Mar.30

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Thousands of "No Kings" Demonstrations Were Held Saturday

Thousands of people turned up at over 3,000 No Kings Day protests around the country. It might well have been the largest number of protesters out there on one day ever. Some estimates put the number at 8-9 million. The mothership was in Minneapolis (well, St. Paul, if you are a geography nerd). Gov. Tim Walz (DFL-MN), Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT), Jane Fonda and many others spoke at that one and Bruce Springsteen, Joan Baez and Maggie Rogers sang protest songs to an estimated 200,000 people. There were flags and signs galore.

No Kings Day 3 was notable for its breadth as well as the intensity in some places. There were rallies in all 50 states and all 435 congressional districts, urban and rural alike. In particular, there was a march in FL-21 that headed towards Mar-a-Lago, but police blocked it before it got within a distance where Donald Trump, who was in residence, might have gotten wind of it. Besides, he already said that all protests are meaningless. Here are some takeaways from USA Today:

• The Turnout Was Historic: This was the biggest day of protesting ever. On Earth Day in 1970, 20 million people took part in a variety of rallies, marches, teach-ins, and other things, but that was more educational than protests aimed at a single person or cause. NKD 3 wasn't just dirty smelly hippies from big cities. Two-thirds of the participants who signed up were from outside big cities. Participation from suburbia, small towns, and rural areas was up 40% over No Kings Day 2 last year. This makes it harder to dismiss the turnout due to radical leftists in big cities (but Trump will try anyway).
  
  
• The Messages Were Mixed: Some of the people had signs about getting rid of kings and saving democracy. However, there were also people protesting the war in Iran, the cost of health care, and the fact that the Epstein class seems to be able to get off unscathed all the time. Abolish ICE signs were also plentiful.
  
  
• This Was Anti-Trump, Not Pro-Democrats: Not everyone who hates Trump is necessarily a Democrat or will vote for Democrats. The organizers included many groups with their own agendas, including unions, progressive activists, civil rights groups, the Human Rights Campaign, indivisible, and 50501. Some people had other complaints, like this one:
  
  
  
  
• The Protests Could Matter on Election Day: Sometimes big protests presage big defeats for incumbents. The tea party protests in 2009 may have been a harbinger of the Democrats' 2010 disastrous midterm election, in which they lost 63 seats in the House. That size wave seems unlikely this year due to more thorough gerrymandering, but a solid blue victory in the House popular vote is certainly possible.
  
  
• Beware the Blowback: Sometimes protests energize the other side as well. The many anti-Vietnam War protests in 1968 led moderate and conservative voters to elect Richard Nixon. That said, he was also the "change" candidate, so it's not a perfect example.

The New York Times has a different list of takeaways:

• The War Galvanized Younger Voters: There is no military draft right now, but younger voters are strongly opposed to the war in Iran. They have seen too many "forever wars" and they see another one starting and they don't like it. Iowa state Sen. Zach Wahls (D), who is running in the primary for the U.S. Senate, said: "I have not yet met somebody who is interested in another endless war in the Middle East."
  
  
• Trump's Immigration Crackdown Is Still a Focus: It is not for nothing that the mothership was in Minnesota, where two U.S.citizens were gunned down in cold blood by ICE and CBP. Opposition to ICE was a rallying cry in many places.
  
  
• Dueling Protests Near Mar-a-Lago: There was a protest rally about 15 minutes from Mar-a-Lago with one sign reading "Grab 'em by the midterms." The newly elected state Rep. Emily Gregory (D) was there. But there was also a pro-Trump group present. They didn't come to blows.
  
  
• Midterm Candidates Were out in Force: Democratic candidates for a number of offices were out there and very visible. In Maine, both Graham Platner and Gov. Janet Mills (D-ME) were out there. In Michigan, state Sen. Mallory McMorrow (D) and Rep. Haley Stevens (D-MI), both running for the Democratic Senate nomination, attended rallies around Detroit. In Massachusetts, Sen. Ed Markey (D-MA) and his primary opponent Rep. Seth Moulton (D-MA) attended rallies near Boston.
  
  
• New Fuel: Conveniently for the protesters, Trump just did another kingly thing: putting his signature on U.S. currency, the kind of thing kings have always done. Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) was at a rally Saturday and said she would introduce a bill barring presidents from putting their name, likeness, or signature on money or federal property.

Here are some photos from rallies around the country.

There were also protests in other countries, notably Australia, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, the Netherlands, and Spain.

We have a bunch of photos from readers; we'll run a selection of those tomorrow. (V)