No Kings: protests within the eye of the storm

As President Donald Trump kicked off a birthday navy parade on the streets of Washington, DC, what’s estimated as roughly 2,000 occasions have been held throughout the US and past — protesting Trump and Elon Musk’s evisceration of presidency providers, an unprecedented crackdown by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), and numerous different actions from the administration in its first 5 months. Held below the title “No Kings” (with, as you’ll see, one conspicuous exception), they’re the product debut in a number of mass protests, following April’s Hands Off events and a wave of Tesla Takedown demonstrations in March.

As The Verge’s Tina Nguyen went to downtown DC, we additionally despatched reporters to No Kings demonstrations spanning the nation, plus a “No Tyrants” occasion within the UK. How would they unfold after guarantees of “very heavy power” against protesters within the capital, after the deployment of hundreds of navy troops in a move a decide has bluntly known as unlawful, and after promises to “liberate” town of Los Angeles from its “burdensome management” by native elected officers? What about the overnight killing of a Minnesota Democratic state consultant and her husband, and the taking pictures of a Democratic state senator and his spouse?

The reply, on the occasions we attended, was pretty calmly — even in opposition to a backdrop of chaos.

Downtown Los Angeles, California

An inflatable child Donald Trump, wearing a diaper, hovered over throngs of individuals rallying outdoors of Los Angeles Metropolis Corridor. Demonstrators outnumbered clumps of California Nationwide Guard members in fatigues posted up alongside sidewalks.

“Go dwelling to your households, we don’t want you in our streets,” one younger individual carrying an extended braid down her again tells them whereas marching previous. “Trump come catch these palms foo!” the again of her signal reads. I can’t see what the entrance says, however I can inform there’s an empty bag of Cheetos pasted to it.

The large child joins the march, floating by the streets of Downtown LA over demonstrators. A flatbed truck rolls forward of it, the band — possibly LA’s personal Ozomatli? — singing “We don’t like Trump” to the tune of “We Need The Funk.”

Ducking inside Grand Central Market from the march, I speak to Puck and Twinkle Toes — two demonstrators in line for the general public restrooms. Twinkle Toes tells me she’s a part of an activist clown collective known as Imp and Circumstance, carrying pink and white clown make-up and a striped pink and white bow wrapped round a unfastened hair bun atop her head. She’s right here exercising her proper to free speech, she says.

“The extra folks which can be out right here, the extra we all know that this isn’t okay. That we don’t need an autocrat. We wish democracy,” Puck tells me, including that the Delight March in Hollywood final weekend was “nothing however love and sunshine” regardless of protests and burning driverless cars making headlines in downtown. “The information tries to make you assume all of LA is rioting. It’s not.” Puck says.

Again out on the streets, a younger man shortly writes “Fuck Ice” on a black wall with white spray paint earlier than a gaggle of older demonstrators carrying floppy hats shushes him away — warning him that tagging will solely appeal to extra legislation enforcement.

Additional alongside, one other older man with tufts of white hair protruding below his Lakers cap walks stiffly and slowly alongside below the summer time solar. A Mexican flag draped throughout his shoulders, he crosses Hope Road. A younger man carrying a Nike cap makes his method over to ask if he needs water; the outdated man accepts a bottle and retains strolling with out stopping. The march has looped round downtown, and is coming to an finish again at Metropolis Corridor. As I make my strategy to my bus cease, a line of police autos — sirens blasting — whizzes previous me, again towards the group nonetheless gathering round Metropolis Corridor.

The Los Angeles Police Division issued a dispersal order for elements of downtown Los Angeles later within the afternoon, citing folks “throwing rocks, bricks, bottles and different objects.” Law enforcement reportedly cleared crowds using gas, and the LAPD approved the usage of “less lethal” power.

4 totally different “No Kings” protests within the higher Portland space on Saturday drew large crowds of tens of hundreds throughout town. Numerous activists, authorities officers, and representatives for politicians spoke on the rallies, which additionally featured music and reside performances. (One marketed free drag reveals.)

Protesters of all ages got here with canines, strollers, flags, banners, and hand-made indicators. On the downtown waterfront, some vacationer boats appeared to nonetheless be departing, however the bike rental stand (which additionally sells ice cream) was closed for the day with a hand-lettered rationalization studying “No crowns, no thrones, no kings” and “Individuals in opposition to oligarchy.” Ladies showing to be organizers handed out free American flags; many attendees got here with their very own American flags modified to fly the other way up.

