Millions join ‘No Kings’ protests across the U.S. as organisers decry Trump’s expanding powers

From New York and Washington, D.C., to Chicago, Miami, and Los Angeles, huge crowds rallied on Saturday in coordinated “No Kings” protests against President Donald Trump’s policies,

with organizers claiming nearly seven million participants across more than 2,600 locations as demonstrators accused the administration of authoritarian overreach, crackdowns on dissent, and deployments of National Guard troops to cities over objections from local officials; while the day’s events were largely peaceful and festive with drums, creative signs (“Democracy, not Monarchy”) and family-friendly marches Republican allies of the president dismissed the mobilization as a “hate America”

spectacle and sought to link organizers to far-left groups, even as police in some cities reported minimal incidents; in New York City, the NYPD estimated more than 100,000 people took part across the five boroughs with no protest-related arrests, and major turnouts were reported in Washington, D.C., Chicago and Los Angeles, where Democratic leaders, union figures and civil-rights advocates delivered speeches defending voting rights, press freedom and limits on executive power; prominent Democrats including Senators Bernie Sanders, Chuck Schumer,

Cory Booker and Raphael Warnock appeared at rallies, while GOP governors in states such as Texas and Virginia said they had activated or placed National Guard units on standby ahead of the demonstrations; although crowd-size estimates varied widely and independent verification of the organizers’ “nearly seven million” figure was not immediately available national outlets documented vast gatherings across all 50 states and analysts noted the day ranked among the largest protest mobilizations in recent U.S. history,

underscoring deep divisions over Trump’s second-term agenda and foreshadowing continued confrontation between a White House intent on projecting force and a protest movement determined to assert that, in their words, “the Constitution is not optional.”
Sources: Reuters, The Guardian, ABC (Australia), CBS, AFP, The Washington Post