Thousands march through Portland, Oregon, after speeches from local officials and organizers as part of No Kings Day demonstrations nationwide on Saturday, June 14, 2025. (Photo by Alex Baumhardt / Oregon Capital Chronicle)

With the nation’s capital hosting multimillion-dollar celebrations and a parade marking the U.S. Army’s 250th anniversary and President Donald Trump’s birthday Saturday, huge No Kings demonstrations blanketed the country from coast to coast to protest the president’s actions that have left thousands without jobs and diminished government services.

Mac Farish, who was visiting Topeka, Kansas, from Portland, Oregon, said she felt joy to see hundreds of people attend a No Kings rally in a red state.

“A lot of people here might be lifelong Republicans, but we’re standing here together because there is a line where tyranny shows up,” Farish said.

Protesters rallied at more than 1,500 sites across the country as of mid-afternoon, according to No Kings national organizers, with 600 more events scheduled.

In Arizona, Phoenix resident Cindy Mendoza, 31, came to the Tempe rally with the colors of the Mexican flag painted on her face. She said that her family’s legal status in the country is mixed.

“We’re here to speak for those who can’t speak,” she said. “We love America. We love your people.”

Mendoza said that the recent immigration raids have created fear in her community.

“Some friends in construction … they went to the gas station and they got picked up,” Mendoza said. “They were up early heading to work, they stopped by the gas station to get gas and water, and they were taken.”

Repeated bursts of drenching rain Saturday didn’t deter thousands of Hoosiers amassing at the Indiana Statehouse.

“Our immigrants are not getting their due process and people are being snatched out of their schools and workplaces. We’re worried that equality is not (getting) attention too,” said Rhonda Clair. “We just want people to be treated with dignity and respect and we’re not seeing that.”

Nebraska Gov. Jim Pillen issued a state of emergency and activated the National Guard ahead of No Kings events, citing the reaction to recent U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement operations.

Still, around 2,000 people turned out in Lincoln, Nebraska, for a peaceful protest, and at least 11 other cities were part of the demonstrations statewide.

Trenton Morales, 17, said he came out to protest against the workplace immigration raid in Omaha this week and other similar raids nationally.

“My grandpa recently got deported,” Morales said. “That’s one reason why I’m out here.”

E.J. Martinez Elementary teacher Jennifer Lopez carried a sign in Santa Fe, New Mexico, that read, “I’m here for my students who are living in fear.”

“It’s not only about immigration,” she said. “It’s also trans students; students who have gay parents. It’s all women. We’ve had families who are worried about bringing their kids to school when this all started. We’ll see what it’s like when the school year starts again. I’ve had kids who have had a lot of anxiety about the rights for trans kids being taken away.”

What does she tell them?

“We just have to have hope and to fight,” she said.

In Colorado, Emily Baxter, a 23-year-old Boulder resident, said she also joined the Denver protest to object to the Trump administration’s extreme immigration enforcement actions.

“I am very, very mad about all of the people being taken off of the street and those who are going to work and not coming home and the children who are losing their parents and losing their livelihood,” Baxter said.

The protest comes after multiple demonstrations in Denver against deportation efforts by Immigration and Customs Enforcement, including a march to an ICE detention center in Aurora on Monday and a large gathering at the Capitol on Tuesday evening. Law enforcement deployed smoke and pepper balls against a group of protesters that marched near the interchange of Broadway and Interstate 25 on Tuesday and made 18 arrests related to the demonstration.

Thousands rallied peacefully in downtown Anchorage, Alaska, along with at least 18 communities across the state. Community advocates gave speeches calling to protect democracy, equal rights and due process, followed by a march a few blocks to the Park Strip where a Juneteenth celebration was kicking off.

Tessa Gonzalez, a pediatrician, attended the demonstration of thousands at the Statehouse grounds in Columbia, South Carolina. Her 8-year-old daughter and potential cuts to Medicaid moved her family to join the rally. The child has a rare genetic mutation and requires a specialized wheelchair.

“My daughter, 100% depends on Medicaid to provide the medicine, equipment — everything that she needs to lead a happy, healthy life,” Gonzalez said. “So it’s essential.”

