Protesters have gathered in several United States cities for “No Kings” demonstrations against President Donald Trump’s policies on immigration, education and security, with organisers saying they expect more than 2,600 events across the country.
Saturday’s rally is the third mass mobilisation since Trump’s return to the White House and comes against the backdrop of a government shutdown that not only has closed federal programmes and services, but is testing the core balance of power as an aggressive executive confronts Congress and the courts in ways that organisers warn are a slide towards US authoritarianism.
The rallies started outside the US, with a couple of hundred protesters gathering outside the US embassy in London, and hundreds more holding demonstrations in Madrid and Barcelona.
By Saturday morning in Northern Virginia, many protesters were walking on overpasses across roads heading into Washington, DC.
Many protesters are especially angered by attacks on their motivations for taking to the streets. In Bethesda, Maryland, one held up a sign that said: “Nothing is more patriotic than protesting.”
Trump himself is away from Washington at his Mar-a-Lago home in Florida.
“They say they’re referring to me as a king. I’m not a king,” Trump said in a Fox News interview broadcast on Friday.
More than 2,600 rallies are planned on Saturday in cities large and small, organised by hundreds of coalition partners.
While the earlier protests this year – against Elon Musk’s cuts in spring, then to counter Trump’s military parade in June – drew crowds, organisers say this one is building a more unified opposition movement.
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