‘No Kings’ Protests Erupt Across US, Europe Against Trump and Iran war

Minnesota’s St. The flagship event on the Capitol lawn in St. Paul was headlined by Bruce Springsteen. He and other speakers praised the state’s residents for taking to the streets throughout the winter to defy the influx of U.S. Customs and Immigration Enforcement agents.

Springsteen performed “Streets of Minneapolis”, a song he wrote in response to the shooting deaths of Renee Good and Alex Pretti by federal agents. Springsteen lamented the deaths of Good and Pretti but said the state’s response to ICE gives hope to the rest of the country.

“Your strength and determination have shown us that this is still America,” he said. “And this reactionary nightmare and these invasions of American cities will not continue.”

People marched from New York City, with about 8.5 million residents in a solidly blue state, to Driggs, a town of fewer than 2,000 people in eastern Idaho where Trump won 66% of the vote in 2024.

Large but mostly peaceful crowds US organizers estimate more than 5 million people attended the first two rounds of No Kings rallies in June and more than 7 million in October. They told reporters this week they were expecting 9 million attendees on Saturday, but it’s too early to tell whether those expectations will be met.

More than 3,100 events (an increase of 500 from October) were recorded in all 50 states, organizers said.

The protests were mostly peaceful, but federal authorities used tear gas near a federal detention center in downtown Los Angeles “as demonstrators threw large concrete blocks, bottles and other objects,” police said on social platform X. The LAPD also said the protesters were later arrested for not dispersing.

Earlier, at a rally outside the Statehouse in Topeka, Kansas, people imitated the frog king and Trump as a baby. Wendy Wyatt drove 20 miles (32 kilometers) east from Lawrence with a “Cats Against Trump” sign and planned to return to her hometown for a later rally.

Wyatt said there are a lot of things about the Trump administration that upset him, but “this is very hopeful to me.”

GOP officials downplay protests White House press secretary Abigail Jackson called the protests the product of “leftist funding networks” with little real public support.

“The only people who care about these Trump Imbalance Therapy Sessions are the reporters who are paid to cover them,” Jackson said in a statement.

The National Republican Congressional Committee also offered harsh criticism.

“These Hate America Rallies are where the far left’s most violent, deranged fantasies take the microphone,” said NRCC spokeswoman Maureen O’Toole.

Protesters have a long list of reasons Trump’s push for sanctions on immigrants, particularly in Minnesota, was just one item in a long list of protesters’ grievances, which also included the war in Iran and the rollback of transgender rights. Speakers at the Minnesota rally decried the economic power of billionaires.

In Washington, hundreds of people walked past the Lincoln Memorial and onto the National Mall, carrying banners reading “Leave the crown behind, clown” and “Regime change starts at home.” Demonstrators rang bells, beat drums and chanted “No to kings.”

Bill Jarcho was there from Seattle and was part of what he called a “joke and awe” tour with six others dressed as bugs, wearing tactical vests that read “LICE” that “mimicking ICE.”

“What we provide is nothing but a mockery of the king,” Jarcho said. “It’s about taking the authoritarianism they hate and making fun of it.”

Police said about 40,000 people marched in San Diego.

Donna Lieberman, executive director of the New York Civil Liberties Union, said at a news conference in New York that Trump and his supporters want people to be afraid to protest.

“They want us to be afraid that there is nothing we can do to stop them,” he said. “But you know what? They’re wrong, dead wrong.”

Organizers said two-thirds of rally RSVPs came from outside major urban centers. This included communities in conservative-leaning states like Idaho, Wyoming, Montana, Utah, South Dakota and Louisiana, as well as electorally competitive suburbs in Pennsylvania, Georgia and Arizona.

Main event at Minnesota Capitol Organizers have designated the rally there as the national flagship event.

Before Springsteen took the stage, organizers played a video of actor Robert DeNiro saying he woke up depressed every morning because of Trump, but was happier Saturday because millions of people were protesting. He also congratulated Minnesotans for removing ICE from the city.

The bill also included singer Joan Baez, actor Jane Fonda, Vermont U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders and a long list of activists, labor leaders and elected officials.

Protesters carried a huge banner up the Capitol steps that read, “We had whistles, they had guns. The revolution begins in Minneapolis.”

“Donald Trump can pretend he’s not listening, but he can’t ignore the millions on the streets today,” said Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers.

Demonstrations were also planned in more than a dozen other countries, from Europe to Latin America to Australia, according to Ezra Levin, co-executive director of Indivisible, a group spearheading the events. In countries with constitutional monarchies, people call the protests “No to the Oppressors.”

Thousands of people marched in Rome chanting slogans aimed at Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, whose conservative government saw its referendum to streamline Italy’s judicial system fail miserably this week. Protesters also waved banners protesting Israeli and US attacks on Iran.

Demonstrators in London carried banners with slogans such as “Stop the far right” and “Stand up against racism”.

And in Paris, hundreds of people, mostly Americans living in France, gathered in the Bastille along with labor unions and human rights organizations.

“I protest all of Trump’s illegal, immoral, reckless and inept, endless wars,” organizer Ada Shen said.