As with the first two occasions, thousands peacefully took to the streets around the Sacramento region on Saturday, a day on which event organizers said more than 3,300 such protests were expected nationwide. NPR noted a claim from event organizers on the \u201cNo Kings\u201d website that Saturday\u2019s protest would \u201cbe the biggest protest in US history.\u201d<\/p>\n
Well over 1,000 turned up outside California\u2019s Capitol on Saturday afternoon, many of them waving signs that denounced the Trump administration, the war in Iran and actions by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement during Trump\u2019s second term as president.<\/p>\n
![\"Protester](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/SAC_0602_PK_20260328_NOKINGS.JPG\" "\\"SAC_0602_PK_20260328_NOKINGS.JPG\\"")
Protester Cam Essicks, left, wears a homemade outfit during the “No Kings” rally at the state Capitol in Sacramento on Saturday, March 28, 2026. PAUL KITAGAKI JR. pkitagaki@sacbee.com <\/p>\n
California gubernatorial candidate Tom Steyer, a billionaire businessman, joined the afternoon\u2019s protest.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have a lawless, criminal president,\u201d Steyer said in an interview. \u201cDonald Trump has declared war on blue America and on the people of the state of California. It\u2019s important for us to stand up for our rights.\u201d<\/p>\n
Steyer, donning a plaid button-up shirt, khaki pants and a baseball cap reading \u201cCalifornia,\u201d said he\u2019s attended all three \u201cNo Kings\u201d rallies \u2014 one in San Francisco and one in Palo Alto before Saturday\u2019s event in Sacramento.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe kicked out kings in 1776 for gosh sake. This is 250 years later,\u201d Steyer said. \u201cWe don\u2019t want kings. We don\u2019t want this king. We don\u2019t want wars. We don\u2019t want ICE. It\u2019s time for us to reassert our rights and get back to being the democracy that we\u2019ve been.\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"Protesters](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/SAC_0035_PK_20260328_NOKINGS.JPG\" "\\"SAC_0035_PK_20260328_NOKINGS.JPG\\"")
Protesters hold signs during the “No Kings” rally at the state capitol in Sacramento on Saturday. PAUL KITAGAKI JR. pkitagaki@sacbee.com Where protests happened around the region<\/p>\n
A permit for a \u201cNo Kings\u201d protest at the state Capitol allowed for up to 5,000 attendees<\/a>. But that central gathering represented just one of the day\u2019s events demonstrations with the Sacramento region, with hundreds showing up that morning and afternoon to march, chant and wave signs along busy thoroughfares in surrounding suburban cities.<\/p>\n An estimated crowd of more than 300 people had gathered by 10:30 a.m. at the Lake Natoma Crossing bridge on Folsom-Auburn Road.<\/p>\n \u201cWe don\u2019t support a war that we didn\u2019t ask for,\u201d said Susan Cunningham, a vice president of the Folsom Area Democratic Club, which organized the bridge demonstration. \u201cWe might be in a blue state, but it\u2019s very red here.\u201d<\/p>\n Julia Garland waved a sign at the protest reading: \u201cMy grandkids will know that I did not stay silent!\u201d<\/p>\n Homemade signs included slogans like, \u201cUntrump the world\u201d and messages denouncing war and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE.<\/p>\n \u201cI see almost every day that we have our rights being taken away and trampled,\u201d said Garland, who has four grandchildren, all under 13 years old. \u201cIf we don\u2019t resist now, I\u2019m afraid it will be too late.\u201d<\/p>\n Around the same time, just outside the Westfield Galleria mall in Roseville, the sound of honking horns blared almost constantly while hundreds of people took to sidewalks.<\/p>\n Stan Guido, who is 73 and lives in Newcastle in unincorporated Placer County, danced near an intersection by the mall to \u201cHappy\u201d by Pharrell Williams. He described dancing and protesting at the same time as being spiritually and emotionally uplifting.<\/p>\n Kennedy Crosby, 11, made more than a dozen stickers for the Roseville protest, which she attended with her mom and 7-year-old brother, Cash.<\/p>\n Kennedy said she made the stickers for a previous protest and planned to do so again. \u201cPeople really love stickers,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n One had a picture of a Monarch butterfly, with a message that this was the sole \u201cOrange Monarch we want!\u201d<\/p>\n The Roseville protest had largely dispersed by about 12:30 p.m., at which point another \u201cNo Kings\u201d event started in nearby Lincoln.<\/p>\n The turnout in Lincoln was smaller, but hundreds of people still stood out on a busy street corner outside the Lincoln Crossing Marketplace shopping area, holding signs, flags and cheering as people drove by honking.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m angry about this all the time and coming out here and showing a physical presence is just as important as speaking out online,\u201d said Annmarie Azevedo, 49, who lives in Lincoln and went to the protests in both Lincoln and Roseville. \u201cThis is amazing. I never thought that this many people would show up in Lincoln.