Saturday’s ‘No Kings’ Protest Draws Record Turnout

More than 8 million attendees joined the March 28 protest, according to organizers, making it the largest single-day political demonstration in American history

Photo by G. Edward Johnson on Wikimedia Commons

Huge crowds took to the streets in defiance of the Trump administration on Saturday, drawing an estimated 8 million people across 3,300 separate ‘No Kings’ protests.

Bolstered by Trump’s costly war of choice against Iran and the deaths of Alex Pretti and Renee Nicole Good at the hands of federal agents in Minneapolis, the third and latest round of demonstrations exceeded turnout records and even attracted an international following.

“Millions of us took to the streets for No Kings on March 28th and made it clear: we don’t do kings; not now, not ever,” the movement boasts on its website.

While the protests attracted millions of people from towns and cities across the U.S. and Europe, the flagship event in St. Paul, Minnesota, took center stage, featuring speeches and performances from high-profile figures such as Senator Bernie Sanders, Bruce Springsteen, and Jane Fonda.

“We will not allow this country to descend into authoritarianism or oligarchy in America,” Sanders declared. “We, the people, will rule.”

Likewise, Springsteen performed his anti-immigration enforcement song “Streets of Minneapolis,” which he wrote to memorialize Good and Pretti, who were killed in Minnesota at the beginning of the year while legally observing ICE operations.

“Your strength and your commitment told us that this was still America,” he told protesters. “And this reactionary nightmare, and these invasions of American cities, will not stand.”

Event organizers were particularly impressed by the scope of the protests, which spanned all 50 states and mobilized citizens from all walks of life, including rural and typically conservative areas.

“One thing that might be of interest, as far as what happens in the midterms, [is that] there were more people and more protests in Alaska, in Nebraska, in Iowa, In North Carolina, in Michigan, in Georgia, in Maine, in Texas — the states that we’re going to need to win,” Indivisible co-founder Ezra Levin told MSNOW.

Levin also pointed out that a large share of the demonstrators who showed up on Saturday had never participated in a protest before, including people who are not ordinarily engaged in politics or voting.

“Maybe they didn’t like the political system at all, didn’t like Democrats or Republicans,” he explained. “These are going to be the same folks who are showing up, not just to vote, but to get out the vote and to protect the results when Donald Trump tries to sabotage them.”

As Donald Trump and Republicans in Congress are plotting to rig the results in November — either by nationalizing voting through the SAVE Act or deploying federal agents to polling places — ‘No Kings’ organizers want their members to remain active and vigilant.

“Trump is facing down a midterm election that he knows he is going to lose because people hate this mad king business,” said Indivisible co-founder Leah Greenberg. “He’s going to try to steal it, but he’s going to fail because we are going to stop him.”

Republicans have repeatedly downplayed the significance of the protests, but the numbers don’t lie. Americans are tired of this administration’s broken promises and are standing up to the president’s abuses of power from every street corner. If voters take the same energy to the polls in November, there will be no way to stop this movement, no matter how hard the regime tries.

“We’ve got to convert this great energy into electoral success,” added Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison. “We got into this mess because of an election, and we’re going to help get ourselves out of it through an election.”

And while there is no set date for the next national ‘No Kings’ protest, organizers aren’t letting up any time soon. Harnessing the momentum from Saturday’s record turnout, they plan to follow up with additional activities on May Day, with more details soon to come.

To learn more about the next steps, consider attending the movement’s virtual mass call scheduled for Tuesday, March 31st.

No matter what Republicans say, there is nothing more patriotic than standing up to a mad king. Donald Trump might view himself as a divine-right monarch, but over this past weekend, over 8 million Americans peacefully assembled to say otherwise.

Now, it’s time to take that same energy to the ballot box.

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