By Jim Cason and David Brooks on March 29, 2026
San Francisco, foto: Gustavo Hernandez, KQED
Washington and New York. Millions of protesters participated in what organizers claim to be the largest day of protest in the country’s history, in repudiation of Donald Trump and his administration’s right-wing agenda—including their attacks on immigrants, unions, and free speech—as well as to demand an end to wars and military interventions and to resist what they call growing authoritarianism in the United States.
“It will be the largest day of protests in U.S. history,” predicted one of the organizers of the so-called No Kings Day in comments to La Jornada this week. In the last national “No Kings” mobilization, on October 18, some 7.5 million people participated, and organizers were right this time it was well over 8 million. The growing array of organizations involved including Unions, human rights and civil rights organizations, progressive religious groups, immigrant advocacy groups, anti-war groups, environmentalists, and more have joined forces in support of this mobilization.
St. Louis foto: Brian Munoz/St. Louis Public Radio
“Masked secret police terrorizing our communities. An illegal and catastrophic war that endangers us and drives up costs. Attacks on our freedom of speech, our civil rights, our freedom to vote. Costs pushing families to the brink.”
Trump wants to rule us like a tyrant. But this is the United States of America, and power belongs to the people, not to those who want to be kings and their billionaire cronies,” the organizers write in the joint statement on their website https://www.nokings.org/
Events took place in more than 3,300 locations across the United States and in at least 15 other countries, organizers report. The highest-profile march and rally was organized in the Twin Cities of Saint Paul and Minneapolis, a community whose nonviolent civil resistance against the anti-immigrant crackdown marked Trump’s first defeat on that front, forcing him to withdraw his paramilitary forces.
Oakland, foto: Bill Hackwell
It was a centerpiece of the national mobilization, led by Senator Bernie Sanders, Bruce Springsteen (who, among other things, will sing his new ballad commemorating the resistance in Minneapolis), Joan Baez, Maggie Rogers, and Jane Fonda, among other well-known figures. But there will also huge marches and rallies in major cities, from Los Angeles to Chicago to New York, as well as in towns across the country. In the San Francisco bay area there were demonstrations in San Francisco, Oakland, San Jose, Richmond, Berkeley and El Cerrito in the tens of thousands.
Trump Stuck in a Quagmire with Low Approval Ratings
This day of protest came at a time when Trump is bogged down in a war condemned by the majority, with his already low approval ratings dropping further in the polls, rising prices driven by increases in oil prices and significant declines in the stock markets, and growing public anger over violent attacks against immigrant communities, with citizens and even officials rejecting what they describe as unjust actions against their neighbors.
El Cerrito CA, foto; Bill Hackwell
“There are those here who work hard. They have their children in college or in school. They go to Mass on Sundays. They aren’t breaking the law, and they’re living the American dream,” Sheriff Grady Judd in Florida told The New York Times.
In messages circulating in the days leading up to the massive mobilization—explaining the reasons for the protest, inviting colleagues and neighbors to join the marches, and more—a wide range of concerns and demands from various sectors is expressed, which will be voiced today in the streets. Union organizer Angela Hernández, who is organizing workers at McDonald’s in Monterey Park, California, wrote about the fears generated by attacks on immigrants and workers, and tax cuts for the wealthiest while social welfare programs are being slashed: “This is not democracy. This is greed disguised as leadership. And if we don’t do something to stop it, things will only get worse.”
El Cerrito California, foto: Bill Hackwell
Event organizers include the AFL-CIO labor federation, along with many of its national member unions such as National Nurses United and the two teachers’ unions, among others, as well as Amnesty International, Jewish Voices for Peace, Indivisible, Public Citizen, Democratic Socialists of America, Veterans for Peace, the Union of Concerned Scientists, and the Working Families Party, among dozens more.
Jane Fonda has promoted participation through forums and interviews, insisting that it is “a first step” toward organizing resistance against this administration’s agenda, and that it is an opportunity “to see just how large the majority of us is—we have to act. “Courage nourishes us.” Springsteen stated in an interview with the local newspaper Minneapolis Star that “the No Kings movement is of great importance right now. When you have the opportunity to sing something, when the moment is crucial, and if you have something powerful to sing, it elevates the moment, and it elevates your work to another level.”
Portland, Oregon. foto: Saskia Hatvany/NPR
Organizers emphasize that this is not just a one-day event, but serves to fuel a necessary opposition movement to confront what many consider the greatest threat to American democracy in modern times.
In fact, after participating in the protest, Springsteen announced that he and his E Street Band will embark on a national tour explicitly in opposition to and in response to the current right-wing administration and its allies [https://www.instagram.com/reels/DWV1A1fD_Kg/].
Source: La Jornada translation and update by Resumen Latinoamericano – English