Thousands of people gathered across Long Island Saturday from Port Washington to East Hampton for more than a dozen “No Kings” rallies.<\/p>\n
The rallies in Nassau and Suffolk counties are part of a national protest day that organizers hope will bring out big crowds at sites across the country to voice opposition to the Trump administration.<\/p>\n
Scores of protesters lined Nesconset Highway between Route 112 and Davis Avenue in Port Jefferson Station,\u00a0some wearing outfits ranging from Revolutionary War-era attire to alien costumes.<\/p>\n
Colette Rodriguez, 72, of Port Jefferson Station, said she was “absolutely stunned” at the turnout.<\/p>\n
“We come to all of the rallies and we\u2019ve never seen this,” she said.<\/p>\n
Her husband, James, said people are “now seeing the reality” of the Trump administration.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The couple cited issues ranging from the administration\u2019s cuts to the federal workforce\u00a0to the worries that \u201cevery time [Trump] has an enemy, he sees them as a public enemy.\u201d<\/p>\n
Stuart Markus, 61, of Malverne, played guitar and sang songs into a microphone.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is people all over the county making a stand, saying, \u2018no, we have democratic traditions here,” he said.\u00a0“We are supposed to be a republic with a Congress that stands up to the president when he tries to exert too much power.”\u00a0<\/p>\n
Standing near the steps of the Nassau County Courthouse in Mineola, Larry Hass said there is a cumulative effect of the nationwide protests that have\u00a0drawn tens of thousands of people on Long Island during Trump’s second term.<\/p>\n
“Every change always started in the streets,” said Hass, 68, of Syosset.<\/p>\n
Hass, who said he receives Social Security benefits and Medicare, expressed concern the government would cut those services.<\/p>\n
“We gotta do something to stop this,” he said.<\/p>\n
Halle Brenner-Perles, 55, of East Northport, a co-founder of Show Up Long Island, organized the Mineola rally with Engage Long Island and Long Island Network for Change.<\/p>\n
Brenner-Perles, a registered Democrat,\u00a0said motivating factors for organizing the event include fear of National Guard deployments, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement raids, the loss of health care coverage, Trump administration cuts at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and what she described as a trend toward authoritarian rule.<\/p>\n
Rachel Klein, the founder of EngageLI, said Saturday’s gatherings are\u00a0“very much a ‘save our democracy’ event.”<\/p>\n
Protesters on Saturday were urged to wear yellow as a “shared signal, bright, bold and impossible to ignore,” according to a “No Kings” webpage. In Mineola, many in the crowd wore yellow bandanas.<\/p>\n
Standing near a police barricade separating the lawn of the courthouse from Old Country Road in Garden City, Ellie Cobain said she became motivated to attend a “No Kings”\u00a0rally for the first time because of the “lies” of the Trump administration.<\/p>\n
“There’s a whole lot of crazy going on,” said Cobain, 50, of Long Beach. “I cannot believe the people who just support Trump. It’s mind boggling on every level.”<\/p>\n
Republican leaders dismissed concerns raised by protesters and said their anger should be aimed at Democrats for the ongoing federal government shutdown.<\/p>\n
Suffolk County Republican Committee Chairman Jesse Garcia, in an interview Saturday, called the rallies “nothing more than a public relations campaign by Democrats who do not have solutions.” He referred to the demonstrators as “paid protesters.”\u00a0<\/p>\n
“All they do is scream, they yell, they dance, they make a mockery of themselves without offering solutions,” he said.<\/p>\n
David Laska, director of communications for the New York State Republican Party, said in an emailed statement: “Americans are too smart to be lectured about political norms by a party that shut down the government over health care for illegals, wishes death upon the children of their political opponents and nominated a defund-the-police Hamas supporter for Mayor of New York City.”<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Suffolk County police estimated 1,000 people lined the shore near Great Patchogue Lake for the event. Credit: Neil Miller<\/p>\n
Suffolk County police estimated 1,000 people lined the shore near Great Patchogue Lake for the event there, which started at noon.\u00a0They hoisted\u00a0signs, waved\u00a0American flags and blew\u00a0bubbles as cars passed on Holbrook Road.<\/p>\n
A quartet of musicians led a marching band rendition of \u201cThis Land is Your Land,\u201d singing verses over protest chants.<\/p>\n
A group of unionized health care workers joined the rally to push back against deep cuts to health care and Medicare they said put\u00a0their jobs and patients at risk.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s dangerous,\u201d said Matthew Smith, 35, of Mastic.<\/p>\n
Smith, a delegate for 1199 SEIU United Health Care workers employed at Stony Brook Southampton Hospital, said those cuts have a mental health impact. \u201cPeople don\u2019t know where their next meal is coming from, if they\u2019re going to have someone to help them. It\u2019s just really terrible what we\u2019re seeing.\u201d<\/p>\n
Wearing cardboard crowns embellished with \u201cno kings,\u201d Krista Revak, 58, stood shoulder-to-shoulder with her 85-year-old father, Michael Revak.<\/p>\n
Michael Revak fled Romania as a child during World War II and said Trump\u2019s administration poses a threat to democracy.<\/p>\n
\u201cI had seen it coming,\u201d he said. \u201cI\u2019m concerned about my grandchildren and children. The next generation gets stuck with this system. And it\u2019s not fun.\u201d<\/p>\n
His daughter\u00a0agreed, adding that she\u2019s most concerned with how immigrants are being treated.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey\u2019re paying into Social Security just like the rest of us are,\u201d Krista said. \u201cWe were all immigrants somewhere along the line.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u00a0Protecting free speech was a key theme at Saturday\u2019s demonstrations.<\/p>\n
Chloe Virgona of Islip wore a yellow bandana in her braided hair and held the text of the first amendment on a large board at the Patchogue rally.<\/p>\n
\u201c[Trump] is trying to prosecute his political opponents, going after Jimmy Kimmel, saying anyone who\u2019s anti-fascist can be considered a terrorist so that way they lose their rights and they can be fast-tracked to jail, which is against our fundamental rights,\u201d said Virgona, 37.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The scheduled protests drew\u00a0condemnation from some top U.S. politicians, among them House Speaker Mike Johnson, who\u00a0dubbed the event the “Hate America Rally.”<\/p>\n
In a statement Friday, Suffolk police said residents can expect “an increased police presence at each rally” within its patrol areas. Nassau police and other local agencies could not confirm plans to be more visible at rallies.<\/p>\n
In a social media post Saturday morning, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) urged people to exercise their right to free speech.<\/p>\n
“Do not let Donald Trump and Republicans intimidate you into silence,” he said. “That’s what they want to do. They’re afraid of the truth.”<\/p>\n
Garcia said protesters should focus instead on Schumer and “urge him to open up the government.”<\/p>\n
The first nationwide “No Kings” protests were\u00a0held in June on the day of a military parade celebrating the 250th birthday of the U.S. Army in Washington, D.C., as well as Trump’s 79th birthday. Thousands of Long Islanders rallied in the rain that day<\/a> to protest a perceived abuse of power by the president.<\/p>\n Saturday’s rallies are\u00a0being held on the 18th day of the federal government shutdown<\/a>. No resolution appeared on the horizon as both parties continued a stalemate driven largely by health insurance subsidies<\/a> put in place in 2021 that are set to expire Dec. 31. Democrats have demanded the subsidies are made permanent, while Republicans insist they were only meant to be temporary.<\/p>\n