The No Kings movement claimed a record turnout for this third day of mobilization against the president within a year, with at least eight million protesters in over 330 marches. This marked an increase of one million participants and 600 additional marches compared to the previous day in October last year. The movement has become the largest source of opposition since the return of the billionaire president to the White House. American authorities have not provided any official figures.
“We believe that the Constitution is threatened in multiple ways. The situation is not normal, not acceptable. That is why we are here, to help keep people safe and ensure that their voice is heard,” said Marc McCaughey, a 36-year-old veteran protesting in Atlanta, Georgia. In Washington, near the White House, 67-year-old Robert Pavosevich believes that Donald Trump “is just lying.” “I think more and more people are angry, and I think things will slowly change,” he said. Meanwhile, the American president played golf at his private club in Florida on Saturday afternoon.
In Michigan, Lansing, a protester held a sign that read “No kings, no ICE (immigration police), no war.” Tens of thousands of people marched in the streets of New York, where actor Robert De Niro, a fierce critic of Donald Trump, led the march. “Other presidents have tested the constitutional limits of their power, but none has represented such an existential threat to our freedoms and security. It must be stopped,” he urged. Across the Atlantic, in Rome, Amsterdam, Madrid, and Athens, there were also rallies against the American president.
Minneapolis, the epicenter earlier this year of the US government’s anti-immigration offensive, was chosen as the focal point of Saturday’s mobilization, with its twin city, Saint Paul, where 200,000 people demonstrated, according to No Kings. Rock legend Bruce Springsteen performed his song “Streets of Minneapolis,” written in tribute to two Americans who fell under the bullets of federal agents during immigration police operations, Renee Good and Alex Pretti. At the podium in the democratic Midwest city, Minnesota Governor Tim Walz thanked the population for opposing a “dictator in the making” like Donald Trump.
