ORLANDO, Fla. \u2013 Hundreds of people gathered outside Orlando City Hall on Saturday morning, chanting, waving homemade signs and calling for what they described as a \u201cstand for democracy.\u201d<\/p>\n
The event marked the latest in a series of \u201cNo Kings\u201d protests \u2014 a movement that has steadily grown in size and passion since earlier this year.<\/p>\n
In Central Florida, at least 18 No Kings rallies<\/a> are expected from Palm Coast to Poinciana, and of course, in Orlando. They\u2019re among 2,500 expected protests nationwide.<\/p>\n \u201cI was not going to miss the protest. I\u2019ve been to every protest since January,\u201d one demonstrator said.<\/p>\n [EXCLUSIVE: Become a News 6 Insider (it\u2019s FREE)<\/a> | PINIT! Share your photos<\/a>]<\/p>\n Protesters of all ages filled the downtown streets, some saying they were motivated by fear for the country\u2019s future.<\/p>\n \u201cWe are literally in the middle of a fascist government, authoritarian takeover. And if we don\u2019t stand up now, things are going to get worse,\u201d a protester said.<\/p>\n Others shared that the rally was their first act of public dissent in decades.<\/p>\n \u201cThe last time I protested was 54 years ago against the Vietnam War,\u201d another demonstrator said. \u201cI felt like I just couldn\u2019t stay home and sit still any longer.\u201d<\/p>\n Among those attending were military veterans, who said speaking out was part of their duty.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019ve never been to a protest before,\u201d one veteran said. \u201cI\u2019m just out here to support dissent against what\u2019s going on right now in our country.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI think it\u2019s the American not only right, but duty to stand up for your country and the people in your country, whether they\u2019re citizens or not,\u201d another added.<\/p>\n Orlando police officers maintained a visible presence throughout the event, monitoring crowds and ensuring safety. Authorities reported the demonstration remained peaceful.<\/p>\n Lake County Commissioner Anthony Sabatini criticized what he called the movement\u2019s \u201cvulgar rhetoric.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cEverybody has a right to protest, but I think their protests are extremely vulgar,\u201d Sabatini said. \u201cCalling ICE the new Gestapo is completely wrong.\u201d<\/p>\n Sabatini added that he believes the movement\u2019s momentum stems more from anger toward President Donald Trump than from constructive goals.<\/p>\n \u201cI think they\u2019re completely incoherent,\u201d he said. \u201cThey know they don\u2019t like Trump, but I don\u2019t know if you can build a political party on just hating one person.\u201d<\/p>\n Breaking News Alerts<\/p>\n Get breaking news alerts delivered to your inbox.<\/p>\n Copyright 2025 by WKMG ClickOrlando – All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ORLANDO, Fla. \u2013 Hundreds of people gathered outside Orlando City Hall on Saturday morning, chanting, waving homemade signs…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":10277,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[3852,8835,1335,139,141,140,99],"class_list":{"0":"post-10276","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-orlando","8":"tag-no-kings","9":"tag-no-kings-protest","10":"tag-orange-county","11":"tag-orlando","12":"tag-orlando-headlines","13":"tag-orlando-news","14":"tag-politics"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10276","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10276"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10276\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10277"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10276"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10276"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10276"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}