“A Prince, whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.” So said our Founding Fathers of mad King George III, in a declaration signed on a rainy summer day 249 years ago. (We know it was raining because that’s how they depicted it in the Broadway musical 1776 and musicals don’t lie!) And so it was on Saturday, Flag Day, when millions of people of all walks of life gathered across these United States on another rainy day to protest another mentally-unstable tyrant. The fact that the date was also his birthday, well that was just a bonus for us. Only instead of those 25 eloquent words quoted above from Thomas Jefferson, the rallies on Saturday boiled our sentiments down to one essential principle: No Kings.
Masses of demonstrators packed into streets, parks and plazas across the United States on Saturday to protest President Donald Trump, marching through downtowns and small towns, blaring anti-authoritarian chants mixed with support for protecting democracy and immigrant rights.
Organizers of the “No Kings” demonstrations said millions had marched in hundreds of events. Governors across the U.S. had urged calm and vowed no tolerance for violence, while some mobilized the National Guard ahead of marchers gathering.
Confrontations were isolated. But police in Los Angeles, where protests over federal immigration enforcement raids erupted a week earlier and sparked demonstrations across the country, used tear gas and crowd-control munitions to clear out protestors after the formal event ended. Officers in Portland also fired tear gas and projectiles to disperse a crowd that protested in front of a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement building well into the evening.
…Huge, boisterous crowds marched, danced, drummed, and chanted shoulder-to-shoulder in New York, Denver, Chicago, Austin and Los Angeles, some behind “no kings” banners. Atlanta’s 5,000-capacity event quickly reached its limit, with thousands more gathered outside barriers to hear speakers in front of the state Capitol. Officials in Seattle estimated that more than 70,000 people attended the city’s largest rally downtown, the Seattle Times reported.
Trump was in Washington for a military parade marking the Army’s 250th anniversary that coincides with the president’s birthday. About 200 protesters assembled in northwest Washington’s Logan Circle and chanted “Trump must go now” before erupting in cheers. A larger-than-life puppet of Trump — a caricature of the president wearing a crown and sitting on a golden toilet — was wheeled through the crowd.
…“Today, across red states and blue, rural towns and major cities, Americans stood in peaceful unity and made it clear: we don’t do kings,” the No Kings Coalition said in a statement Saturday afternoon after many events had ended.
Truthfully, Trump fulfills so many of the ills described in the Declaration of Independence, I’m starting to wonder if Benjamin Franklin invented time travel along with the lightning rod: He has refused his assent to laws; he has obstructed the administration of justice; he has erected a multitude of new offices, and sent hither swarms of officers to harass our people; and I could go on and on. Sadly, it all fits. Anyway, thank you, America, for giving this president the birthday gift he deserves. I’d say give the man one of the new Declaration/Constitution hardcover books that Random House is releasing next month, since he could clearly do with the brush up. But we all know Sleepy Mango doesn’t read, let alone a hardcover being too heavy for his baby-fisted hands.
As always these days, I find the many fantastic demonstrations of resistance to be rather bittersweet. On the one hand, it’s thrilling and empowering and emotional to see people — old and young, civilian and celebrity alike — show up to defend our democracy. So… where was this turn out in November?!? I know I’m not the only one thinking this, as at least one person in Philadelphia marched with a sign that said “If she won, we’d be at lunch right now.” I’d also like to give a special shout out to my home city, San Francisco, for pulling off a picture perfect human banner on Ocean Beach that read “NO KING!” complete with border and an upside down flag. More human banners, less tear gas, please.
So proud to be a part of this amazing morning. Location ocean beach San Francisco
#nokings— Ilanit (illy) (@imanor.bsky.social) June 14, 2025 at 4:46 PM
Massive #NoKings march in New York City!
— Dr. Lucky Tran (@luckytran.com) June 14, 2025 at 3:24 PM
#Nokings
San Diego— Firehawk (@firehawkjw.bsky.social) June 14, 2025 at 6:22 PM
Photos credit: William T. Wade Jr./Photography/Avalon, William T. Wade Jr./Photography/Avalon, Robert Bell/INSTARimages, Victor M. Matos/TheNews2/Cover Images, Niyi Foto/TheNews2/Cover Images
“I find the many fantastic demonstrations of resistance to be rather bittersweet. On the one hand, it’s thrilling and empowering and emotional to see people — old and young, civilian and celebrity alike — show up to defend our democracy. So… where was this turn out in November?!? ”
RIGHT. All because people old and young, civilian and celebrity alike, of every race, culture and gender just couldn’t bring themselves to vote for a woman of color.
