The first \u201cNo Kings\u201d rallies took place in June<\/a> at the same time Trump held a military parade<\/a> in Washington D.C. The protests have received pushback from Republicans, who are calling the Oct. 18 protests the \u201cHate America Rally.\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n The protestors then marched down Grant Street to Mellon Square, holding signs that read \u201cICE is not welcome here\u201d and \u201cHistory is Repeating Itself \u201d while waving American flags and chanting, \u201cthis is what democracy looks like.\u201d<\/p>\n From the steps of the City-County building, Congresswoman Summer Lee (D-Swissvale) told the crowd to stand in \u201cradical solidarity\u201d with marginalized people, especially those \u201cbeing hunted by ICE<\/a>.\u201d She advised the crowd to be ready to fight for freedom and added that while she is away from Congress due to the government shutdown<\/a>, she will advocate for her constituents.<\/p>\n \u201cAn authoritarian needs people who are silent,\u201d Lee said. \u201c[Congressmen are] going to be wherever our people need us to be, and right now, people need us to remind them that in a democracy, that as long as we have one, that means that power belongs to the people.\u201d<\/p>\n In an interview with The Pitt News, Lee said Trump is becoming more severe in his actions every day as a political strategy.<\/p>\n \u201cWhat he\u2019s doing is he\u2019s stress-testing the system \u2014 seeing what we\u2019re willing to accept, what we\u2019re willing to fight back against, seeing how far he can take things,\u201d Lee said. \u201cEvery indicator right now is that he can take it a little bit farther every single time.\u201d<\/p>\n Protesters of all ages, from students to retirees, lined the streets of Downtown. Oliver Rosen, a junior biochemistry and English writing major at Pitt, said he attended to stand up for transgender rights, women\u2019s rights and \u2014 particularly \u2014 immigrants\u2019 rights.<\/p>\n \u201cI think it is absolutely deplorable, the way ICE is handling the treatments of immigrants in our country,\u201d Rosen said. \u201cWe should be standing with our constitution. I think that due process is important, and it\u2019s not being given to immigrants in this country.\u201d<\/p>\n Sofiah Bozenske, a sophomore music education student at Duquesne University, said she has friends who are either immigrants or have immigrant parents and friends who are part of the LGBTQ+ community, who she feels she needs to speak out for. She also said she wants to safeguard the right to a diverse education because she will become a teacher in the future.<\/p>\n \u201cI want to fight for our children to have a good education,\u201d Bozenske said. \u201cThe part about controlling what\u2019s in museums \u2014 because I\u2019m a music major and art is something so close to me \u2014 it feels like I need to resist that.\u201d<\/p>\n Andrew Koffmann, a retired Pitt psychology professor, shared concerns about higher education and research institutions being attacked by the Trump administration<\/a>. Koffman recently travelled to Germany, where he saw universities taking initiative to recruit American students<\/a> to work in a more \u201cfavorable atmosphere.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Koffman said many of his former colleagues at Pitt have faced tough situations due to drastic cuts to research funding by the current administration<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cThe graduate students that I used to teach are having difficulty finding research positions. Grants aren\u2019t being funded. Former students tell me that their grants have been funded, but the money is simply not forthcoming,\u201d Koffmann said. \u201cIt really has thrown research in health care into a tailspin.\u201d<\/p>\n Addressing the crowd, Vic Walczak, the legal director for the ACLU of Pennsylvania<\/a>, read a list of his grievances with the Trump administration. The crowd responded to each item by shouting, \u201cNot OK.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Walczak said people should speak out against actions like the deployment of the national guard, use of masked<\/a> ICE agents and intimidation<\/a> to threaten universities and the media by using their free speech.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cEvery fight ever won started with free speech, with the freedom to say \u2018Not today, not anymore, not like this,\u2019\u201d Walczak said. \u201cThere\u2019s a reason freedom of speech is in the First Amendment. Democracy only works when we can criticize our government, demand accountability and push ideas to make us better as a nation.\u201d<\/p>\n Sara Innamorato, the Allegheny County executive, told the crowd the county office is \u201cfighting back against the chaos and cruelty of this administration,\u201d through initiatives like joining a lawsuit<\/a> with other counties against the Trump administration\u2019s withholding of federal funds because of local immigration enforcement policies.<\/p>\n \u201c[We are working on] keeping the National Guard off of these streets because we are suing the Trump administration,\u201d Innamorato said. \u201cAs Republican leadership attacks our immigrant neighbors, we found the money to keep refugees and immigrants here in Allegheny County so they can call this place home.\u201d<\/p>\n Innamorato told The Pitt News about the county\u2019s effort in February to help resettle refugee families<\/a> in Pittsburgh after the federal government stopped federal aid. Innamorato added she\u2019s \u201cappalled at the cruelty in which ICE is arresting immigrants and raiding our local restaurants<\/a>.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201c[Immigrants] add a tremendous amount of economic development [by] creating businesses, [and working] in the fields of research and high technology,\u201d Innamorato said. \u201cAnd the federal government coming down on this and causing chaos and uncertainty and scaring people is going to be felt long-term in our neighborhoods.\u201d<\/p>\n Lauren Coonfare from New Castle said she feels relatively insulated from federal policies by living in Pennsylvania, where the governor is a Democrat. However, she doesn\u2019t believe the state is \u201c100 percent protected\u201d and is concerned about Trump\u2019s intimidation of immigrants reaching Pittsburgh.<\/p>\n \u201cThe last couple of weeks, it\u2019s been circulating about the presence of Homeland Security and ICE [in Pittsburgh], and that in and of itself just scares people. It brings people up in arms. It makes people afraid,\u201d Coonfare said. \u201cUntil you see it, you don\u2019t know if it\u2019s actually happening or not. But the thought about it alone is mortifying.\u201d<\/p>\n Jacob Ranelli from Brookline said he is mostly concerned about Trump\u2019s strict actions towards immigrants, which he views as a warning for all citizens\u2019 freedom of speech.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cOnce you lose your freedom of speech, you really lose everything, and there\u2019s nothing left in democracy,\u201d Ranelli said. \u201cWe need everyone to know it\u2019s not left versus right. It truly is up versus down.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Thousands of people rallied in Downtown Pittsburgh on Saturday afternoon, calling for \u201cNo Kings\u201d in America. The protest…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":8838,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[7464,3296,73,75,74,7465,5610],"class_list":{"0":"post-8837","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-pittsburgh","8":"tag-anti-trump-protests","9":"tag-national-politics","10":"tag-pittsburgh","11":"tag-pittsburgh-headlines","12":"tag-pittsburgh-news","13":"tag-pittsburgh-protest","14":"tag-president-trump"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8837","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8837"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8837\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8838"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8837"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8837"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8837"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/AJ_No-Kings-27-600x400.jpg\")
Pennsylvania congresswoman Summer Lee addresses the crowd at the No Kings Protest on Saturday in downtown Pittsburgh.
(Alex Jurkuta | Contributing Editor)<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/AJ_No-Kings-13-600x400.jpg\")
Vic Walzack, legal director for the ACLU of Pennsylvania, addresses the crowd at the No Kings Protest on Saturday in downtown Pittsburgh.
(Alex Jurkuta | Contributing Editor)<\/p>\n