Protesting ICE raids, proposed cuts to social programs, and other unpopular Trump administration policies, millions took to the streets across the United States on June 14 in protests in the name of “No Kings Day.” Demonstrations across the country took place in over 200 cities, from major cities to rural towns. “No Kings Day” protests were held to coincide with US President Trump’s planned military parade in Washington, DC, which marked Trump’s 79th birthday and the 250th anniversary of the US army.
Protests took place in major cities such as New York City, Los Angeles, Chicago, San Francisco, Atlanta, Boston, and Dallas, as well as rural communities throughout the country. Over 100,000 took to the streets in Philadelphia and thousands in Pittsburgh, over 75,000 demonstrated in Chicago, and tens of thousands across the Bay Area.
The four months of Trump’s presidency have been marked by deeply unpopular policies that have triggered waves of mass protests, even in the short time he has been in office for his second term. Protests against ICE raids continue in Los Angeles, after outrage at Trump’s escalation of immigrant enforcement action boiled over beginning on June 6.
The Trump-backed “One Big Beautiful Bill Act” proposes what has been called the largest transfer of wealth to the rich in US history in the form of the extension of Trump’s 2017 tax cuts, as well as some of the deepest cuts to social programs such as SNAP in US history.
Trump’s attacks on free speech in the form of the detention of pro-Palestine students such as Mahmoud Khalil, Mohsen Mahdawi, and Rumeysa Ozturk have struck a deep chord with the Palestine solidarity movement, also triggering mass protests earlier this year.
Signs, slogans, chants, and banners at No Kings Day protests reflected the diverse spectrum of outrage at each one of Trump’s policies.
Signs and banners throughout the country reading “no kings” or “no dictators” reflected broad discontent at what many view as Trump’s overreach and imposition of fascistic policies.
In New York City, tens of thousands marched through the heart of the city, chanting slogans against ICE raids. Newark Mayor Ras Baraka spoke at the No Kings Day protest in Newark, New Jersey. Baraka made headlines in May after being arrested protesting the first ICE detention center opened during the Trump administration at Delaney Hall.
In Los Angeles, No Kings Day reflected the continued outrage at ICE raids which have terrorized immigrant communities in the area as over 50,000 took to the streets in the greater Los Angeles area. Protesters waved Mexican flags alongside US flags, embodying the city’s history of Mexican immigrants that have been involved in waves of protest movements throughout the 20th century.
In Chicago, hundreds of thousands took to the streets to denounce Trump, including participation from the Chicago Teachers’ Union, which brought a banner reading “Students over billionaires.”
Trump’s anti-immigrant policies have been applied in Puerto Rico, occupied by the US since 1898, and Puerto Ricans took to the streets to protest such policies. Rafael Bernabe, a Puerto Rican union leader, denounced Trump’s mass deportation regime as an attempt to divide Latin Americans. Protesters shouted in the streets of San Juan: “All of Latin America is welcome in Borinquen!”
