Massive crowds poured onto San Francisco streets on Saturday for the second “No Kings” protest against President Donald Trump. The sweeping demonstration centered on downtown but spread across the city from the Embarcadero to a human banner on Ocean Beach.
Across from the Ferry Building, where the march kicked off around midday, people held handmade placards that read “Dump Trump,” My grandfather was Antifa,” and “Democracy not Aristo-crazy.”
Tens of thousands of people flocked to the heart of the city.
Various anti-Trump causes and associations were on display, with signs variously decrying the Jan. 6 riots, ICE, Jeffrey Epstein, Secretary of War Pete Hegseth, and the reversal of Roe v Wade.
But, of course, few themes were more prevalent than the threat of the National Guard.
In San Francisco, the protest culminated a frenetic news cycle in which Trump threatened to send federal troops to SF while Marc Benioff — the billionaire CEO of Salesforce — initially endorsed the idea before downplaying what he said and then walking it back entirely.
Attendees expressed vigilance against the possibility of federal troops coming to SF and solidarity with comrades already battling that reality in their own cities.
John Ston, a 40-year-old software engineer, dressed up as a frog — a symbol of resistance (opens in new tab) since a video went viral showing a federal agent pepper-spraying the air vent of an anti-ICE activist’s frog costume in Portland earlier this year.
Ston said he condemns the deportation of immigrants, calling the Trump administration’s crackdown “illegal and unjust.”
“We frogs oppose it,” Ston said.
Barbra Lu spreads her wings.
John Ston holds up a poster urging people to join the ”Amphifa resistance.” | Source: Ezra Wallach/The Standard
A sign features the faces of Trump cabinet members.
Chad Zierenberg, a 55-year-old pest exterminator, came dressed as a unicorn, which he described as “a metaphor for how ridiculous things are right now.”
After joking around with a Vietnam vet and dancing to Buffalo Springfield and a drumming circle, Zierenberg told The Standard that the Trump administration is like “a fat pile of poop.”
“Those that don’t say anything are on the side of the oppressor,” he said.
The sign he held echoed a similar anti-authoritarian sentiment: “Idolizing billionaires is like thinking the stripper really likes you.”
Chad Zierenberg was one of thousands of costumed participants. | Source: Ezra Wallach/The Standard
People ride Muni to the protest.
Millions were expected to attend similar rallies throughout the day across an estimated 2,600 locations, with the biggest numbers centered in New York, Chicago, and Washington, D.C.
The marches this weekend build off the momentum of the inaugural “No Kings” protests on June 14, when upward of 2,000 demonstrations drew a combined 5 million people on the same day Trump marked his 79th birthday with a military parade in D.C.
This is a developing story. Check for updates.
