Iran and immigration frustrations fuel new wave of ‘No Kings’ rallies.
- The San Juan Daily Star
- 3 hours ago
- 4 min read
By THOMAS FULLER
In the Twin Cities, a sea of people converged on the state Capitol, invoking the memories of Renee Good and Alex Pretti. Demonstrators swarmed intersections in Portland, Oregon, motivated by what one called a “national crisis” that had “escalated to a whole other level.” In Little Rock, Arkansas, where more than 2,000 people marched across the Arkansas River, one woman carried her own MAGA sign: “Morons Are Governing America.”
Protesters filled streets and town squares across the United States on Saturday at thousands of rallies, the third in a sequence of nationwide, loosely coordinated demonstrations under the banner of “No Kings.” They came to denounce President Donald Trump and much of his second-term agenda, wielding signs and chants about issues such as mass deportation, restrictions on voting, attacks on diversity and two matters that have suddenly moved to the fore: the war in Iran and the soaring gas prices that have resulted from it.
“Prices are going up, and it feels like we can’t even afford to live anymore,” said John Moes, a Minneapolis resident who was dressed in a 15-foot puppetlike costume resembling Prince, a local icon.
“This is one of the ways we can say we’re fed up,” said Moes, who described himself as an independent who leans Democratic.
The No Kings organizers said that 8 million people took part; their estimates in some cities were higher than those of local public safety officials. The New York Times is doing its own reporting on some of the turnout, but has not independently confirmed the numbers from the thousands of protest sites.
The demonstrations stretched across the country, from above the Arctic Circle (Kotzebue, Alaska: population 3,000) to the tropics, in Puerto Rico. There were also 39 international “No Kings” rallies, according to organizers.
The Twin Cities were a focal point of the day’s protests after tumultuous months of an immigration crackdown that included the killing of two protesters, Good and Pretti, by federal agents. The Minnesota Department of Public Safety estimated that 100,000 people took part; “No Kings” organizers said the number was 200,000.
On a windy and cold day, protesters marched in orderly waves toward a stage at the Capitol in St. Paul, flying Minnesota state and American flags, chanting and singing.
Jane Fonda, an icon of activism against the Vietnam War, addressed the crowd, and Bruce Springsteen took to the stage to perform “Streets of Minneapolis,” which he wrote as a tribute to the city and its defiance to the federal immigration crackdown.
“Here in our home they killed and roamed. In the winter of ’26,” he sang. “We’ll remember the names of those who died. On the streets of Minneapolis.”
Other large protests took place in Boston, Chicago, Los Angeles, San Francisco and New York. In Manhattan, demonstrators passed through Times Square in a procession that stretched for more than a mile. In Washington, D.C., marchers passed near the residence of Stephen Miller, the architect of the Trump administration’s immigration policies, and called for his removal.
The nationwide marches under mostly bright skies came amid an unpopular war in Iran, months of fury by progressives over sweeping immigration enforcement raids, falling stock markets and sustained frustration over the cost of living, especially rising gasoline prices.
A Reuters/Ipsos poll published Tuesday found Trump’s approval rating had fallen to 36%, the lowest point since he returned to the White House. Just 35% of respondents approved of the U.S. strikes on Iran, the poll found.
Valerie Tirado, the mother of a Marine who is headed to the Middle East, marched in Brooklyn on Saturday with a sign that said “Bring My Son Home.”
“Trump is using these military men as pawns, just to flex,” said Tirado, 60.
With the midterm elections months away, the protests are being scrutinized for whether they could translate to any political shifts. Although the protesters were largely Democrats, dozens more “No Kings” events were held in Republican-dominated or battleground states Saturday than during the last marches in October, according to the organizers. But overall the shift was marginal, as 49% of events were held in red or battleground states Saturday compared with 48% percent in October, according to data provided by the organizers.
The White House has reacted to “No Kings” rallies with mockery. On Thursday, a White House spokesperson, Abigail Jackson, said in a statement that “the only people who care about these Trump derangement therapy sessions are the reporters who are paid to cover them.”
At a time when conservative control of Washington remains complete, in the White House, Congress and the Supreme Court, the marches were a chance for Democrats to make their voices heard and to try to portray Republican domination as teetering.
At a small protest in Richmond, Kentucky, Missy Manet, 29, donned a red yarn hat and said she had attended the gathering as a show of frustration with the direction of the country.
“I feel somewhat powerless,” she said of being a Democratic voter in a staunchly Republican part of the country. “I feel like my vote doesn’t do a lot most of the times.”
The marches had no shortage of skeptics.
In Oxford, Mississippi, Cass Rutledge, a first-year law student at the University of Mississippi, walked through the “No Kings” protest and around the town square on Saturday and questioned why people thought Trump was acting like a king.
“He is, you know, a duly elected president who won the popular vote and the Electoral College in a landslide,” Rutledge said. “And so I’m a little bit confused on how he’s acting differently than any other president.”
Saturday’s events were organized by national and local groups, including widely known progressive coalitions such as Indivisible, 50501 and MoveOn, as well as hundreds of smaller ones, like American Atheists, the Transgender Law Center and the Michigan Climate Action Network.
In June, the first “No Kings” demonstrations took place on the same day that Trump scheduled a military parade in Washington for the Army’s 250th anniversary, coinciding with his 79th birthday.
In October, more than 7 million people attended “No Kings” demonstrations in all 50 states, according to organizers. (The New York Times has not verified the crowd numbers, which encompassed thousands of rallies.)
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