Millions march against ‘authoritarian’ president in nationwide ‘No Kings’ rallies
“He’s following in Hitler’s footsteps, and if he doesn’t stop, or if no one stops him, I’m afraid we’ll see a repeat of the same thing.”
Crowds march past the Lincoln Memorial during the protest.Credit: access point
Crowds gather for a No Kings protest in Washington. Credit: access point
Vermont senator Bernie Sanders addresses the crowd in Washington. Credit: access point
Another man, Scott, carried a sign attributing blame to Rupert Murdoch’s Fox News. For fear of being listed as an agitator, he refused to give his last name and hid his face behind a mask and sunglasses.
Rehac said the large crowd was heartened to see Trump opponents who still have difficulty accepting that their citizens voted for a person who tried to overturn the election results. “This is absolutely contrary to everything the country stands for,” he said.
“It’s truly incredible what’s going on in America, and I owe it to Fox News – believe it or not. For 30 years we’ve been poisoning the American mind, against the government, and it’s leading to these kinds of results. Thank you, Rupert.”
Demonstrators wear costumes and hold signs as they march toward the National Mall.Credit: access point
A protester wearing a Statue of Liberty costume. Credit: access point
It’s the third mass mobilization since Trump’s return to the White House and comes against the backdrop of a government shutdown that has not only shut down federal programs and services but also tested the fundamental balance of power as an aggressive executive faces off against Congress and the courts.
The U.S. government was shut down for 18 days as Senate Democrats and Republicans continued to mull over an extension of health subsidies that has been an obstacle to a spending bill that would reopen the government.
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Bernie Sanders, the long-serving Vermont senator who remains one of the leaders of the American progressive movement at age 84, said Republicans were wrongly trying to portray the weekend protests as hateful and un-American.
“Millions of Americans are coming out today because they hate America; we’re here because we love America,” he told the crowd in Washington.
“My understanding is that today, October 18, 2025, there are more people on the streets, in more communities across our country than we have ever seen in American history. This is not the end, this is just the beginning.”
Sanders said Trump is increasingly concentrating power in the hands of both himself and his “oligarch friends,” especially as his administration targets protests in Portland or Chicago as “insurrections,” intimidates the media and blames his political enemies.
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Trump was not in Washington over the weekend, but was playing golf at his Mar-a-Lago club in Florida. He told Fox News that the protesters were wrong about him.
“They talk about me as the king. I am not the king,” he said.
Earlier, House speaker Mike Johnson described the No Kings protests as a “hate America rally” by Antifa, Marxists and pro-Hamas activists.
“This is an ugly meeting for ugly purposes… this all needs to end,” he said.
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Elsewhere, demonstrators filled New York City’s Times Square, Boston Common, Chicago’s Grant Park and hundreds of smaller public spaces.
More than 1,500 people gathered in Birmingham, Alabama, to recall and openly quote the city’s history of protest and the critical role it played in the U.S. Civil Rights Movement two generations ago.
“Big rallies like this give confidence to people who are sitting on the sidelines but are ready to speak out,” Democratic senator Chris Murphy said in an interview with The Associated Press.
