ramped-up deportations.
“We’ve seen hundreds of new events on theNo Kings Day mapsince the weekend,” said Ezra Levin, co-founder ofIndivisible, one of the groups behind the “day of defiance”. “We’ve seen hundreds of thousands of people register for those events.”
A website for the protest cites Trump’s defying of the courts, mass deportations, attacks on civil rights and slashing of services as reasons for the protests, saying: “The corruption has gone too far. No thrones. No crowns. No kings.” Actions are set for the country’s largest cities and small towns, dotting the map from coast to coast – part of a strategy to show that opposition to Trump exists in all corners of the US.
No Kings is not hosting an event in Washington DC, intending to take the focus off the military parade and show the power of the people outside the nation’s capital. Philadelphia will host a flagship march instead, and a DC-based organization is hosting a “DC Joy Day” in the district that will “celebrate DC’s people, culture, and our connections to one another”.
“We did not want to give him the excuse to crack down on counter-protesters in DC,” Levin said. “We didn’t want to give him the narrative device to say we’re protesting the military. Instead, we wanted to make him look as small and weak as he is, and protest everywhere else in the country.”
In early April, the “Hands Off” protests drew a few million people to more than 1,300 locations. Levin expects No Kings to be bigger, despite Trump’s threats to meet protesters with “very big force”, which the White House has since tried to soften.
Trump, in a press conference this week, said people who protested the military parade “hate our country” and were “going to be met with very big force”, though he said he wasn’t aware of any planned protests against the event. The press secretary Karoline Leavitt latersaidTrump “supports peaceful protests”.
Asked about the No Kings protests during a White House event on Thursday, Trump said: “I don’t feel like a king. I have to go through hell to get things approved.”
Organizers have expanded capacity for pre-protest trainings, given the increased security concerns after Trump’s actions in Los Angeles. On a “know your rights” call led by the American Civil Liberties Union on Tuesday, a host said, at one point more than 18,000 people were on the call. Questions included whether to attend if you were a legal immigrant with a green card or Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (Daca) status, how to respond if violence erupted, and what to do about potential agitators.
Social media posts have spread widely, calling on people to sit down on the ground if violence breaks out, a tactic that could be useful in some circumstances or detrimental and unsafe in others, organizershave said. People should go to the protests with plans for what they will do to keep themselves safe, but not expect a blanket response like sitting down to work in all cases.
Troops are still deployed in Los Angeles, and protests against their presence and against immigration enforcement actions are ongoing there.
Hunter Dunn, the national press coordinator for the decentralized protest movement 50501, was teargassed in a crowd during a protest in Los Angeles over thearrest of the union leader David Huerta. Dunn is helping organize the No Kings action in Los Angeles, and 50501 is one of the partners for the day of protest nationally. The Los Angeles event is now organized against what’s happening on the ground there, Dunn said.
“There’s more explicit focus on getting Ice and the federal government out of Los Angeles, and it’s become more obviously a protest against authoritarianism and fascism, I’d say, because we’re actively under attack by our government,” Dunn said.
No Kings protests will be taking place throughout the LA area, according to the map, with a large one expected near city hall. Organizers are increasing security and medical support preparations, Dunn said.
“If someone’s legal status is at risk, I would not want them to risk it for a protest. But what I would want them to do is ask five of their neighbors to come in their stead,” Dunn said. “Because if you stand up by yourself against the government, you’re going to be crushed, you’re going to be put down. But if an entire community rises up together in solidarity, there’s not a government in the world that could crush that. We’re safer together.”
In Minnesota, Heather Friedli is helping organize a rally and march at the state capitol in St Paul. The community, which saw massive protests and riots after the murder of George Floyd by police in 2020, worries about targeting by the Trump administration as the presidentseeks a redoof his response to protests five years ago. But, Friedli said, she’s heard a lot of feedback that people are prepared to protest no matter what.
“I think our people are actually ready. You know, maybe in some terrible sense, like, that was awful, everything that happened, but in a lot of ways that started those community connections that we maintain to this day, and I think we’re stronger for it,” she said.
While many Americans feel the country is at an inflection point with Trump’s use of troops to quash protests, there have been several inflection points recently, starting with his win last November, Levin said. This moment will likely be “among the largest catalytic events”, driven in large part by Trump “overplaying his hand”. Saturday’s protests should pull new people into the Trump opposition movement and help build more capacity for future events, Levin said.
“Do we suddenly save democracy on Saturday? No. Does Trump suddenly step down on Saturday? No, that’s not how this works,” Levin said. “The way we think of it is, we’re building a muscle. We’re doing quite a big workout on Saturday. But it is a tactic in an extended strategy to safeguard American democracy.”