PHILADELPHIA—Dwarfing Donald Trump’s D.C. parade, at least five million people, including tens of thousands of unionists, turned out for massive “No Kings Day” protests nationwide on June 14 in response to what many deem as the president’s drive to destroy democracy with his dictatorial actions. The estimated crowd of only 50,000 at the military parade dwindled further in the evening as rain showers forced the cancellation of the air show by fighter jets.
The crowds peacefully marching and rallying to protect immigrants and save democracy were two-and-a-half times the projections by No Kings Day organizers, who had expected two million.
Indivisible.org and the Teachers/AFT led the organizing for what may well have been the largest ever nationwide protests. Other sponsors included the Communications Workers, the Postal Workers, retirees of New York City’s AFSCME District Council 37, the Federal Unionists Network, Federal Workers Against DOGE, the Labor Campaign for Single Payer, and the United Electrical Workers.
Those unions and union-allied groups, plus Al Sharpton’s National Action Network, the Progressive Democrats of America, and others, marched and rallied in more than 2,000 locations across the country.
The crowd in Chicago filled Daley Plaza shoulder to shoulder and surrounded the Civic Center on all four sides, filling those streets, too, and stretching for blocks adjacent to them in all four directions.
Turnouts like that led Teachers/AFT President Randi Weingarten to laud “the scale, power, and the solidarity of this movement.”
The millions of marchers in the morning and afternoon dwarfed Trump’s military parade down D.C.’s Constitution Avenue in the evening. He demanded 250,000 people, but got fewer. Capping off the disappointment of the MAGA forces was Mother Nature, wielding a thunderstorm, grounding the Air Force jets that were supposed to provide pageantry at the end of the day.
Tanks, troop carriers, and 6,600 soldiers paraded. The tanks tore up city streets, leaving D.C. holding the bag for the cost of repairs. Thanks to the GOP Congress, D.C. has had its budget, all from local tax dollars, cut by $1 billion.
“Working people need our leaders in power to work for them. Wasting $45 million on a Trump birthday parade does nothing to help working families lower their costs, keep their health care, or pay their bills,” the AFL-CIO tweeted in support of the protest marches across the country. Two federation constituency groups, the Union Veterans Council and Pride@Work, also endorsed No Kings Day.
The AFL-CIO tweet, while true, did not mention Trump’s constant defiance of the laws, the U.S. Constitution, the courts, and Congress.
A major point of contention for the millions marching was his use of the Marines, the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents, and anyone else he could co-opt to repress dissent. The forces, often unidentified secret police, grab people from their cars, burst into schools, houses of worship, and hospitals and courts, then drag all of them off to detention centers near and far.
The Service Employees directly hit that point in a tweet. “We don’t just fight for better wages. Workers fight for democracy. We fight for our right to organize, to vote, to be heard. When we lift and strengthen our voices, we strengthen our democracy,” it said.
“We have to change the way we talk in this country. And part of that is how we create pluralism, not polarization,” AFT’s Weingarten said in a conversation with Al Sharpton of the National Action Network.
Trump’s stated reason for his parade was to celebrate the 250th anniversary of the founding of the U.S. Army, but many assert that his real reason was that June 14 is his birthday. It’s also Flag Day.
The call by protest organizers for peaceful marches was heeded as the people showed that millions in the streets can and did avoid confrontations with white supremacists and other racists, with the police, with ICE agents, and assorted others. The marchers kept the peace, but in several instances—tragically in Minnesota this weekend— some on the right did not.
In the Twin Cities, gunman Vance Boelter, disguised as a police officer, gained entry into the homes of two Democratic state legislators and their spouses that morning, before marches began. Both lawmakers, like the peaceful “No Kings Day” marchers, support the U.S. Constitution and the rights of migrants to the U.S. to live freely and peaceably here.
Boelter murdered former State House Speaker Melissa Hortman and her husband, Mark, and severely wounded State Sen. John Hoffman and his spouse, Yvette. Yvette Hoffman is a union member with Education Minnesota, the state’s joint AFT-NEA affiliate.
Pulled out an AR-15
In Salt Lake City, Arturo Gamboa pulled out an AR-15 semi-automatic assault rifle. Police and security wounded him, but not before the spray of bullets killed a bystander during the No Kings Day march there.
