‘No Kings’ rallies draw huge crowds to protest Trump and his policies
Across the country, relatively few disruptions were reported during protests and marches where the mood ranged from joyful to defiant.
June 14, 2025 at 5:41
By Annie Gowen

Liberty Plaza in Atlanta. (Elijah Nouvelage/AFP/Getty Images)
Americans turned out en masse in communities across the country Saturday, raucously pushing back on what they see as President Donald Trump’s widening authoritarianism, attacks on immigrants and deep cuts to scores of federal programs.
Organizers had said that they hoped the rallies in more than 2,000 cities — dubbed “No Kings Nationwide Day of Defiance” — would be peaceful and free of confrontation.
Yet the day was marred by the news of deadly violence overnight in Minneapolis, where two Democratic state legislators were shot with their spouses in what Gov. Tim Walz called a “politically motivated” attack. Rep. Melissa Hortman and her husband died, and the other couple were seriously wounded. Officials said they were “cautiously optimistic” about the couple’s prognosis.
Given that the gunman was still at large and that “No Kings” fliers had been found in his car, Walz urged protesters to stay away from the many related events planned statewide. At least one in Minneapolis was canceled.
Hours later, the Texas Department of Public Safety warned of “credible threats” to lawmakers planning to attend the evening rally at the state capitol in Austin. The building was evacuated soon after; the event organizer said it would proceed as planned.
Elsewhere in the country, relatively few disruptions were reported during rallies where the mood ranged from joyful to defiant. In Philadelphia, the crowd was accompanied by the notes and beats of a saxophone, drums and tambourines. In Los Angeles, which had seen a week of protests after federal immigration raids in the area, Indigenous dancers helped kick things off.
Couples came, families came, individuals who said they’d never before protested came. They carried hand-lettered signs focused on democracy, the rule of law and human rights. The scenes were a stark contrast to the one planned hours later in the nation’s capital, where Trump would preside over a grandiose display of military tanks and soldiers as part of a celebration of the Army’s 250th birthday — on a day that also happened to be his 79th birthday.
“No Kings” participants compared the parade in Washington to something more commonly seen in autocratic countries such as Russia and North Korea. Stephanie Henderson, who traveled to the Philadelphia rally from Smyrna, Delaware, carried a sign there with pictures of three men: England’s monarch during the U.S. Revolutionary War, Adolf Hitler and Trump.
“We fought a king in 1775. We fought a dictator in 1945,” the sign read. “We will fight whatever the hell this is in 2025.”
Henderson, a state employee, said she hoped a nationwide show of resistance would send a strong message to Trump. “We need to let him know he works for us,” she said.
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