Organizers of Saturday’s “No Kings” rallies across the United States are predicting that protests against the actions of US President Donald Trump and his administration may include the largest protests in American history, starting in Minnesota.
Organizers say more than 3,100 events are registered in all 50 states, and more than nine million people are expected to participate.
In Washington, DC, hundreds of marchers took to the streets, past the Lincoln Memorial and into the National Mall, carrying signs that read “Put Down the Crown, Clown” and “Reign Change Begins at Home.” Demonstrators rang bells, played drums and sang “No Kings.”
The Trump administration’s immigration enforcement actions, particularly in Minnesota, were just one in a long list of protesters’ grievances that include the war on Iran and the government’s rollback of transgender rights.
In New York City, Donna Lieberman, executive director of the New York Civil Liberties Union, described Trump as the country’s “Bully in Chief” and said the citizens of Minneapolis “forced the wannabe king to withdraw his shock troops.”
“They want us all to be afraid to protest,” said Lieberman in a press conference.
“They want us to fear that there’s nothing we can do to stop them. But you know what? They’re wrong – they’re dead.”
Republican mocks ‘Hate America Rllies’
The White House has canceled the gatherings. Department spokeswoman Abigail Jackson described the protests as the result of “leftist funding” with little public support.
Jackson said in a statement that “the only people who care about these Trump Derangement Therapy Sessions are the reporters who are paid to write them.”
The National Republican Congressional Committee was also very critical.
“These Hate America Rallies are where violent, misguided dreams find a voice,” said Maureen O’Toole, a spokeswoman for the committee.
Flagship event at the Minnesota Capitol
Organizers have designated the rally at the Minnesota Capitol in St. Paul as the leading national event, honoring that the state where federal agents shot and killed two people who were monitoring Trump’s attack on immigrants became a center of resistance.
Headlining that celebration will be Bruce Springsteen, who performs The streets of Minneapoliswhich he wrote in response to the January shooting deaths of Renee Good and Alex Pretti by federal agents, and in honor of the thousands of Minnesotans who took to the streets this winter. Springsteen’s Land of Hope & Dreams American Tour, themed “No Kings”, kicks off Tuesday in Minneapolis.
Minnesota organizers have told state officials they expect 100,000 people to gather on the Capitol grounds, where last June’s event drew an estimated 80,000.
St. Paul rally will also have singer Joan Baez, actress Jane Fonda, Sen. Bernie Sanders and a long list of other activists, labor leaders and elected officials.
Rallies are also organized around the world
Rallies are also planned in more than a dozen other countries, from Europe to Latin America to Australia, Ezra Levin, executive director of Indivisible, the group leading these events, said in an interview. Countries with constitutionally legitimate monarchs called the protests “No Dictators,” he said.
For those who can’t attend in person, another activist group, Stand Up For Science, is hosting a “virtual and accessible” event online.
On Saturday morning in Paris, several hundred people – mostly Americans living in France, as well as French labor unions and human rights organizations – gathered at the Bastille, which was stormed by a mob in 1789 during the French Revolution.
“I protest against all of Trump’s illegal, immoral, reckless, and endless, endless wars,” said Ada Shen, editor of the Paris “No Kings,” said Ada Shen.
In Rome, thousands of people marched with chants of defiance against Prime Minister Giorgio Meloni, whose right-wing government’s referendum to rescue Italy’s judges failed miserably earlier this week amid criticism that it posed a serious threat to the independence of the judiciary. Demonstrators held up banners protesting the US-Israeli invasion of Iran, calling for a “World Without Wars.”
In London, people protesting the war on Iran held signs that read, “Stop the Far Right” and “Stand Up Against Racism.”
It would be the biggest ‘No Kings’ protest
American organizers told reporters at an online news conference Thursday that they expect Saturday’s protests to be bigger than the first two rounds of “No Kings” rallies, which they estimate drew more than five million people last June and more than seven million in October.
Two-thirds of RSVPs come from outside major urban centers, said Leah Greenberg, Indivisible’s co-executive director. He cited enrollment increases in conservative states like Idaho, Wyoming, Montana, Utah, South Dakota and Louisiana, as well as in competitive urban areas in Pennsylvania, Georgia and Arizona.
“The actions of this administration didn’t just upset Democratic voters or people in big green cities,” he said. “They cross the line of people in red areas and rural areas, in the suburbs, across the country.”
