“We will not cooperate!” Washington says ‘No Kings’ again to Donald Trump

Frogs, dinosaurs, and the Statue of Liberty — this was not a carnival, but a display of creativity from angry Americans expressing frustration and defiance toward President Donald Trump.

According to organizers, more than 200,000 demonstrators gathered near the U.S. Capitol for the second “No Kings” rally of the year around noon on Oct. 18, one of more than 2,700 protests nationwide.

Organizers also said about 7 million people across the country participated in the lawful, nonviolent No Kings Day, 2 million more than the first round in June. At rallies across the country, participants carried signs and chanted messages asserting that the nation belongs to its people, not to a president who acts like a king.

Delonte Gholston, a pastor at Peace Fellowship Church in Northeast D.C., asked: “Who will not bow to a kind of religion that wants to be close to power but won’t empower anybody else?” The question marked the official start of the rally.

Participants held signs on immigration, liberty, the Constitution, LGBTQ rights, health care and anti-fascism. But all called for the same thing: No Kings. That included a demand to remove and impeach Trump. Protesters said that, since his second term began, Trump has ruled over the nation like a monarch, a role that has not existed in the United States since 1776.

As the first politician to take the stage, longtime Trump critic Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) said the United States was facing a real threat to democracy. No outside force would save the people, he warned, because protecting democracy depends only on the people themselves.

He said Trump had attempted to undermine free speech, fair elections, independent media, and the right to peaceful protest. But the people, Murphy said, could still unite, draw moral lines, uphold the Constitution, and defend the 250-year experiment of self-government, a democracy without kings.

“I’m optimistic, maybe even foolishly so, about our ability to win this fight, because 400 years ago, in the small but mighty state of Connecticut, we wrote down a simple idea: In America, the people rule. In America, there are no kings,” Murphy said, emphasizing the link between the Constitution and his home state.

As the broadcaster Mehdi Hasan took the stage, the crowd laughed at his sharp wit. He mocked Trump’s behavior with humor and irony, saying he was “everything Donald Trump loves” because he is a journalist, an immigrant, and a Muslim.

He pointed out that Trump himself is the son, grandson, husband and ex-husband of immigrants, emphasizing the value of immigration and joking that immigrants “will do the jobs even Americans won’t do.”

Behind and in front of the stage, several small groups formed around speakers, moving their bodies to the rhythm of dance music. They waved flags and signs and wore all kinds of outfits: some wore American flags as capes, some dressed as Spider-Man, others holding colorful umbrellas.

Voices from the crowd

During the rally, Julian C., a Maryland resident who requested anonymity, stood for hours on top of the U.S. Department of Labor building waving a Mexican flag in support of Latino immigrants.

“We don’t accept the ICE raids happening around the country solely because of people’s skin color or nationality,” Julian said. “I’m trying to spread the message that there should be more representation of Latino people and other immigrants in the streets.”

Ten-year-old Jacqueline Hill-Bowling joined the protest with her mother. Though young, she was already experienced and noticed there were “a lot more people than [her] last protest.”

Hill-Bowling said one main reason for the protests was that due process was “messed up.”

“I learned that due process is the process in which all Americans or anyone, even immigrants, which apparently Trump doesn’t agree with, get to defend themselves,” she said. “It’s like a trial, but some people don’t get one, and it’s unfair, and I’m pretty sure it’s illegal.”

Protests began before the rally

The No Kings rally was scheduled to start at noon, but volunteers had been setting up since early morning, laying cables and placing barriers.

Rows of police officers on bicycles stood by, and snipers were seen on the roof of the National Gallery of Art, ready for emergencies. Police said afterward that no one had been detained.

But the demonstrations had already begun two miles away in the U Street Corridor.

The feeder march “Remove the Regime,” led by grassroots political groups like 50501DC, DC Against Trump, and Refuse Fascism, began around 9 a.m.

The march looked like a modest-sized crowd at first, but within an hour it swelled, becoming few blocks long.

Lelaina Brandt, cofounder of the veterans’ group “Remember Your Oath,” which joined the march from the beginning, said she appreciated people showing up but felt discouraged that many treated it as just a fun day out instead of acting every day, because the rise of authoritarianism and fascism in the country is urgent.

“This has been a 40-year plan by groups like the Heritage Foundation to usher authoritarianism and fascism into our country,” she said. “We can focus on Trump, but the work won’t be over when he’s gone. We must keep standing up until fascism is crushed once and for all in this country.”

Warming up at the Lincoln Memorial.

The rally’s energy built on earlier events Friday afternoon, when organizers began delivering speeches at 3 p.m. to prepare for the weekend.

The most eye-catching was a protest organized by the Backbone Campaign, where activists wore oversized caricature heads of Trump and his three allies Stephen Miller, JD Vance and Kristi Noem.

Dressed in prison stripes, the four embodied what many Americans already assume — partners in crime, chained by accountability.

Said Bill Moyer, the group’s executive director, “These people deserve to be ridiculed, and it’s our job, as citizens, to ridicule tyrants.”

The protest never stopped

The No Kings rally in D.C. ended around 3 p.m., but demonstrators didn’t stop there.

FLARE, a grassroots political group that camped at Union Station Plaza, prepared to continue into the evening with another protest in Arlington, outside the home of Russell Vought, a key architect of Project 2025, to denounce him as one of Trump’s technocrats.

On Saturday night, Trump posted an AI-generated video on Truth Social showing himself flying jets, wearing a crown, and dropping waste on protesters.

House Speaker Mike Johnson, who earlier this month described the rally as “hate America,” said at a Monday press conference that Trump “is using satire to make a point.”

“The president uses social media to make the point,” he said. “You could argue he’s probably the most effective person who’s ever used social media for that purpose.”

Matt Gordon, another co-founder of “Remember Your Oath,” disagreed with Johnson.

“He doesn’t care about unifying a nation. He cares about humiliating those he thinks are his enemies,” Gordonsaid. “He’ll do that by creating ridiculous AI videos of himself stomping on people protesting him in the streets.”

Gordon also said the next wave of “Remove the Regime” march begins on Nov. 5.