I hope the leopards are loose and eating faces EVERYWHERE for every single person that voted for Trump. For any Trump voter that suffers, never forget and not sorry, not even one little bit
And chasing everyone who didn’t vote or voted third party unicorns. Those people are to blame for dumpster fire getting in the first time too.
And chasing Pelosi, Bernie and his bros, and everyone who advocated against kamala in jewish and Muslim communities.
I am disappointed that there are no photos of the demonstration in Boston. Granted, it was Pride Day, but there were a million people that crowded the Common.
There was an interesting opinion piece in The Guardian last week about the coverage of rallies protesting the Trump administration being sorely lacking.
While part of it IMO is down to the protests being for the most part peaceful and orderly AND that they are distributed across THOUSANDS of communities across every state vs 1-2 massive demonstrations in one place, that doesn’t fully explain it. Those 2 characteristics actually make it MORE newsworthy in some ways. So what’s going on and why are the protesters so often written off as ‘liberals’ or ‘leftist’ ? … when a massive % of signs are in support of things like the US Constitution, the Rule of Law, quoting the Declaration of Independence, asking politicians to follow their Oaths of Office, respecting US laws and not allowing people to steal public money or resources. These are not “liberal” values, they used to be fundamental American values (even if the US didn’t live up to them perfectly)
It was a giant, fabulous, protest PARTY!
A friend posted pictures of the protests in about a dozen major cities on her Facebook page and she had to put the Boston one in the center because when she put it in alphabetical order, the vibrant colors pulled focus.
Are we sure they didn’t? A judge in NY just ruled that a recount be done in a county where Harris apparently received zero votes. What was Elon, owner of Starlink doing jumping around at Trump rallies only to receive access to Americans’ data once Trump was installed? Why were Trump’s campaign rallies and his birthday parade so badly attended while Kamala’s rallies and these protests so largely attended? Something is not right here.
I have been holding my tongue because I don’t want to be like the crazies who still think the 2020 election was rigged but it just gets weirder and weirder.
I truly believe now that she won and Musk “fixed” it in some way. I mean both Trump and Musk have come out as said as much. But are the democrats / the media going to do anything about it? Seems not.
Came to ask the same question. More and more I think it’s entirely possible she won.
Election Interference. There is growing evidence every day.
We’re a long ways off until the next election. I can’t believe it’s barely been 6 months. Hopefully this momentum can sustain until then. I’m still angry about last November.
It feels like one, dark decade.
Do you really think there is going to be another election? You guys have not been listening.
Yup. Getting frustrated with those that keep saying “just wait until the mid terms” like those are really going to happen.
I mean I hope so. I am listening. But I still hope so. Guess I’m a fool.
All this talk of “liberating the blue cities” is just code for putting the military in place and provoking problems so they can cancel the midterms
I’m angry too. I used to live in Georgia. I remember when people showed up in Georgia to vote for Biden, turning GA blue, then went down their ballot and voted in Brian Kemp as their Governor because, they couldn’t bring themselves to vote for a more qualified, more competent Stacy Abrams, a Black woman.
Now the Karens have their hair on fire cause Kemp is trying to take away women’s right to vote. It’s find out season for real. Bitch we told you what would happen. But you couldn’t get out of your own way. You hate us that much. What the hell did we ever do to you? You’d think THEY are the ones who went through 300+ years of slavery, colonization, rape, and family separation.
Racism has a real cost and you’re finding out it isn’t just costly for the victims but also the perpetrators. The US is having its find out moment. How much do you have to hate POC to literally set yourself on fire to stop them from, not having nice things, but their basic needs met?
Black women, continue to protect your peace. Stay safe. And don’t let anyone gaslight you into thinking you have to do the heavy lifting here. You earned your rest. It’s time for POC to stop rescuing White folks from themselves. They have a problem. They need to fix it. I was happy to see collectively, Black people stayed home. Us coming out isn’t an effective strategy anyways – the state turns way more violent than usual and the media paints us as terrorists – they are having a hard time spinning this one with little old White people holding up their signs.
I live in Canada now but had I stayed no way was I catching a bullet for some damn fools.
I currently live in GA so yeah…and there’s a fair amount of women I see that might not even care if their right to vote was taken. Bc it’s about their husbands. They’ve supported Kemp all the way. It’s scary af. And those of us that do care…well, it sucks.
Went to one of the No Kings events outside DC. It was great: a peaceful, friendly, smart, but also angry and determined vibe.
The protest turnout in my small city was in the thousands… well over the 3.5% quoted as needed to push back and topple autocrats and dictators. And it wasn’t because we pulled from surrounding communities, cities because they all were having their own massive rallies. It was maybe 3 x the already large turn out to the Hands Off rally in April.
