Crowds gather at anti-Trump “No Kings” rallies across the U.S., worldwide

by | Oct 18, 2025 | Health | 0 comments

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Crowds hit the streets Saturday in cities and towns across the country to vent their anger over President Trump’s policies in “No Kings” protests, which Republicans have slammed as “Hate America” rallies.

People carrying signs with slogans such as “Nothing is more patriotic than protesting” or “Resist Fascism” packed into New York City’s Times Square and rallied by the thousands in parks in Boston, Atlanta and Chicago. Demonstrators marched through Washington and downtown Los Angeles and picketed outside capitols in several Republican-led states, a courthouse in Billings, Montana, and at hundreds of smaller public spaces.  

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People participate in a “No Kings” national day of protest in New York on Oct. 18, 2025. 

TIMOTHY A.CLARY/AFP via Getty Images


Mr. Trump’s Republican Party disparaged the demonstrations as “Hate America” rallies, but in many places the events looked more like a street party. There were marching bands, huge banners with the U.S. Constitution’s “We The People” preamble that people could sign, and demonstrators wearing inflatable costumes, particularly frogs, which have emerged as a sign of resistance in Portland, Oregon.  

More than 2,700 demonstrations were planned coast to coast, with at least one in every state and even near Mr. Trump’s Mar-a-Lago residence in Florida, where he is spending the weekend. 

Organizers said the nationwide rally drew more people than similar events on June 14, which was Mr. Trump’s birthday and the day of a giant military parade in the U.S. capital, the No Kings Coalition said in a news release.

“The millions of people protesting are centered around a fierce love for our country. A country that we believe is worth fighting for,” said Katie Bethell, the executive director of MoveOn, an advocacy group that’s part of the larger coalition.

Protestors said they were outraged over the Trump administration’s crackdown on undocumented migrants and its deployment of National Guard troops to Los Angeles.

Since then, Mr. Trump — who returned to the White House in January — has ordered National Guard troops into Washington, D.C. and Memphis. Planned deployments to Chicago and Portland have so far been blocked in the courts.

Demonstrators are also upset over Mr. Trump’s attacks on the media, prosecutions of his political opponents and a host of other actions they see as authoritarian.

On its website, “No Kings” organizers say, “The president thinks his rule is absolute. But in America, we don’t have kings and we won’t back down against chaos, corruption, and cruelty.”

“This president is a disgrace and I hope there will be millions in the street today,” Stephanie, a 36-year-old hospital worker who did not give her last name, told AFP in the Queens borough of New York, where hundreds had already gathered in the morning.

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A person dressed in a Statue of Liberty costume participates in a “No Kings” national day of protest in New York on Oct. 18, 2025.

TIMOTHY A.CLARY/AFP via Getty Images


Tens of thousands of people gathered in Portland for a peaceful demonstration downtown. Later in the day, tensions grew as a few hundred protesters and counterprotesters showed up at a U.S. Immigration and Customs enforcement building, with federal agents at times firing tear gas to disperse the crowd and city police threatening to make arrests if demonstrators blocked streets.  

The building has been the site of mostly small nightly protests since June — the reason the Trump administration has cited for trying to deploy National Guard troops in Portland, which a federal judge has at least temporarily blocked.

More than 10,000 people showed up at Lafitte Greenway for the No King New Orleans rally, organizers told CBS News. When asked about how numbers were counted, they said it was based on RSVPs online and other on-the-ground crowd-counting measures.

In Chicago’s Grant Park, Democratic Congresswoman Delia Ramirez led the crowd in a chant, “When I say people, you say power!”

“May that powerful voice be heard from here to Washington, D.C., and every corner of this country,” Ramirez said, CBS Chicago reported. “I am the proud daughter of Guatemalan immigrants, and I will never be ashamed of my roots.”

Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker joined the demonstration.

Second Round Of No Kings Protests Sweep The U.S.

Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker joins the demonstrators during the second “No Kings” protest on Oct. 18, 2025, in Chicago, Illinois.

Joe Raedle / Getty Images


In San Francisco hundreds of people spelled out “No King!” and other phrases with their bodies on Ocean Beach. Hayley Wingard, who was dressed as the Statue of Liberty, said she too had never been to a protest before. Only recently she began to view Trump as a “dictator.”

“I was actually OK with everything until I found that the military invasion in Los Angeles and Chicago and Portland — Portland bothered me the most, because I’m from Portland, and I don’t want the military in my cities. That’s scary,” Wingard said.

In Miami, one demonstrator told CBS Miami that she showed up to give voice to those who feel the most marginalized in the country.

“I’m most worried about people who aren’t doing well in this country, people who are being marginalized,” said Roxanne Featherly. “The hate [and] I guess you can say the bipolarism that we have.”

More than 1,500 people gathered in Birmingham, Alabama, evoking and openly citing the city’s history of protests and the critical role it played in the U.S. Civil Rights Movement two generations ago, the Associated Press reported.

“It just feels like we’re living in an America that I don’t recognize,” Jessica Yother, a mother of four, told the AP. “It was so encouraging. I walked in and thought, ‘Here are my people.'”

Outside of the U.S., crowds gathered outside U.S. embassies in Berlin, Rome, Paris and Sweden in solidarity with the protesters in the U.S. Photos show them holding signs denouncing fascism and dictatorships.

Anti-Trump 'No Kings' Protest Held In Italy

Democrats Abroad, the global arm of the American Democratic Party, protest with signs against President Trump’s policies during a “No Kings” protest against the U.S. President at Piazza Santi Apostoli, on Oct. 18, 2025, in Rome, Italy.

Simona Granati – Corbis/Corbis via Getty Images


Anti-Trump 'No Kings' Protests Held In The UK

A crowd of mainly American anti-Trump protesters holds signs outside the US Embassy in London during a “No Kings” protest against President Trump on Oct. 18, 2025, in London, England.

Guy Smallman / Getty Images


So far, the president’s response to the events has been muted.

“They’re saying they’re referring to me as a king. I’m not a king,” he told Fox News show “Sunday Morning Futures,” in an interview that will air on Sunday.

But top surrogates, like House Speaker Mike Johnson, dismissed the event. Johnson called it the “Hate America Rally.”

“You’re going to bring together the Marxists, the Socialists, the Antifa advocates, the anarchists and the pro-Hamas wing of the far-left Democrat Party,” he told reporters.

Republican lawmaker Tom Emmer also used the “Hate America” phrase and referred to participants as the “terrorist wing” of the Democratic Party. Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin activated the National Guard and announced a “substantially increased police presence” ahead of the planned events. He said that protestors have the right to free speech but that “does not include the destruction of property, looting, vandalism, disruption of traffic, or violence of any kind—for which there will be zero tolerance.” Texas Gov. Greg Abbott also said the National Guard and public safety employees will be surged to Austin to handle expected protests. 

Top Democratic Senator Chuck Schumer encouraged demonstrators to let their voices be heard.

“I say to my fellow Americans this No Kings Day: Do not let Donald Trump and Republicans intimidate you into silence. That’s what they want to do. They’re afraid of the truth,” he wrote on X. “Speak out, use your voice, and exercise your right to free speech.”

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Protestors gather in New Orleans for No Kings Protest on Saturday, Oct. 18, 2025.

Franz Barraza




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