Most protesters introduced indicators expressing a variety of sentiments on the theme of “No Kings.” Some indicators have been surprisingly verbose (“If the founders wished a unitary govt (a king) we’d all nonetheless be British”) whereas others have been extra succinct (“Sic semper tyrannis”). Others opted for easy pictures, akin to an image of a crown crossed out, or — much less continuously — a guillotine.

The waterfront park space was crammed with folks from the shoreline to the curb of the closest avenue, the place protesters held up indicators to passing automobiles that honked in approval. The honking of a passing hearth truck despatched the group into an uproarious cheer.

Portland is a couple of thousand miles from the border with Mexico, however the flag of its distant neighbor nation has emerged as protest iconography in solidarity with Los Angeles. The rainbow delight flag was flown as typically because the Mexican flag. Navy veterans have been scattered all through the group, some figuring out themselves as having seen motion in conflicts spanning from Vietnam to Afghanistan. Emanuel, an Air Pressure veteran, informed me that he had turned out in protection of the structure and due course of, saying, “No one has any rights if one individual doesn’t have any rights.”

Anger was directed at ICE and the mass deportations all all through the day, in signage, in chants, and in rally speeches.

The earlier evening, about 150 folks protested at an area ICE facility — coincidentally positioned by the Tesla dealership — a mile south of downtown, close to a freeway exit. The ICE facility protests, which have been steady for some days, have been steadily building up. A few “No Kings” indicators have been current on Friday. (The next day, a handful of “Chinga la migra” indicators would present up on the “No Kings” protests). Demonstrators stood on the curb urging passing automobiles to “Honk for those who hate fascists,” efficiently eliciting automobile horns each few seconds, together with some from a pristine white Tesla.

Federal legislation enforcement in camo and helmets, their faces obscured, maced and shot at protesters with pepper balls, concentrating on them by the gates and sniping at them from the rooftop of the constructing. A handful of protesters — many carrying gasoline masks and respirators — fashioned phalanx formations within the driveway, wielding umbrellas and handmade shields.

On Saturday, a speaker at one of many “No Kings” rallies marketed the occupation of the ICE facility, saying, “We’re a sanctuary metropolis.” The group — replete with American flags each the other way up and proper facet up — cheered.

Almost each intersection on Pasco County’s State Street 54 appears the identical: a cross-section of strip malls, every anchored by a Walmart or Goal or Publix, surrounded by a mixture of eating places, nail salons, and gasoline stations. It’s not an setting that’s notably conducive to protests, however a whole bunch of individuals turned out in humid, 90-plus diploma climate anyway. The general measurement of the group is tough to find out, but it surely’s bigger than I — and different attendees — anticipated, given the native demographics. (Trump gained 61 % of the vote in Pasco County in 2024.)

Everyone seems to be on the sidewalk; an organizer with a megaphone tells folks to make use of crosswalks in the event that they’re going to try to courageous the six-lane freeway. Two days earlier, Governor Ron DeSantis said Floridians might legally run over protesters on the road in the event that they really feel “threatened.”

To this point, most drivers appear pleasant. There are many supportive honks. One girl rolls down her window and thanks the protesters. “I really like you! I want I could possibly be with you, however I’ve to work immediately!” she yells as she drives away. Not everyone seems to be amenable. A person in a MAGA hat marches by the group waving a “skinny inexperienced line” flag and yelling “lengthy reside the king!” as folks within the crowd name him a traitor. A pickup truck drives by blasting “Ice Ice Child,” waving one other pro-law enforcement flag.

The protesters have flags, too: American flags massive and small, some the other way up; Mexican; Ukrainian; Palestinian; Canadian; totally different configurations of delight and trans flags. Their indicators, like their flags, illustrate their numerous causes for attending: opposition to Trump’s “large stunning” funding invoice, DOGE’s finances cuts, and ICE arrests; assist for immigrants, authorities employees, and Palestinians. One girl wears an inflatable rooster swimsuit. Her pal pulls an effigy of Trump — dressed to look each like an eighteenth-century monarch, a taco, and a rooster — alongside her.

