In August, hip-hop star A$AP Rocky performed at Lollapalooza in Grant Park, singing, “Chi-Town, I’m just rapping to this LSD.”
The last 10 months under President Donald Trump has felt like a bad acid trip to a lot of Chicagoans, and on Saturday they showed their displeasure, as tens of thousands descended on the same downtown parkland for a rally and protest against Trump called “No Kings.”
Mirroring similar events across the city and suburbs, as well as other metro areas such as New York and Atlanta, the rally and subsequent march through the Loop’s streets were intended to convey ardent opposition to Trump policies — and his tendency to portray himself, as critics see it, above the law.
The Trump administration has dispatched federal agents to Chicago, saying they’re targeting immigrants who shouldn’t be in the United States, particularly those suspected of violent crimes.
But the effort has been divisive and chaotic, leading to wrongful detentions and abusive conduct by some agents. Many of the people taken into custody do not appear to be the criminals Trump’s administration said it’s pursuing.
Previous protests against Trump’s efforts led the president to justify mobilizing the National Guard — and threaten Mayor Brandon Johnson and Gov. JB Pritzker with arrest, saying recently on social media they “should be in jail for failing to protect” immigration officers.
Johnson struck a defiant tone to thousands gathered in Grant Park on Saturday, saying he will not “bend, bow or cower” to authoritarianism.
“The attempt to divide and conquer this nation will not prevail,” Johnson said.
“When the people are united, justice always prevails,” said Johnson, a Democrat who went on to criticize the Republican president’s deportation campaign.
Mayor Brandon Johnson speaks Saturday in Grant Park at the “No Kings” protest.
Candace Dane Chambers / Sun-Times
“Donald Trump is using ICE as his private, militarized occupying force,” Johnson said. “But we are saying emphatically clear: we do not want troops in our city.”
But it was the regular people in attendance who may have sent the larger message to the White House, just by showing up.
While an official headcount wasn’t known, some estimates put attendance on Saturday at 60,000 or more — well beyond previous demonstrations here. The march clogged Loop streets for hours, but by all official reports it was peaceful.
Despite the serious undertones of that rally and others, some of the protesters enlisted a measure of whimsy in conveying their messages of inclusiveness, kindness and free speech.
Some dressed up in costumes, depicting themselves as clowns, dragons, unicorns and even the owl from the classic 1970s Tootsie Pop commercial.
Many held signs with messages such as “ICE out” and “Hands off.” Others waved American and Mexican flags.
Protesters gather in Grant Park for the second nationwide “No Kings” protest on Saturday. The rally is a part of a “nationwide day of defiance” according to organizers. Republicans have branded the event a “Hate America Rally.”
Candace Dane Chambers / Sun-Times
In Little Village, a heavily Mexican American neighborhood on Chicago’s Near Southwest Side that held another rally, some protest signs bore biting humor.
“Big Man Little Dig-nity” one read, with a cartoonish image of Trump crossed out.
Maja Sandstrom organized the Little Village event, hoping to encourage residents to voice their opinions without having to stray too far from the safety of their homes.
“I decided to put together . . . to stand up against the targeted fear-mongering that this administration is really trying to deliver to people who are empathetic and just wanting to raise their voice,” she said.
The demonstration was held in the shadow of the neighborhood’s iconic arch across 26th Street that reads partly in Spanish: “Bienvenidos a Little Village.”
Protesters rally Saturday in Little Village.
Cindy Hernandez / Sun-Times
On the North Side, a park with its own unique characteristic, a statue of the Tin Man from The Wizard of Oz, hosted another demonstration, described as an alternative to downtown’s.
Jamin Townsley from Humboldt Park attended with his 2-year-old daughter, Romi, who sat on his shoulders in a princess dress.
Ahead of the rally, he helped her put together a pink spray-painted sign that said: “No Kings, only princesses.”
Beyond the city, similar events were scattered across the suburbs, from DuPage County westward, to Orland Park southward, to Park Ridge near O’Hare Airport and Highland Park on the North Shore, scene of a 2022 mass shooting amid the Independence Day parade.
“I am here because I’m really disturbed about where this country is going and I really, really, really feel compelled to stand up for my rights, and to express to this administration how we are going the wrong way,” said Jeannette Samson, a Deerfield resident who attended the rally in Highland Park.
Jamin Townsley and his 3-year-old daughter, Romi, at a rally in Oz Park on the North Side.
Protesting has become a father-and-son activity this year for Robert and Joe Tria. They’ve been to multiple demonstrations since Trump was inaugurated in January to express their distaste with what they call an “autocratic style of government.”
They showed up in Grant Park on Saturday.
Robert, 86, who is Filipino and Mexican, said his own dad served in the U.S. Navy for 30 years. “He wouldn’t have liked this, either,” the Elmwood Park resident said.
“I grew up believing that anything is possible in the United States,” said Robert’s son, Joe, a 58-year-old Logan Square resident. “And what I’m finding out now is people like me are being targeted just for what we look like and it has to stop.”
Gregory Bovino, commander-at-large of the U.S. Border Patrol, told a WBEZ reporter recently that agents have been choosing people to arrest based partly on “how they look” — a comment that caused an uproar.
“No Kings” protesters file past the Art Institute of Chicago on Saturday.
Ken Circo / Circo Architects
Mackayla Reilley stood in Grant Park — named for the Civil War general who helped preserve the Union during a time of obvious division in the U.S. — with her parents and aunt holding a poster that read “No sign is big enough to list all the reasons I’m here.”
Reilley, 26, and her family made the trip from west suburban Riverside in show of support for immigrants impacted by Trump’s controversial deportation effort Operation Midway Blitz.
“With everything going on in Chicago, we have to protect immigrants [and] we have to stand up against Trump,” Reilley said. “We can’t normalize this type of polarization and this type of partisanship.”
The Reilley family called the raids throughout the city “heartbreaking” and are angered by what they’ve been seeing unfold.
The family, who were at the first No Kings protest in June, feel hopeful that the protests are a means to help facilitate change.
“It feels good to be around people that kind of share that same ideology too,” Reilley said. People “uniting together with common goals of protecting democracy and immigrants.”
A ground-level snapshot of Saturday’s march through the Loop.
Mohammad Samra / Sun-Times
Protests Saturday were also held in New York City, Washington, D.C., Atlanta, San Francisco and more than 2,000 locales across the country in a “nationwide day of defiance.”
Republican leaders, including U.S. House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) and U.S. House Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-La.), have slammed the protest as a “Hate America Rally.”
Republican governors in Texas and Virginia have said they are ready to use the National Guard to respond to “acts of violence or damaging property” during the protest.
The White House press office didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
The Chicago rally comes four months after the first “No Kings” protest, which drew about 15,000 to downtown and more to the suburbs, according to estimates. The June protest was meant to counter a military parade in Washington to mark the Army’s 250th anniversary and Trump’s 79th birthday.
Contributing: Mohammad Samra, Somer Van Benton, Casey He, Erica Thompson, Anna Savchenko, Cindy Hernandez, Lynn Sweet, Chip Mitchell, Mitch Armentrout, Robert Herguth