“No Kings” rallies held worldwide to protest against Trump

Crowds of people demonstrated on Saturday against the war in Iran and President Trump’s actions at “No Kings” rallies in the United States and Europe. Minnesota took center stage, in what organizers expected would be mass protests involving millions of people.

Thousands of people stood shoulder to shoulder on the lawn of the Minnesota Capitol and in the surrounding streets of St. Paul. Some waved upside-down American flags, a historic sign of distress.

The event’s headliner was Bruce Springsteen, who performed “Streets of Minneapolis.” He wrote the song in response to the fatal shooting of Renee Bonne And Alex Pretti by federal agents and in tribute to the thousands of Minnesotans who took to the streets over the winter to protest the Trump administration’s aggressive immigration enforcement.

Before launching into song, Springsteen lamented the deaths of Good and Pretti, but said continued public resistance to U.S. Customs and Immigration had given hope to the rest of the country.

“Your strength and commitment told us this was still America,” he said. “And this reactionary nightmare and these invasions of American cities will not last.”

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

The rally at the Minnesota Capitol in St. Paul was designated a national marquee event, in recognition of how the state where federal agents fatally shot two people monitoring Trump’s immigration crackdown has become a epicenter of resistance.

St. Paul police closed several streets around the area. No Kings organizers estimated that more than 200,000 people attended the St. Paul rally on Saturday, surpassing the numbers from the 2017 Women’s March.

Hundreds of “No Kings” rallies held across the United States

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

U.S. organizers estimate that the first two rounds of No Kings rallies attracted more than 5 million people in June and 7 million in October. This week, they told reporters they expected 9 million attendees on Saturday, although it was too early to say whether those expectations would be met. Organizers said more than 3,100 events, 500 more than in October, were registered in all 50 states.

Philadelphia’s ‘No Kings’ rally drew lots thousands of people downtown, closing roads. Indivisible Chicago and the ACLU of Illinois, among others, organized a large rally in Chicago. Other gatherings took place at Texas And Detroitand at least 40 events were scheduled throughout the day in southeast Michigan.

The White House has dismissed the nationwide protests as the product of “left-wing funding networks” with little real public support.

“The only people who care about these Trump derangement therapy sessions are the journalists who are paid to cover them,” White House spokeswoman Abigail Jackson said in a statement.

The Trump administration’s aggressive immigration enforcement measures, particularly in Minnesota, are just one item in a long list of protesters’ grievances that also include the war in Iran and the rollback of transgender rights.

In Washington, hundreds of people marched past the Lincoln Memorial and on the National Mall, holding signs reading “Lay down the crown, clown” and “Regime change starts at home.” Protesters rang bells, played drums and chanted “No kings.”

Bill Jancho was there from Seattle, joined by six people dressed as insects wearing tactical vests emblazoned with “LICE,” impersonating ICE in what he called a “mock and awesome” tour.

“What we are proposing is a mockery of the king,” Jancho said. “It’s about taking authoritarianism and making fun of it, which they hate.”

About 40,000 people marched in a “No Kings” event in San Diego, police said.

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

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

But organizers said two-thirds of those attending the rallies 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 competitive suburban areas of Pennsylvania, Georgia and Arizona.

“No Kings” rallies are also taking place around the world

Rallies were also taking place in more than a dozen other countries, from Europe to Latin America to Australia, Ezra Levin, co-executive director of Indivisible, a group behind the events, said in an interview. Countries with constitutional monarchies call these protests “No Tyrants,” he said.

In Rome, thousands marched with chants of defiance aimed at Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, whose conservative government saw its referendum on streamlining Italy’s justice system fail this week amid criticism that it posed a threat to the independence of the courts. Demonstrators held banners protesting Israeli and US attacks on Iran, calling for “a world without wars”.

In London, protesters against the war in Iran held banners reading “Stop the far right” and “Stand up against racism.”

And on Saturday morning in Paris, several hundred people, mostly Americans living in France, as well as French unions and human rights organizations, gathered at the Bastille.

“I protest against all of Trump’s illegal, immoral, reckless and thoughtless wars,” said Ada Shen, the organizer of Paris No Kings.