A lot of the demonstrators are on the older facet, however there are folks of all ages in attendance. “I believed it was going to be possibly 20 folks with a few indicators,” Abby, 24, says, including that she’s pleasantly stunned at each the turnout and the truth that many of the protesters are of retirement age. Abe, 20, tells me that is his first protest. Holding an indication that claims “ICE = GESTAPO,” he tells me he got here out to assist a pal who’s Mexican. Three youngsters stroll by with indicators expressing assist for immigrants: “Whereas Trump destroys America, we constructed it.” “Trump: 3 felonies. My dad and mom: 0.”

As I drive away, I discover 9 counter-protesters off to the facet, across the nook from the principle occasion. They wave their very own flags, however the demonstrators seemingly pay them no thoughts.

Historic Filipinotown, Los Angeles

Carrying a camo baseball cap — “Desert Storm Veteran” emblazoned on the entrance — Joe Arciaga greets a crowd of about 100 folks in Los Angeles’ Historic Filipinotown round 9:00AM.

“Good morning everybody, are you prepared for some stunning bother?” Arciaga says into the megaphone, an American flag bandana wrapped round his wrist. The faces of Filipino labor leaders Philip Vera Cruz and Larry Itliong, who organized farm workers alongside Cesar Chavez, peer over his shoulders from a mural that strains the size of Unidad Park the place Arciaga and a gaggle known as Lakas Collective helped manage this neighborhood No Kings rally.

“I’m a Desert Storm veteran, and I’m a father of three and a grandfather of three, and I wish to work for a future the place democracy is upheld, due course of, civil rights, the preservation of the rule of legislation — That’s all I would like. I’m not a billionaire, I’m only a common Joe, proper?”, he tells The Verge.

“I’m mad as hell,” he says, once I ask him in regards to the Military 250th anniversary parade Donald Trump has organized in Washington, DC coinciding with the president’s birthday. “The man doesn’t need to be honored, he’s a draft dodger, proper?” Arciaga says. He’s “furious” that the President and DOGE have fired veterans working for federal companies and slashed VA staff.

Arciaga organizes the group into two strains that file out of the park to face alongside Beverly Blvd., one of many important drags by LA. Arciaga has deputized a handful of attendees with safety or medical expertise with whistles to function “marshals” tasked with flagging and de-escalating any doubtlessly dangerous scenario which may come up.

Johneric Concordia, one of many co-founders of the favored The Park’s Finest barbecue joint within the neighborhood, is MCing out on Beverly Blvd. He and Arciaga direct folks onto the sidewalks and off the asphalt as honking automobiles zip by. In between chants of “No hate! No concern! Immigrants are welcome right here!” and rap songs from LA artist Bambu that Concordia performs from a speaker, Concordia hypes up the organizers. “Who’s cool? Joe’s cool?” He spits into the microphone related to his speaker. “Who’s streets? Our streets!” the group cheers.

An hour later, a person sitting at a crimson gentle in a black Prius rolls down his window. “Go dwelling!” he yells from the intersection. “Take your Mexican flag and go dwelling!”

The group principally ignores him. One attendee on the nook holds up his “No Kings” signal to the Prius with out turning his head to take a look at him.

A couple of minutes later, a jogger in a blue t-shirt raises his fist as he passes the group. “Fuck yeah guys,” he says to cheers.

By 10AM, the neighborhood occasion is coming to an in depth. Demonstrators begin to trickle away, some fanning out to different rallies deliberate throughout LA immediately. Concordia is heading out too, microphone and speaker nonetheless in hand, “Should you’re headed to downtown, be careful for suspicious crew cuts!”

San Francisco, California

London’s protest was a little bit totally different than most: it was virtually solely bereft of “No Kings” indicators, due to the truth that about two miles away a lot bigger crowds have been gathered to have fun the official birthday of 1 King Charles III.

“We don’t have something in opposition to King Charles,” Alyssa, a member of organizers Indivisible London, informed me. And so, “out of respect for our host nation as immigrants,” they as a substitute arrange store in entrance of the US embassy with a tweaked message: “No kings, no crowns” turned “no tyrants, no clowns.”

Of the a whole bunch gathered, not everybody acquired the memo, with a couple of painted indicators decrying kings and crowns regardless, and one courageous Brit brandishing a little bit of cardboard with a easy message: “Our king is best than yours!”

Nonetheless, many of the crowd have been on board, with crimson noses, clown fits, and Pennywise masks dotted all through, plus costumes starting from tacos to Roman emperors. “I believe tyrants is the higher phrase, and that’s why I dressed up as Caesar, as a result of he was the unique,” says Anna, a Lengthy Island native who’s lived in London for 3 years. “No one likes a tyrant. No one. And so they don’t do effectively, traditionally, however they destroy loads.”

