Americans across all 50 US states marched in protests against the Trump administration on Saturday, aligning behind a message that the country is sliding into authoritarianism and there should be no kings in the US.
Millions turned out for the No Kings protests, the second iteration of a coalition that marched in June in one of the largest days of protest in US history.
Events were scheduled for more than 2,700 locations, from small towns to large cities, reflecting a decentralisation in an anti-Donald Trump movement that focused on demonstrations in Washington, DC, during his first presidency.
The rallies are a turnaround from just six months ago, when Democrats seemed at a loss as to how to counter Republicans’ grip of the White House and both houses of Congress after stinging national election losses.
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“What we are seeing from the Democrats is some spine,” Ezra Levin, a co-founder of Indivisible, a key organising group, told the Associated Press. “The worst thing the Democrats could do right now is surrender.”
There are concerns protesters may be targeted for federal government surveillance. This could involve a range of technology including facial recognition and phone hacking.
“Under previous administrations, law enforcement surveillance of peaceful demonstrations was already commonplace and corrosive of free expression,” said Ryan Shapiro, executive director of government transparency group Property of the People.
“Given Trump’s open hostility to even minor dissent, such surveillance now poses an existential threat to what remains of American democracy and only underscores the need for mass protest.”
In Chicago, at Grant Park’s Butler Field, at least 10,000 people assembled, many with signs opposing federal immigration agents or mocking Mr Trump.
Some of them said Hands Off Chicago, a rallying cry that began when the president first announced his intent to send the national guard into the city. Others read Resist Fascism.
Chicago’s mayor, Brandon Johnson, told the crowd the Trump administration had “decided that they want a rematch of the civil war”, which the white supremacist Confederacy lost to the Union in the 19th century.
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“We are here to stand firm and stand committed that we will not bend, we will not bow, we will not cower, we will not submit,” Mr Johnson said. “We do not want troops in our city.”
More than 200,000 Washington, DC-area residents rallied near the US Capitol. In many cities, protesters wore inflatable animal costumes – a theme created during immigration enforcement protests in Portland, Oregon, to counter the administration’s narrative of a city under the grip of lawlessness and chaos.
In Santa Fe, New Mexico, costumed characters included unicorns, chickens and frogs. “It’s about the absurdity of it all,” resident Amy Adler told the Santa Fe New Mexican while wearing a lobster suit she described as an ode to Portland.
In Georgia, at least 10,000 people had filled the field of the Atlanta Civic Center in preparation for a march to the state capital by mid-morning.
“I heard an American president stand up the other day and say to generals in our military that we’ve got to stand up against the enemy within,” said the US senator Raphael Warnock of Georgia.
“I don’t care what your politics are. If you are an American citizen, you should be deeply concerned,” Mr Warnock said. He warned about the presence of federal law enforcement “showing up in communities all across our country.
“What the hell is happening? And all of us have to be concerned.”
The Trump administration on Friday asked the US supreme court to permit the deployment of national guard troops to Illinois, as the president pushed to expand the domestic use of the military in a growing number of Democratic-led cities.
In an emergency filing to the supreme court, the justice department urged the court to overturn a lower-court ruling that halted the deployment of several hundred national guard troops to the Chicago area. The district judge had raised doubts about the administration’s justification for sending troops.
A federal appeals court upheld the lower court’s decision on Thursday, keeping the deployment on hold while the legal challenge proceeds.
Late on Friday evening, US district judge Sara Ellis ordered federal officers to use body cameras. She said those officers trained and equipped with body-worn cameras must turn them on while conducting immigration enforcement activity, including during interactions with the public.
Mr Trump has already sent national guard units to Chicago and Portland, following earlier deployments to Los Angeles, Memphis, and Washington, DC. The US president has argued that military intervention is needed to curb unrest and bolster immigration enforcement.
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The US president and his supporters have portrayed these cities as dangerous and overwhelmed by violent demonstrations, framing the military’s role as essential to restoring order.
Democratic officials have pushed back sharply, saying the president’s claims are greatly exaggerated and politically motivated. They accuse Mr Trump of misusing his authority to punish opponents.
Judges have also voiced scepticism about the administration’s depiction of events. Local leaders say protests over immigration enforcement have been mostly small and peaceful, contradicting Mr Trump’s characterisation of “war zone” conditions. – Guardian/Reuters
