On Saturday, October 18, millions of protesters marched throughout the United States and the world in massive protests called the “No Kings” protests, a nationwide coordinated campaign calling for limits on presidential power and a return to what they call “constitutional democracy under siege.” The message had the same clarity from Washington, D.C., through Los Angeles, and back to the myriad small towns in between: “We have no kings.”
The demonstration day, set in the backdrop of a sustained government shutdown, a great number of troops deployed throughout US cities, and the continuing political divisions, is the second movement in a phase called No Kings in 2025. Protesters showed show up at more than 2,600 locations across the country in all fifty states, and there were protests of solidarity in cities around the world, such as Toronto, London, and Berlin, among many others. The organizers called it, “a movement of ordinary Americans standing against a extraordinary expansion of power.”
The Spark: A Presidency Under Scrutiny
The October protests followed a previous wave of No Kings protests which took place on June 14, also a noteworthy date through connection to President Donald Trump birthday: he turned 79 and appeared in the US Army’s 250 Actions Anniversary Parade. An estimated five million protesters attended at the first protestation of the “No Kings” protests, which has been cited as one of the largest protest mobilizations of contemporary America.
This week’s rally, “No Kings 2.0,” was sparked in response to a series of recent executive orders widening the expanse of immigration enforcement, which also gives the federal government the stepping stones to deploy National Guard troops in large metropolitan areas, against the views of state governors. Some address the implications of these actions and warn of an unprecedented extension of presidential power power into the local arena.
“From suspension of birthright citizehsip, censoring student dissent, and use of the military in civilian locations, we are taking policies that buck hundreds of years of American democratic traditions. The message today is resonant: America has no kings,” said Deirdre Schifeling, political and advocacy director at the ACLU, a lead partner organization in the coalition.
The Start of a Movement
Over 200 advocacy and grassroots organizations formed the “No Kings” coalition organizations such as MoveOn, Indivisible, United We Dream, the League of Conservation Voters, and the American Federation of Teachers coordinated events around the country that consisted of non-violent resistance demonstrations and constitutional accountability, including Saturday’s happenings.
The demonstration included everything from large city marches to candle vigils, and also student sit-ins. In Washington, D.C., the National Mall was overflowing with people carrying their signs that said, “No Kings, No Dictators, Only Democracy.” The crowd loudly started chanting slogans like “Power to the People” and “End Authoritarian Rule.” Many people gathered in Los Angeles in Pershing Square, with tens of thousands no matter the significant police presence, and performers and musicians in Chicago sang songs in Daley Plaza about civic resistance.
“This is not about left or right, this is about right and wrong,” said coalition spokesperson Hunter Dunn. “We come together to challenge ideas of unchecked power. Our founders revolted against a monarch for the same reasons that we are marching against authoritarianism.”
The coalition estimated that more than six million Americans protested in total, surpassing attendance at both the original gatherings in June, as well as the second gatherings in September.
Symbolism and Message: Defending Democracy
“No Kings” illustrates the core of the coalition’s ideology: a rejection of the idea that any leader, regardless of if they are Republican or Democrat, may exist outside of the Constitution. Protesters describe this movement’s explicit statement of “No Kings” as not just targeting Trump, but a warning of a slow creep into an autocracy.
At the White House, protesters registered some respect with their numbers; thousands assembled peacefully with flags that use imagery from before the Revolutionary war of the “Join, or Die” flag, not merely as a way to promote people’s union across borders, but their union to be counted as one, not as subjects. Others had signs insisting that Trump’s statements were never on par with King George III’s. Using the Declaration of Independence as their reference, one of the signs said, “Don’t make me draft a new Declaration of Independence for Tyranny.”
“We’re not rioting, we’re commemorating,” said Allyson Grant, a Maryland teacher on her third No Kings march. “Every president of the United States needs to be reminded of one simple fact: they work for the people, not the other way around. That is why this is a patriotic movement– they are defending that truth.”
Almost every participant across all of the events reiterated that they are protesting shared principles, just not partisan politics. Several of the demonstrations hosted faith-based organizations, the veterans group, and a handful of former Republican politicians, ratifying the campaign’s growth of diversity, reach across demographic lines, and people willingness to participate.
Government Reaction and Political Divide
The protests were labeled by the Trump administration as politically motivated and “anti-American.” At Camp David on September 3, President Trump denounced the protesters as “agitators who reject law and order,” restating that troop deployments to select cites were “necessary to restore peace and protect citizens as long as the social distancing orders were in place.”