Granted, I’m in blue-state Massachusetts, and my city voted decisively for VP Harris.
But I was really buoyed by the turnout and the nearly universal supportive response of people driving by, including many with Maine and New Hampshire plates – we’re near the state border so they’re common around here.
Momentum is building against this cruel and criminal adminstration. Sure I wish people had made better choices in November and sure we’ve got a hard road ahead of us, but the only way out of this is forward and through it and I’m really glad to have so many people of all ages and backgrounds standing up and pushing back on MAGA, with more and more standing up every day!
It’s been estimated that 5 million people marched this past weekend, definitely more than in April. But we need 11 million nationwide to reach 3.5%. We need to keep pushing. The energy this past Saturday, seeing people of all ages and ethnicities peacefully united against tyranny, brought tears to my eyes.
There was one where we are, out on Long Island. There are some Trumpers in this town, which is fairly middle class with some wealthier “summer people” and a working class component. It was a decent turnout given how bad the weather was. Lots of honking as people drove by.
I’m in New England and was impressed at not only the turnout in cities (Boston and Providence) but so many towns had rallies at their town halls that were also well attended. And the fight to reclaim what the American flag stands for back from a symbol of MAGA.
I also loved seeing so many empty seats in the bleachers at the DC fiasco. It’s a shame because I think back to the bicentennial (I was in elementary school) and it was such a festive year of parades, celebrations, etc. Ironic that we are now celebrating 250 and, as noted, fighting the very same issues the founding fathers warned us about only in our own country.
I remember the Bicentennial. I was a kid too and it was so much fun to be a part of it. The 70s was a rough decade for the USA in many ways but still, looking back, it was part of what seems like a golden era. Screw the Reagan Revolution, honestly.
Really disheartening that we’ve got trump in office for our 250th. Dang it!
Meanwhile, here in Hawaii, we had a good turnout on Saturday! Thousands of folks in Honolulu alone! And that was in spite of there also being a King Kamehameha Day parade (oh, the irony).
Even in Malibu, with nearly half the houses burned down and the city still reeling, we had a big crowd. Many hundreds of people, all very energized. The gathering point was the library and there was a parade of cars driving by honking support the entire time. Even some of the sheriff’s deputies doing security were giving thumbs up.
I’m home recovering from surgery, but seeing all of the posts on socials gave me those fluttery feelings of pride and hope. These are dark times, and it was nice to see so much light across the country. Bravo to everyone who organized, marched, stood up and spoke out.
I saw headlines like “Trump was so enraged” but honestly, has that man ever been happy in his entire life? Like, truly happy? The only solace I have is knowing he’s deeply unhappy, absolutely hates himself, and will never feel the joy of life’s simple pleasures, like watching your child feel that first breeze on their face or the sound of your bedroom door closing as your husband tiptoes out to take your kids to the park so you can get a few more hours of sleep.
We had a large and peaceful protest in Buffalo too. I’m curious if there is anyone left at the National Park service who aren’t Trump lackeys that can actually give us an estimate of how few people were at the dictator flop parade.
I think I’m done worrying about sounding like a tin foil hatter when I say: looking at how few people turned out for Orange Jong Un’s fascist birthday party and how sooooo many people turned out for the protests even in red states…I really don’t know that Trump actually won that election. Something ain’t adding up here.
It needs to be sustained. 47 just announced long term invasion and occupation of Illinois, NY, and CA. This is far from over.
We had several thousand people attend the rallies here in Germany. Not only Dems Abroad, or Germans marching in solidarity — but also Brits and Canadians.
There were quite a few posters in my hometown that caught my eye:
• No FauxKing Way
• No Kings — Yaaas, Queen
• I prefer crushed ICE
… and a very special Denglish one:
• Eis, not ICE. (Eis being the German word for ice cream)
We saw flags from several states, the majority being, of course, California Republic.
I love those signs! My favourite said: Orange Lies Matter
Proud of everyone telling that POS he is not a King. He is a President, and he works for us.
Meanwhile, on the same day over in Blighty, where there is still an actual king, having a military parade to celebrate his birthday, “Not MY King” signs proliferated amongst very low crowd attendance. What irony. Charles and Donald having military “birthday parades” coupled and compared would be not be a good thing.
I stuck to my usual Saturday plan of spending the day at my parents but I did honk as I drove past the people lined up on the DC Beltway overpasses.
I wish there had been this sort of energy about keeping the Orange Turd out of the White House last November but better late than never.
I am begging those who sat home last election..please remember these years and vote. Vote the midterms, and if we make it..for God’s sake vote om the next Presidential election. This can never happen again.