For 90 minutes or so the group — predominantly American, judging by the accents round me — leaned into the circus theme. Audio system shared the stage with performers, from a comic book singalong of anti-Trump protest songs to a protracted pantomime by which a girl in a banana costume exhorted the group to pelt a Donald Trump impersonator with recent peels.

Throughout a break in festivities, Alyssa informed the group, “Probably the most threatening sound to an oligarch is laughter.”

Prospect Park, Brooklyn, New York

The No Kings protest at Brooklyn’s Grand Military Plaza was a calmer affair. As an alternative of gathering below the picturesque memorial arch, protesters have been largely sequestered to a nook proper outdoors Prospect Park, with some streets blocked off by police. The weekly farmers market was in full swing, that means folks cradling bundles of rhubarb have been swerving out and in of protest indicators that learn issues like, “Hating Donald Trump is Brat” and “Is it time to get out the pitch forks?” Like through the Fingers Off protest in April, New York acquired rain on Saturday.

The realm the place protesters have been gathered made it tough to rely the group, however there have been a whole bunch — maybe a couple of thousand — those who streamed out and in. At one level, some protesters started marching down the road alongside Prospect Park, whereas others stayed at Grand Military Plaza to chant, cheer, and maintain indicators up at oncoming autos. With its proximity to the general public library, the park, and densely populated neighborhoods, the huge intersection is a high-foot visitors space. Automobiles blared their horns as they handed, American flags waving within the chilly afternoon breeze.

Jane, a Brooklyn resident who stood on the curb reverse the protesters, stated she isn’t usually somebody who comes out to actions like this: earlier than the No Kings occasion, she had solely ever been to 1 protest, the Ladies’s March. (Jane requested that The Verge use her first title solely.)

“I’m deeply involved about our nation,” Jane stated, pausing as an extended stream of vehicles and automobiles honked constantly in assist of the protesters within the background.

“I believe Trump is behaving as an authoritarian. We’ve seen in Russia, in Hungary, in Hong Kong, that the slide from freedom to not freedom could be very quick and really fast if folks don’t make their voices heard,” Jane stated. “I’m involved that that’s what’s occurring in the USA.” Jane additionally cited cuts to Medicaid and funding for tutorial analysis in addition to tariffs as being “unacceptable.”

The occasion was peaceable — there have been a lot of youngsters current — and other people have been in good spirits regardless of the rain. Protest indicators ran the gamut from basic anti-Trump slogans (“I belief gentle tampons greater than this administration”) to New York Metropolis-specific causes like “Andrew Cuomo can’t learn” (there may be a contenious mayoral election this month). One sign read, “Repair your hearts or die,” an iconic line from the late director, David Lynch’s, Twin Peaks: The Return. And naturally, amid nationwide immigration raids which were escalated by the involvement of the federal authorities, ICE was high of thoughts: one signal merely learn, “Soften ICE,” and one other protester held a big “NO ICE IN NYC” signal.

Although it was smaller and extra contained than different occasions, the protest didn’t lack conviction: attendees of all ages stood within the chilly rain, chanting and blowing into vuvuzela, banging the lids of pots and pans. At one level a person stood on the median on the road, main the group in chants of “No justice, no peace.” Automobiles laid on the horn as they drove by.

It’s been raining fairly laborious the previous few days in Akron, OH, a lot that I didn’t assume there’d be a big turnout for our chapter of the No Kings protest. However I used to be emphatically confirmed mistaken because the crowds I noticed dwarfed the Tesla Takedown protests final month. Formally, the protest was to happen in entrance of the John F. Seiberling Federal Constructing on Principal Road in Downtown Akron. However the focus of individuals spilled over from that small area down Principal Road and up Market Road. All informed, although there have been no official counts, I estimate someplace between 500 to 900 folks on this blue enclave in Northeast Ohio.

The temper was exuberant, buoyed by supporters who honked their horns as they handed. The refrain of horns was nonstop, and when a sanitation truck honked because it glided by, cheers acquired louder. The chants the crowds have been singing took on an area flare. Ohio is the house of the Ohio State Buckeyes and wherever you go, shout “O-H” and also you’ll invariably get an “I-O” response. The crowds used that conference to make their very own chant, “OH-IO, Donald Trump has acquired to go.”

