{"id":89436,"date":"2025-10-18T21:32:10","date_gmt":"2025-10-18T21:32:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/89436\/"},"modified":"2025-10-18T21:32:10","modified_gmt":"2025-10-18T21:32:10","slug":"millions-turn-out-for-us-wide-protests-against-trump-despite-surveillance-concerns-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/89436\/","title":{"rendered":"Millions turn out for US-wide protests against Trump despite surveillance concerns \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Americans across all 50 states began marching in protests against the Trump administration on Saturday, aligning behind a message that the country is sliding into authoritarianism and there should be no kings in the US.<\/p>\n

Millions of people have turned out for the No Kings protests, the second iteration of a coalition that marched in June in one of the largest days of protest in US history. Events were scheduled for more than 2,700 locations, from small towns to large cities, reflecting a decentralisation in an anti-Donald Trump movement that focused on demonstrations in Washington DC during his first presidency.<\/p>\n

The rallies are a turnaround from just six months ago, when Democrats seemed at a loss as to how to counter Republicans\u2019 grip of the White House and both houses of Congress after stinging national election losses.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat we are seeing from the Democrats is some spine,\u201d Ezra Levin, a co-founder of Indivisible, a key organizing group, told the Associated Press. \u201cThe worst thing the Democrats could do right now is surrender.\u201d<\/p>\n

There are concerns that protesters may be targeted for federal government surveillance. This could involve a range of technology including facial recognition and phone hacking. The level of surveillance at protests and the type of technology in use was likely to be both location-specific and dependent on the police forces present, said Thorin Klosowski, a security and privacy activist with the Electronic Frontier Foundation.<\/p>\n

For instance, crowds in Washington DC, where anti-scale fencing has been erected around the White House complex, are likely to come under different levels of surveillance to those in a small rural town.<\/p>\n

\"ThousandsThousands marched in New York as part of US-wide ‘No Kings’ protests against the Trump administration on Saturday. Photograph: Angelina Katsanis\/EPA <\/p>\n

\u201cUnder previous administrations, law enforcement surveillance of peaceful demonstrations was already commonplace and corrosive of free expression,\u201d said Ryan Shapiro, executive director of government transparency group Property of the People.<\/p>\n

\u201cGiven Trump\u2019s open hostility to even minor dissent, such surveillance now poses an existential threat to what remains of American democracy and only underscores the need for mass protest.\u201d<\/p>\n

In Chicago, at Grant Park\u2019s Butler Field, at least 10,000 people assembled, many with signs opposing federal immigration agents or mocking Mr Trump.<\/p>\n

Some of them said \u201cHands Off Chicago\u201d, a rallying cry that began when the president first announced his intent to send the national guard into the city. Others read \u201cResist Fascism\u201d.<\/p>\n

Chicago\u2019s mayor, Brandon Johnson, told the crowd the Trump administration had \u201cdecided that they want a rematch of the civil war\u201d, which the white supremacist Confederacy lost to the Union in the 19th century.<\/p>\n

[\u00a0Summer heat: Football just another front in Trump battle with US citiesOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are here to stand firm and stand committed that we will not bend, we will not bow, we will not cower, we will not submit,\u201d Mr Johnson said. \u201cWe do not want troops in our city.\u201d<\/p>\n

More than 200,000 Washington DC-area residents rallied near the US Capitol. In many cities, protesters wore inflatable animal costumes \u2013 a theme created during immigration enforcement protests in Portland, Oregon, to counter the administration\u2019s narrative of a city under the grip of lawlessness and chaos.<\/p>\n

\"DonaldDonald Trump has already sent national guard units to Chicago and Portland, Los Angeles, Memphis, and Washington DC. Photograph: Alex Brandon\/AP <\/p>\n

The Trump administration<\/a> on Friday asked the US<\/a> supreme court to permit the deployment of national guard troops to Illinois, as the president<\/a> pushed to expand the domestic use of the military in a growing number of Democratic-led cities.<\/p>\n

In an emergency filing to the supreme court, the justice department urged the court to overturn a lower-court ruling that halted the deployment of several hundred national guard troops to the Chicago area. The district judge had raised doubts about the administration\u2019s justification for sending troops.<\/p>\n

A federal appeals court upheld the lower court\u2019s decision on Thursday, keeping the deployment on hold while the legal challenge proceeds.<\/p>\n

\"PeoplePeople marching in the ‘No Kings’ protest against the Trump administration in New York on Saturday. Photograph: Angelina Katsanis\/European Pressphoto Agency <\/p>\n

Late on Friday evening, US district judge Sara Ellis ordered federal officers to use body cameras. Ellis said those officers trained and equipped with body-worn cameras must turn them on while conducting immigration enforcement activity, including during interactions with the public.<\/p>\n

Mr Trump has already sent national guard units to Chicago and Portland, following earlier deployments to Los Angeles, Memphis, and Washington DC. The US president has argued that military intervention is needed to curb unrest and bolster immigration enforcement.<\/p>\n

[\u00a0Trump tells Zelenskiy he is reluctant to sell Ukraine Tomahawk missilesOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

The US president and his supporters have portrayed these cities as dangerous and overwhelmed by violent demonstrations, framing the military\u2019s role as essential to restoring order.<\/p>\n

Democratic officials have pushed back sharply, saying the president\u2019s claims are greatly exaggerated and politically motivated. They accuse Mr Trump of misusing his authority to punish opponents.<\/p>\n

Judges have also voiced scepticism about the administration\u2019s depiction of events. Local leaders say protests over immigration enforcement have been mostly small and peaceful, contradicting Mr Trump\u2019s characterisation of \u201cwar zone\u201d conditions. \u2013 Guardian\/Reuters<\/p>\n

\"ThousandsThousands turned out in Chicago, Illinois for the ‘No Kings’ protest against the Trump administration. Photograph: Joe Raedle\/Getty Images) <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Americans across all 50 states began marching in protests against the Trump administration on Saturday, aligning behind a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":89437,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[969,42,43,40,38,41,39,20966,115],"class_list":["post-89436","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-donald-trump","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories","tag-trump-presidency","tag-united-states"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/89436","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=89436"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/89436\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/89437"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=89436"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=89436"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=89436"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}