\u201d<\/p>\n Azevedo clanked a cowbell and stood in the crosswalk as people moved from each side of the intersection.<\/p>\n In Sacramento, an estimated crowd of at least 1,000 people congregated in front of the Capitol by noon, an hour before speeches startd.<\/p>\n Nora Bruce, 50, born and raised in Sacramento, said she joined the protest to feel hope as the federal leadership centered on racism and greed. \u201cI\u2019m here because of the collective grief and the pain that our country is going through,\u201d Bruce said.<\/p>\n Bailey McCraw, 17, a Sacramento-born C.K. McClatchy High School student, said she joined the protest because she does not want to be an \u201caccomplice\u201d to the Trump administration\u2019s immigration policy.<\/p>\n \u201cThey\u2019re not giving them due process,\u201d McCraw said. \u201cIt\u2019s scary because they could just do the same thing to any of us.\u201d<\/p>\n Protesters march over Tower Bridge to West Sacramento<\/p>\n Hundreds of people were gathered on the banks of the Sacramento River by 11 a.m., ahead of a march an hour later over Tower Bridge down the Capitol Mall to the state Capitol.<\/p>\n Craig Lundgren from Davis handed out six different types of signs to those who wanted them. \u201cAnother stupid war?\u201d one side said, in a reference to the United States\u2019 military strikes on Iran. \u201cHave you had enough yet?\u201d read another while a third called on people to \u201cSupport Science.\u201d<\/p>\n But the sign going fastest, by far, Lundgren said, was a white sign with red letters proclaiming the message: \u201cLove your neighbor.\u201d The sign defined people of all different types of race, religious creed, sexuality and ability as a \u201cfully human neighbor.\u201d About 85% of sign takers were picking this sign.<\/p>\n \u201cI thought the war signs would be a lot more popular,\u201d Lundgren said.<\/p>\n Shortly after noon, the march began, led by people carrying three yellow signs which read \u201cNo Kings!\u201d, \u201cWe are the power\u201d and \u201cSomos el poder,\u201d the last being Spanish for \u201dWe are the power.\u201d<\/p>\n It took 15 around minutes for the crowd to finish crossing Tower Bridge, the flow of those who marched growing thick and steady.<\/p>\n Mark Lizcano, a Sacramento resident and a U.S. Marine Corps veteran, marched carrying the flag of his armed forces division. Lizcano disagreed with the Iran war, which he said was not lawful and seemed designed to create profit for military contractors with ties to the Trump administration.<\/p>\n \u201cAll the people in the military following his orders right now, they\u2019re in a tough spot,\u201d Lizcano said. \u201cBut some of them should stand up and say no.\u201d<\/p>\n Speakers address crowd at state Capitol<\/p>\n Speakers started addressing the crowd near 1 p.m. in front of the Capitol, including Sandra Olewine, a bishop of the California-Nevada Conference of the United Methodist Church.<\/p>\n \u201cEvery day we wake up unsure of what new disaster or atrocity this administration might have carried out overnight,\u201d Olewine said.<\/p>\n \u201cThe rule of law, freedom of the press, the Bill of Rights, the Constitution itself seems little more than pieces of paper that are torn up and thrown aside by this administration,\u201d she continued, condemning the Trump administration\u2019s \u201cgreed, arrogance, ignorance, and cruelty.\u201d<\/p>\n Another speaker, immigration attorney Karen Pedraza, described a year of the Trump administration violating the civil rights of her clients.<\/p>\n \u201cICE has detained my clients with no due process,\u201d she told the crowd. \u201cThey have unlawfully transferred them to far away detention centers against a federal judges\u2019 orders.\u201d<\/p>\n Immigration agents, she said, \u201chave detained entire families who are following the rightful process set forward by the United States for lawful asylum.\u201d<\/p>\n This story was originally published March 28, 2026 at 2:44 PM.<\/p>\n Graham Womack<\/a><\/p>\n The Sacramento Bee<\/p>\n Graham Womack is a general assignment reporter for The Sacramento Bee. Prior to joining The Bee full-time in September 2025, he freelanced for the publication for several years. His work has won several California Journalism Awards and spurred state legislation.\n <\/p>\n![\"Protesters](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/SAC_0204_PK_20260328_NOKINGS.JPG\" "\\"SAC_0204_PK_20260328_NOKINGS.JPG\\"")
Protesters hold signs during a “No Kings” rally at the state Capitol in Sacramento on Saturday. PAUL KITAGAKI JR. pkitagaki@sacbee.com <\/p>\n![\"Protester](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/SAC_0348_PK_20260328_NOKINGS.JPG\" "\\"SAC_0348_PK_20260328_NOKINGS.JPG\\"")
Protester Gene Romagna of Sacramento applauds during a “No Kings” rally at the state Capitol on Saturday. PAUL KITAGAKI JR. pkitagaki@sacbee.com <\/p>\n
\n ![\"Profile](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/SAC_4089_GrahamWomack_HA_250908.jpg\")
\n <\/a><\/p>\n
![\"Profile](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/20220812_LS_Stephen_Hobbs_016a.jpg\")