Demonstrators crowded into parks and plazas across the U.S. Saturday to rally against President Donald Trump as officials urged calm and mobilized National Guard troops ahead a military parade to mark the Army’s 250th anniversary that coincides with the president’s birthday.
Atlanta’s 5,000-capacity “No Kings” rally quickly reached its limit, with thousands more demonstrators outside the barrier in front of the state Capitol and a handful of counterprotesters leaving before the rally finished.
Intermittent light rain fell as sign-carrying marchers gathered for the flagship rally in Philadelphia’s Love Park, where a woman wearing a foam Statue of Liberty crown brought a speaker system and led an anti-Trump sing-along, changing the words “young man” in the song “Y.M.C.A.” to “con man.”
Karen Van Trieste, a 61-year-old nurse who drove up from Maryland, said she grew up in Philadelphia and wanted to be with a large group of people showing her support.
“I just feel like we need to defend our democracy,” she said. She is concerned about the Trump administration’s layoffs of staff at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the fate of immigrant communities and the Trump administration trying to rule by executive order, she said.
In Charlotte, North Carolina, crowds cheered anti-Trump speakers and chanted “we have no kings” while people started to gather in front of Los Angeles City Hall, many carrying American flags as a drum circle began.
Protests are planned in nearly 2,000 locations across the country, from city blocks and small towns to courthouse steps and community parks, organizers said, but no events are scheduled in Washington, D.C., where the military parade will take place in the evening.
The 50501 Movement orchestrating the protests says it picked the “No Kings” name to support democracy and speak out against what they call the authoritarian actions of the Trump administration.The name 50501 stands for 50 states, 50 protests, one movement.
The demonstrations come on the heels of protests that flared up across the country over federal immigration enforcement raids that began last week and Trump ordering the National Guard and Marines to Los Angeles, where protesters blocked a freeway and set cars on fire.
Philadelphia
Several hundred people gathered in a downtown park, with organizers handing out small American flags and many people carrying protest signs saying things like “fight oligarchy” and “deport the mini-Mussolinis” as they waited for the march to start.
Some signs bore immigrant-rights messages, including “The wrong ice is melting” and “Unmask ice.”
A handful of people wore gas masks or balaclavas to cover their faces.
One man in Revolutionary War era garb and a tricorn hat held a sign with a quote often attributed to Thomas Jefferson: “All tyranny needs to gain a foothold is for people of good conscience to remain silent.”
Tallahassee, Florida
About a thousand people gathered on the grounds of Florida’s old Capitol, where protesters chanted, “This is what community looks like,” and carried signs with messages like “one nation under distress” and “dissent is patriotic.”
Organizers of the rally explicitly told the crowd to avoid any conflicts with counterprotesters and to take care not to jaywalk or disrupt traffic.
Calling out the National Guard
Governors and city officials vowed to protect the right to protest and to show no tolerance for violence.
Republican governors in Virginia, Texas, Nebraska and Missouri are mobilizing National Guard troops to help law enforcement manage demonstrations.
There will be “zero tolerance” for violence, destruction or disrupting traffic, and “if you violate the law, you’re going to be arrested,” Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin told reporters Friday.
In Missouri, Gov. Mike Kehoe issued a similar message, vowing to take a proactive approach and not to “wait for chaos to ensue.”
Nebraska’s governor also signed an emergency proclamation Friday to activate his state’s National Guard, a step his office called “a precautionary measure in reaction to recent instances of civil unrest across the country.”
Organizers say that one march will go to the gates of Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida, where Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis warned demonstrators that the “line is very clear” and not to cross it.
Some law enforcement agencies announced they were ramping up efforts for the weekend. In California, state troopers will be on “tactical alert,” which means all days off are canceled for all officers, while West Virginia’s governor put the state police and National Guard on standby.
Governors urging calm
On social media, Washington state Gov. Bob Ferguson, a Democrat, called for peaceful protests over the weekend, to ensure Trump doesn’t send military to the state.
“Donald Trump wants to be able to say that we cannot handle our own public safety in Washington state,” Ferguson said.
In a statement Friday, Arizona Gov. Katie Hobbs, a Democrat, urged protesters “to remain peaceful and calm as they exercise their First Amendment right to make their voices heard.”
Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro, a Democrat, said his administration and state police are working with police in Philadelphia ahead of what organizers estimate could be a crowd approaching 100,000 people.
Philadelphia’s top prosecutor, District Attorney Larry Krasner, warned that anyone coming to Philadelphia to break the law or immigration agents exceeding their authority will face arrest. He invoked civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. as a guide for demonstrators.
“If you are doing what Martin Luther King would have done, you’re going to be fine,” Krasner told a news conference.