House Speaker Mike Johnson, the most vocal ally of Trump, went so far as to inaccurately accuse the protesters of being “executed by people who want to prolong the government shutdown.” Wren, the White House Press Secretary, dismissed the protests as an “exercise in media theatrics,” adding that “the president’s authority stands unscathed.”
In stark contradiction, many Democrats and civil rights activists applauded the movement as indicative of constructive engagement amongst people. Senator Cory Booker tweeted that “Democracy lives when people rise up peacefully in defense of it. The ‘No Kings’ movement reaffirms that America’s heartbeat, in terms of liberty, still beats.”
The Shutdown Context
The movement is fueled, in part, by the fact that the federal government shutdown is on its third week. The protesters blamed the quad of representatives for the stalemate—the result of a congressional gridlock on defense and immigration funding—and criticized the Predident’s negotiation style and presumably had a “My Way or the Highway” approach.
Furloughed federal workers – workers who faced permanent layoff as a result of the government shutdown – were represented in many of the protests. Many of the workers held signs reading “I Want My Job, not a King” and “Shutdown Overreach = Real People’s Pain.”
Economists have indicated that the lengthy length of the shutdown may exacerbate dissatisfaction. With more than 1.5 million federal employees receiving no pay during the shutdown, the protests have been altered from political protests to protests reflective of economic pain.
Countless Voices from the Movement
The variety of voices within the action, and participants’ vocations support the grassroots nature of the No Kings movement. In Phoenix, immigrant rights coalitions collaborated with coalitions of groups around the country and climate activists protested in efforts to bring attention to US federal deportation raids and environmental rollbacks. In the meantime, in New York city Broadway performers collaborated with labor union officials at a rally entitled “Theater of Democracy.”
Historically Black colleges in Atlanta held teach-ins devoted to speaking on the legacy of civil rights movements and nonviolent resistance. “When Dr. King dreamed, he dreamed of equality—not coronation,” Dr. Patrice Washington, Morehouse College professor declared to one group of students. She added “No King represents resistance—not to an individual, to the collective notion of unchecked power.”
Internationally, marches were evidently organized around the protests in the US, with solidarity marches in London, Toronto, Paris, and Tokyo. Protesters in the U.K. (or England) horizontal banners reading “No Dictators, No Tyrants” where U.K. protesters adapted the phrase to instill visceral connections of King with ‘heightened’ characteristics of a monarch.
Organizers Stress Nonviolence
Organizers reported that the vast majority of the demonstrations were peaceful, although they were large-scale demonstrations. Prior to the demonstrations, both the ACLU and Public Citizen held safety trainings and coordination workshops online, emphasizing nonviolence and civil disobedience. There were isolated situations in places like Los Angeles and Dallas, but law enforcement in those cities reported the demonstrations were peaceful and organized.
“We are proud that we mobilized millions in a peaceful demonstration,” said Eunice Epstein-Ortiz, one of the organizers for No Kings Los Angeles. “In every conversation we’ve had in every city, our shared value is showing strength in participation, not in violence.”
A Growing Movement – A Future with Uncertainty
Political trait analysts say that the No Kings protests are indicative of a larger and newly enhanced democracy anxiety throughout the country, especially in the second term of Trump—the fear that the very foundation of checks and balances are being eroded by the populism of executive authority.
“The No Kings movement is a generational expression of civic power,” Dr. Lana Rosenberg, political historian at Harvard College, said. “It’s identifying with some of the large transformative movements of the US—the civil rights marches, the antiwar protests, even Occupy all derive from similar responses to overreach. Whether it actually translates mass movements into policy change is a different question.”
The coalitions, of which there are several, behind the protests have already signaled that they will reformulate their efforts into a follow-up campaign called `Reclaim Democracy 2026.” This will focus on mobilizing voter education and holding candidates accountable to voters and constituencies before the midterm elections next year.
However, the way in which the administration has responded to the protests may suggest a course of action for confrontation rather than conciliation. On Friday night, President Trump made a statement via Truth Social: “They can chant all they want but this is my America-and I’m going to keep it safe.”
A Nation Reflects on Power and Principle
The events of the No Kings protests of October 2025 will likely be remembered as a defining moment in the ever deepening struggle over executive authority, civic freedom, and national identity, and as millions marched with signs that affirmed “Of the People, By the People, For the People,” the protests stimulated a nationwide discussion over liberty and order, dissent and unity.
For some of the organizers, the protests symbolize both a warning and a promise—that in the end, the defense of democracy is not in the halls of government, but in everyone taking on their rightful role as citizens.
“The Founders ratified our Constitution as a rejection of monarchy,” Deirdre Schifeling, political director of the ACLU said. “And every generation is confronted with the idea of whether or not they still are upholding those democratic principles. Today, millions said yes.”
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