The murdered former House Speaker, Hortman, “embodied our core values and wore them on her sleeve during her 20 years in public service,” Minnesota AFL-CIO President Bernie Burnham and Secretary-Treasurer Brad Lehto said. “As Speaker, she led the way in passing the most expansive pro-labor legislation in more than a generation,” including paid family and medical leave, earned safe and sick time, and better collective bargaining rights.
Under Hortman’s leadership, state lawmakers also banned firms from mandating workers attend anti-union captive audience meetings. “Her legacy will live on for generations thanks to everything she did for working Minnesotans and our families,” the duo added.
“Violence has no place in our political discourse. In a democratic republic, we work out our disagreements through public debate and expressing our rights to peacefully protest injustice. We unequivocally condemn this and any other act of political violence and hope those responsible face justice for this terrible act.”
Laborers President Brent Booker called the murders and woundings “a horrific act of political violence that must never be tolerated in a society that calls itself a civilized democracy.”
Communications Workers District 7 Vice President Susie McAllister, whose area includes Minnesota, said, “Hortman fought for Minnesota’s workers and retirees every day. Under her leadership [lawmakers] made a real difference for working people and our families…Her solidarity and her accomplishments will not be forgotten, and we will continue the fight in her name.”
Elsewhere, despite some arrests, marchers were peaceful, even while the ICE agents, Marines, and National Guard Trump sent to Los Angeles a week ago again shot tear gas at crowds. Denver police warned marchers not to block an interstate highway. When some tried, the police fired pepper balls and arrested five people. An estimated 20,000 marched there.
In Detroit, more than 5,000 people marched peacefully from Clark Park to the ICE headquarters downtown and then back.
Mayce, a recent high school graduate, told People’s World why she attended Detroit’s rally and march: “My parents. They’re immigrants. I’m a first-gen. I’m here for them to voice their rights. They’re pretty scared of the political climate going on. I’m trying to speak out for them.”
“It’s great. There were more people than I thought there would be. People even from Canada came out and showed up. I’ve seen, honestly, just a bunch of white people showing up [to support immigrants], which is amazing.” Mayce asked her parents not to attend because she didn’t want to risk having ICE grab them.
An attorney, who was active in the anti-apartheid movement, said marching this time “is necessary, really. We can’t just lie down and let this guy [Trump] do whatever he wants. There needs to be something done…I wish there were more people here. Everybody should get involved.”
Good for nothing
“I never thought this guy would be good for anything, even before he was president,” the attorney continued. “The fact that people voted for him just shows you how messed up things are.” The next march must be bigger, he added. That will take “inclusion of other people, talking to other people about what they think about politics and what’s been going on here lately…informing people about what’s going on. I’m shocked about how people don’t even look at the news.
“They don’t even care. Educate people about civics. What does it mean not to be able to vote, have your vote be meaningless, not to have the freedom to say what you want? These things are essential to a democratic government. Especially this one.”
Among the protesters in Chicago was Rep. Jesus “Chuy” Garcia, D-Ill., a progressive and pro-worker lawmaker who represents a heavily Latino district. “We join with the American people to take our country back. The rally and demonstration [are] for democracy and the rule of law and to end the attacks on so many people who are being targeted…against their constitutional rights. This is Flag Day,” he said, “and we don’t allow kings in America. Today we’re showing the power of our people united in resistance for democracy.”
“We’re in a situation that is a crisis that is deepening every day, with weaponization of the military against people, with the kidnapping and disappearing of our neighbors, with the stealing of our resources to give to billionaires,” Kathy Tholin, board chair of Indivisible Chicago, told WBEZ public radio.
“And this is an opportunity for Chicago to say, ‘No, we don’t have kings in this country. We don’t want chaos and cruelty. And we don’t want this country to be in the service of billionaires,’” Tholin noted.
Big urban centers were not the only places to see demonstrations on Saturday. Compared to previous mobilizations, the fight to defend democracy this time extended far deeper into the rural heartland of the country.
Even in so-called red states like Arkansas, there were demonstrations in places no one expected to see them. In Sebastian County, where Trump carried nearly 70% of the vote last year, more than 700 people lined the main avenue in Fort Smith urging people to, as one sign put it, “Unite against fascism.” More than a dozen more rallies were held around the state in small towns and cities.
North of the border, there were also marches in several cities across Canada, especially those with sizeable American expat populations. Branded as “No Tyrants Day” rather than No Kings Day, so the public wouldn’t confuse the anti-Trump events as anti-King Charles III demonstrations, Toronto’s event saw hundreds of people converge on the U.S. Consulate before marching to Queen’s Park, the Ontario legislature.
