Protesters gathered across the country and at U.S. embassies worldwide for what has been billed as the largest collective demonstration against Donald Trump.
Hundreds of activist groups organized more than 2,600 rallies for Saturday as a follow-up to the first “No Kings” protest against the Republican administration, which attracted an estimated 5 million people in June. Smaller-scale events have been reported in Mexico City, Ottawa, London, Madrid, Berlin, Stockholm and Rome.
The demonstrations are a united show of opposition to what critics have roundly described as an accelerating slide into authoritarianism by the MAGA White House.
Protesters have been seen holding signs decrying the Trump administration’s ongoing mass deportation drive, military deployments in Democrat-held cities, centralization of executive power, gutting of the federal bureaucracy, policing of anti-conservative speech, overriding of the country’s courts and persecution of political opponents. Signs also featured allegations of corruption and cronyism to the benefit of the president’s political allies and business associates.
“IMPEACH TRUMP AGAIN,” read another sign in Washington, D.C., held up above three protesters dressed as the president, Vice President JD Vance, Homeland Security Secretary and White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller, all decked out in prison jumpsuits.
Some demonstrators took potshots at Trump over the ongoing furor surrounding his administration’s handling of one of the most notorious sex trafficking cases in modern U.S. history. “For the Epsteinth time… NO KINGS,” read a placard from an unknown location, posted to X.
Others blasted the president for some of the nicknames he’s earned thus far into his second term (“TACO! THIS IS NACHO KINGDOM!”), his unsubstantiated claims of paid actors in the crowd (“Unpaid Protester: I Hate Him for Free!”), his attacks on the LGBTQ+ community (“NO KINGS, JUST DRAG QUEENS”), and his famously tempestuous relationship with his own hair (“Hands off my democracy or there will be hell toupee”).
One person seemingly even attempted to cram all of their gripes with the MAGA administration into a single placard: “KEEP YOUR TINY HANDS OFF Healthcare Climate Laws Free Speech Colleges DEI Constitution Cities Immigrants Voting Rights Economy States Late Night TV Hosts (or else!!).”
Trump left Washington, D.C., to spend the weekend at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida. “They say they’re referring to me as a king. I’m not a king,” the president, who has previously referred to himself as a king and shared images of himself as a monarch, said in a Fox News interview Friday.
With some Republican governors reportedly placing National Guard troops on standby, the MAGA administration has sought to cast Saturday’s protests as “The Hate America Rally,” blaming the unrest on supporters of the left-wing antifa movement. Trump confusingly designated antifa a “terrorist organization” last month despite it being a catch-all term for politically sympathetic groups rather than a structured entity.
Organizers have nevertheless voiced hopes that Saturday’s demonstrations will help galvanize a more united opposition against the Trump White House, with top Democratic Party members like Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and Connecticut Senator Chris Murphy, along with Independent Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders, scheduled to speak at events across the country.
