In one of the largest days of protest in U.S. history, an estimated five million people took to the streets on June 14, 2025, to denounce what they called the increasingly authoritarian rule of President Donald Trump. Dubbed the “No Kings” protests, the demonstrations were organized in response to a gaudy military parade held in Washington, D.C., on Trump’s 79th birthday—the same day the U.S. Army marked its 250th anniversary. Protesters in more than 2,000 cities and towns voiced outrage over the administration’s immigration raids, targeting of Democratic cities, attacks on the social safety net, and what organizers described as the symbolic coronation of Trump’s strongman image.
“In America we don’t have kings, and Trump’s abuses of power are generating a counterreaction,” said Joe Dinkin, deputy national director of the Working Families Party. “People are not liking what they are seeing from the administration. They don’t like the attacks on civil rights, the attacks on Medicaid, and the attacks on food assistance that is what is generating enormous backlash.”
The protests were backed by over 200 organizations, including MoveOn, the American Civil Liberties Union, the American Federation of Teachers, and the Communications Workers of America. They were inspired in part by the “3.5 percent principle,” a theory that suggests movements involving at least 3.5 percent of a population have never failed to bring about meaningful change. The goal of the No Kings demonstrations, organizers said, was not just to oppose Trump’s militarism and xenophobia, but to build a broad-based resistance movement capable of confronting and dismantling authoritarianism.
At the center of the backlash was Trump’s long-anticipated military parade, a spectacle that featured tanks, Black Hawk and Apache helicopters, and over 6,000 uniformed troops. According to Army spokesperson Heather J. Hagan, the event came with a price tag of between $25 million and $45 million, including road repairs to accommodate the heavy armored vehicles. The parade also included 34 horses, two mules, and a dog named Doc Holliday.
Critics slammed the parade as a political stunt and an attempt to co-opt the military for Trump’s personal glorification.
“To use the military in this manner when Donald Trump is slashing veterans’ benefits to aggrandize himself, to communicate to the country his control over the military, is just another shameful act of this administration,” said Senator Adam Schiff of California.
Governor Gavin Newsom also condemned the parade, saying, “It’s a vulgar display. It’s the kind of thing you see Kim Jong Un, you see Putin, you see with dictators around the world that are weak.”
Trump, however, relished the moment. Standing before a crowd of supporters and flanked by First Lady Melania Trump and Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, he said, “The Army keeps us free, you make us strong, and tonight you’ve made all Americans very proud. Every other country celebrates their victories. It’s about time America did too. That’s what we’re doing tonight.”
In contrast to the tightly choreographed procession in D.C., protests erupted across the country. Demonstrators in Philadelphia, the symbolic hub of the protests, carried signs reading “No Kings” and “From Palestine to Mexico, border walls have got to go.” In San Francisco, a massive balloon depicting Trump in a diaper towered over the crowd. In Anchorage, Alaska, marchers rallied under the theme “The only king I want is king salmon.”
“Today what I saw was a boisterous, peaceful display of First Amendment rights,” said Ezra Levin, co-founder of Indivisible.
Yet not all protests were without incident. Police in Culpeper, Virginia arrested a man who drove his vehicle into a dispersing crowd. In Washington, D.C., U.S. Capitol Police arrested 60 people who ran toward the Rotunda, charging them with unlawful demonstration, assault, and resisting arrest.
Tensions were particularly high in Los Angeles, where thousands of protesters gathered to oppose Trump’s mass deportation campaign. The administration responded by deploying U.S. Marines and National Guard troops, a move made in defiance of state and local officials. Amid growing unrest, California Senator Alex Padilla attempted to confront Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem at a press conference. He was tackled by officers and handcuffed inside a federal building. Noem later defended the incident, stating that the senator “failed to identify himself.”
The crackdown extended beyond California. In New Jersey, Newark Mayor Ras Baraka and Representative LaMonica McIver were arrested during protests. David Huerta, a union leader in Los Angeles, was also detained while demonstrating peacefully.
“As veterans we were able to break into the mainstream narrative about Trump’s birthday parade and assert that Americans want ‘money for people not parades,’” wrote Brittany Ramos DeBarros of About Face: Veterans Against the War. “These kinds of ‘celebrations’ of military might while our military is being used to terrorize immigrants in LA and starve children in Palestine is beyond grotesque.”
The day after the protests, Trump doubled down. In a social media post, he ordered Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to intensify raids in Democratic strongholds including Los Angeles, Chicago, and New York. Describing these cities as part of a “Democrat Power Center,” he baselessly claimed that undocumented immigrants were being used to expand the Democratic voter base.
The White House has reportedly ordered ICE to ramp up arrests to 3,000 per day, a number that dwarfs the current average of 650 and has been deemed logistically unfeasible by analysts. White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller is said to be the architect behind the escalation.
Trump’s call for expanded raids has also prompted economic concerns. Officials in California have warned that immigration crackdowns in Los Angeles could jeopardize key sectors such as hospitality, agriculture, and meatpacking. Trump acknowledged these concerns in a Truth Social post, but did not walk back the enforcement campaign.
In the face of this intensifying crackdown, organizers of the No Kings movement emphasized the need for ongoing community resistance. Joe Dinkin explained that the next steps vary by region: “In other jurisdictions it might mean stepping up to run for local office yourself, helping to get educated on your rights; it might mean joining economic boycotts out there, such as the Target boycott.”
The Working Families Party, Dinkin said, is supporting 1,000 working-class candidates in local and state elections over the next year. But the movement’s success will depend on rebuilding what he called “relationships of trust”—something he believes has eroded due to media polarization and declining civic engagement.
“It’s Trump and it’s also the media environment that increasingly has people captured in feuds that only tell them what they want to hear, that is growing at the same time as a decline in participation in civic organizations and decline in the strength of the unions,” Dinkin said. “These are the things that really connect us in trusting relationships, and that is what we mean by organizing relationships of trust.”
As protesters packed up their signs and returned home, many were left reflecting on the gravity of the moment.
“I decided to go because I feel like with unchecked authority, Trump has led America into clear fascism,” said Shahera Hyatt of Sacramento.
“I am completely terrified of what’s going on in our country,” said Margo Ross of Watsonville, California. “I believe from the beginning it’s been a coup and a fascist overthrow, and I keep thinking, ‘Well, it can’t get worse.’ And then it gets worse and worse.”
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