October 18 marked one of the largest single days of protest in US history as demonstrators took to the streets for the second iteration of “No Kings Day” – representing a broad opposition movement to the policies of US President Donald Trump.
Protests were called by broad coalition-based groups such as Indivisible and 50501, both of which formed during Trump’s first and second administration, respectively, as part of a broad opposition movement. No Kings protesters held signs opposing Trump’s agenda from a variety of viewpoints, from ICE raids, to the Medicaid cuts within the Republican Party’s “One Big Beautiful Bill Act”, to attacks on organized labor, or the general outrage at Trump’s authoritarian-style policies such as sending federal troops into US cities.
Enormous crowds filled the streets of major US cities. 50,000 people mobilized in San Francisco. Reporting by the Los Angeles Times estimates that tens of thousands gathered across Southern California. The New York City Police Department reported that over 100,000 New Yorkers protested across all five boroughs on No Kings Day.
Protesters in Cleveland, Ohio (Photo via PSL Cleveland)
100,000 marched in downtown Chicago, where the protest took on special significance given the escalated immigration enforcement crackdown ongoing in the midwestern city since September 8. So-called “Operation Midway Blitz” has led to heightened ICE violence, including the killing of an immigrant father – yet Chicago residents have continued to fight back against ICE raids in their communities.
Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson addressed the crowd at Chicago’s “No Kings Day” rally. Johnson has faced his own slew of attacks by Trump, who called for his jailing on October 8 for “failing to protect ICE Officers” from protesters.
Johnson called for a “general strike” against Trump, addressing the hundred thousand protesters gathered in Chicago’s Grant Park. “If my ancestors as slaves can lead the greatest general strike in the history of this country,” Johnson said, referencing the decision taken by enslaved people to stop work and escape slave plantations during the Civil War, “we can do the same today.”
Protesters in Boston (Photo: Tara Sandlin)
Trump administration denounces protests
Right-wing political figures, including Trump himself, have both denounced and downplayed the protests. “I hear very few people [are] going to be there,” Trump said at a White House event the previous Wednesday.
In line with the president’s irreverent use of AI-generated content, Trump posted an AI video on the evening of October 18 depicting him with a crown, piloting a jet labelled “KING TRUMP”, and dumping a brown sludge resembling feces on protesters. The video included the song “Danger Zone” by Kenny Loggins – who asked Trump to remove his music from the video, telling a reporter “I can’t imagine why anybody would want their music used or associated with something created with the sole purpose of dividing us.”
In the lead-up to “No Kings Day”, the Trump administration took several measures to link protests to so-called terrorism – especially by accusing protesters of being part of or funded by “Antifa”, which the Trump administration has labeled a “domestic terrorist” group.
Protesters in Santa Ana, California (Photo: Katriel Lohrke)
Antifa is “very organized,” said Trump’s Attorney General Pam Bondi days before the protests, in an interview with Fox News. Antifa is a decentralized movement with no centralized leadership body. “You’re seeing people with thousands of signs that all match,” Bondi continued. “Someone is funding it, we are going to get to the root of antifa and we’re going to find and charge all of those people who are causing this chaos.”
Republican Speaker of the House Mike Johnson labeled the “No Kings Day” protests as a “Hate America Rally”. Progressive Senator Bernie Sanders spoke at a demonstration in Washington, DC, where federal troops remain indefinitely, and said in response to Johnson, “Millions of Americans are coming out today not because they ‘hate America.’ We’re here because we love America.”
“We rejected the divine right of kings in the 1700’s. We will not accept the divine right of oligarchs today,” Sanders said, referring to the American Revolution of 1776.
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