There was no police presence right here and the group was excellent at policing itself. Ostensibly out of concern for the incidents the place folks have rammed their automobiles into protestor crowds, the folks right here have taken up crossing guard duties, aiding of us who want to cross Principal or Market Streets. Towards the tip of my time on the protest, I noticed an older gentleman carrying Kent State gear and holding an indication that learn, “Bear in mind one other time the Nationwide Guard was known as in?” His signal featured a drawing of the well-known photograph from the occasion by which 4 Kent State college students throughout a protest of the Vietnam Battle have been killed by Nationwide Guard troops. I caught up with him to ask him some questions and he informed me his title was Chuck Ayers, an expert cartoonist, and was current on the taking pictures.

“Once I noticed the Nationwide Guard in entrance of the federal constructing in LA,” he informed me, “It was simply one other flashback.”

He didn’t inform me this on the time, however Ayers is a nationally acknowledged cartoonist, famous for co-creating the sketch Crankshaft. He’s lived in Ohio his total life and naturally, drew that signal himself. As he was telling me about how seeing information of the Nationwide Guard being deployed in LA, I might see him pressure to carry again his feelings. He stated it nonetheless hurts to see this 55 years later, however that he was heartened to see so many individuals standing right here in neighborhood and solidarity. He additionally stated that given his ache and trauma he virtually didn’t come. Once I requested why he confirmed up when it so clearly causes him ache he stated merely, “As a result of I’ve to.”

On a northward drive to Oneonta — inhabitants roughly 15,000, the biggest metropolis in New York’s primarily rural Otsego County — probably the most outstanding landmarks is a sprawling barn splashed in large, painted block letters with TRUMP 2024. (The ultimate digits have been faithfully up to date each election since 2016.) It’s Trump nation, however not uniformly Trumpy nation, as evidenced by what I estimated as a hundreds-strong crowd gathered in a subject just under Principal Road that got here along with a pleasant county-fair environment. Children sat on their dad and mom’ shoulders; American flags fluttered subsequent to indicators with slogans like SHADE NEVER MADE ANYONE LESS GAY, and attendees grumbled persistently in regards to the occasion’s feeble sound system, arrange on the mattress of a pickup truck. It was the sort of conspicuously patriotic, far-from-urban protest that the Trump administration has all however insisted doesn’t exist.

Past a basic condemnation of Trump, protest indicators repped the identical points being denounced throughout the nation. The wars in Gaza and Ukraine made an look, as did Elon Musk and Tesla. A few folks known as out funding cuts for organizations like NPR, one neatly lettered signal reminded us that WEATHER FORECASTING SAVES LIVES, one other warned “Preserve your nasty little palms off Social Safety,” and loads — unsurprisingly, given the past week’s events — attacked mass deportations and ICE. An attendee who recognized himself as Invoice, standing behind a placard that blocked most of him from sight, laid out his anger on the administration’s gutting of the Environmental Safety Company. “I believe if it was not for protests, there could be no change,” he informed me.

The occasion itself, supported by a coalition together with the native chapter of Indivisible, highlighted matters like reproductive justice and LGBTQ rights alongside points for teams typically stereotyped as Republican blocs — there was a speech about Division of Veterans Affairs cuts and a consultant from the native Workplace for the Growing old (whose phrases have been principally misplaced to the sound system’s whims). Guidelines for a march across the modest downtown have been laid out: no blocking pedestrians or autos, and for the sake of households doing weekend buying, watch the language. “Fuck!” one individual yelled indistinctly from the viewers. “No, no,” the occasion’s emcee chided gently. The philosophy, as she put it, was one in all persuasion. “We wish to construct the resistance, not make folks indignant at us.”

However even in a spot that can virtually definitely by no means see a Nationwide Guard deployment or the ire of a Fact Social submit, the Trump administration’s brutal deportation program had simply hit near dwelling. Solely hours earlier than the protest commenced, ICE agents were recorded handcuffing a person and eradicating him in an unmarked black automobile — detaining what was reportedly a authorized resident in search of asylum from Venezuela. The mayor of Oneonta, Mark Drnek, relayed the information to the group. “ICE! We see you!” boomed Drnek from the truckbed. “We acknowledge you for what you’re, and we perceive, and we reject your vile objective.”

The group cheered furiously. The celebrities and stripes waved.