One woman from New York, Susan, told the crowd she was upset when a work trip came up that would keep her from attending her local No Kings Day protest. “This is such an important day, I had to be in the streets wherever I happen to find myself,” she said, “so I’m so happy there is a march here in Toronto to stand up for democracy.”
Edward, a Canadian, said even though he’s not a U.S. citizen like many in the crowd were, he believed it was important to stand up against fascism wherever it arises. “Whenever the U.S. moves to the right, Canada and other countries often follow, so we have to stand together no matter what country we are in or where we are from,” he said.
Back in the U.S., in Geneva, Ill., chants of “No kings in America” and “This is what democracy looks like” were joined by constant supportive honking from passing motorists and trucks. “People are mad, and people are ready to speak out,” Sharon Riggle, who leads Batavia-Aurora Area Indivisible, told the Chicago Tribune. “This is bigger than anything we’ve had before.”
The same thing happened in the close-in D.C. suburb of Chevy Chase, Md. No Kings Day organizers told their supporters to stay out of the central city, which in any case resembled an armed camp. Some 5,000 people headed to Alexandria, Va., while the boisterous Chevy Chase crowd of several hundred produced a cacophony of constant supportive honking and a blocks-long rush-hour-like traffic jam at the major intersection of Connecticut Avenue and East-West Highway.
“I’ve gone to a couple of protests, and this one I could not miss,” a retired veteran attorney for the Teamsters told People’s World. He also claimed union President Sean O’Brien, in a recent speech to the union’s lawyers’ conference, “is getting disgusted” with Trump’s recent actions. O’Brien has boasted of his contacts with Trump.
No Kings in D.C, No Marines in L.A.
“No Kings in D.C. No Marines in L.A.,” one Chevy Chase sign read. “Stop the bully,” another declared. “I’m out here out of general respect for the law, not a reality-show politician,” the sign-waving woman said. Another woman, a former teacher, wore a court jester’s hat and waved a sign declaring “The emperor has no clothes, no morals, and no shame.”
“Why are we letting billionaires with untreated mental illness and weak leadership skills wreck our country?” asked yet another sign in Chevy Chase. Her sign refers to Trump’s erratic judgment and former top Trump advisor and DOGE-head, Elon Musk.
“I can’t talk about this. It’s too painful,” she said.
One sign in Chevy Chase even proposed a deal involving Trump’s MAGAites and the migrants the president wants to evict from the country. “Will trade racists for refugees,” her sign said.
“We had a revolution to establish oversight over the government,” said retiree LoRe Alden. “The government is there to serve the people. But they’re turning it into a kleptocracy.”
One sign said simply, “I don’t have enough room on this sign” for all of Trump’s offenses. Another produced a long list: “Hands off my body. Hands off my choice. Hands off my job. Hands off our lives. Hands off our future. Hands off our money. Hands off our freedom.”
“ICE is better when it’s crushed,” another sign in nearby downtown Bethesda read. That protest drew around 200 people, massed in front of a building housing a Trump enabler: Fox-owned-and-operated local TV station WTTG.
No Kings Denver organizer Jennifer Bradley said 20,000 people attended the demonstration and marches through the city. Helicopter footage from 9News showed a column of marchers eight city blocks long. One marcher carried an effigy of Trump in a toilet with a plunger on his head. His sign read: “Dethrone Trump.” There were also No Kings Day marches even in rural red towns.
One marcher in Philadelphia dressed as Tom Paine. That Revolutionary War pamphleteer’s opening words were “These are the times that try men’s souls.”
And later in that same paragraph, Paine declared, “Tyranny, like hell, is not easily conquered. Yet we have this consolation before us: That the harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph.”
A woman’s sign in Bethesda, Md., harkened back to opposition to the Indochina War. She changed a familiar chant of anti-war forces to “Hey, hey, Donald J., how many kids did you deport today?” The old chant, circa 1967, was “Hey, hey, LBJ, how many kids did you kill today?”
A second sign in Bethesda read “No free pass for Jan. 6 rioters,” referring to Trump’s mass pardon of the 1,500 indicted and convicted insurrectionists who stormed the U.S. Capitol—to keep him in office—almost four and a half years ago.
Cameron Harrison and C.J. Atkins contributed to this story.
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