Protesters in Georgia evoked the name of civil rights icon Martin Luther King Jr. during a rally near the Gold Dome in Atlanta with signs that read, “Our only king is MLK Jr.!!!” 

Anna Yousaf, an infectious disease doctor who works with vaccines at the CDC, told the Georgia Recorder she came out to oppose Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who she said is undermining public trust in vaccines to deadly effect.

“Disinformation used to be coming from non-governmental sources,” she said. “Now, RFK Jr. is hijacking political organizations like the CDC, like the FDA, and using our name brand, if you will, to spread disinformation. And so people who would ordinarily go to a CDC resource for trusted information, now they’re going to get disinformation from the health secretary of the United States.”

“If he succeeds in his crusade to undermine vaccine confidence and restrict access, we will see thousands of people die, mostly children,” she added.

Massive crowds crossed the Broadway Street bridge in Little Rock, Arkansas, where 15 demonstrations were expected across the state.

“June 14, Flag Day, is when President Donald Trump is holding a military parade in the nation’s capital, wasting tens of millions of taxpayer dollars as a birthday gift to himself while his administration defies checks on his power, undermines our civil rights and tries to strip away essential benefits from veterans, seniors, hungry children and others,” Indivisible NWA, the organizers of the No Kings protest in Fayetteville, Arkansas, said in a press release.

The No Kings protests top off a week of mostly nonviolent demonstrations building around the country in response to ICE raids and in solidarity with Los Angeles, where Trump sent troops in defiance of Democratic California Gov. Gavin Newsom. U.S. Sen. Alex Padilla, D-California, was forcibly removed and handcuffed by federal authorities Thursday during Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem’s press conference in Los Angeles. Thousands gathered across the city for demonstrations opposing ICE and Trump policies anyway.

In Maine, Democratic U.S. Rep. Chellie Pingree attended a rally in York, handing out red roses to marchers. “People are angry. They want to know what to do, want to do something. They want to fight back,” she said.

Craig Carscallen from Lyman, Maine, said, “I hope it influences our elected officials, if they want to get reelected.”

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis posted one message on social media Saturday, not mentioning the crowd outside his office but rather Army anniversary. “As Americans, we carry the sacred duty to remember, to reflect, and to protect the freedoms that generations of our countrymen have fought to secure.”

Nikki Fried, chair of the Florida Democratic Party, appeared in Tallahassee and posted video comments on social media. “I’m standing on the Old Capitol steps as hundreds and hundreds of Americans are here showing up today to tell Donald Trump, ‘No Kings in America.’ We’re going to fight for our Constitution, fight for our democracy,” she said.

Saturday’s protests coincided with the 250th anniversary of the Army. A military parade marked the occasion in D.C., where critics have blasted the parade’s cost and optics as Congress weighs the budget reconciliation package that proposes massive cuts to safety net programs.

Earlier this week, Trump said that protests at the Army parade “will be met with very heavy force.”

The U.S. Capitol Police told States Newsroom that protesters were arrested outside the Capitol late Friday after they pushed down bike rack barriers around the building and began running for the Rotunda steps. Veterans for Peace, a group that organized the demonstration, posted photos of the arrests on social media and of several demonstrators wearing “Veterans Against Fascists” t-shirts. Among those arrested was an elderly Vietnam veteran using a walker, Capitol Police confirmed.

Niki Kelly and Whitney Downard of Indiana Capital Chronicle, Ainsley Platt of Arkansas Advocate, Sara Wilson of Colorado Newsline, Corrine Smith of Alaska Beacon, Julia Goldberg of Source New Mexico, Sherman Smith of Kansas Reflector, Ross Williams of Georgia Recorder, Cassandra Stephenson of Tennessee Lookout, Juan Salinas of Nebraska Examiner, Michael Moline of Florida Phoenix, Jessica Holdman of South Carolina Daily Gazette, Jerod MacDonald-Avoy, Gloria Rebecca Gomez and Emily Holshouser of Arizona Mirror, and Jane Norman of States Newsroom’s D.C. Bureau contributed to this report.