![\"No](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/1774729451201.png\")
No Kings Rally in Minneapolis -image courtesy CSPAN<\/p>\nNo Kings Rally in Minneapolis -image courtesy CSPAN<\/p>\n
By MARK VANCLEAVE, STEVE KARNOWSKI, TODD RICHMOND and JOHN HANNA Associated Press<\/p>\n
ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) \u2014 Large\u00a0crowds protested<\/a>\u00a0Saturday against the war in Iran and\u00a0President Donald Trump’s actions<\/a>\u00a0in \u201cNo Kings\u201d rallies across the U.S. and in Europe. Minnesota took center stage, with thousands of people standing shoulder-to-shoulder to celebrate resistance to Trump’s aggressive immigration enforcement.<\/p>\n Minnesota’s flagship event on the Capitol lawn in St. Paul drew\u00a0Bruce Springsteen<\/a>\u00a0as its headliner. He and other speakers praised the state’s people for taking to the streets over the winter in opposition to a surge of U.S. Customs and Immigration Enforcement agents.<\/p>\n Springsteen performed \u201c\u00a0Streets of Minneapolis<\/a>,\u201d the song he wrote in response to the fatal shootings of\u00a0Renee Good<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Alex Pretti<\/a>\u00a0by federal agents. Springsteen lamented Good and Pretti\u2019s deaths but said the state’s pushback against ICE has given the rest of the country hope.<\/p>\n \u201cYour strength and your commitment told us that this was still America,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd this reactionary nightmare, and these invasions of American cities, will not stand.\u201d<\/p>\n People rallied from New York City, with almost 8.5 million residents in a solidly blue state, to Driggs, a town of fewer than 2,000 people in eastern Idaho, a state Trump carried with 66% of the vote in 2024.<\/p>\n U.S. organizers have estimated that the first two rounds of No Kings rallies drew more than 5 million people\u00a0in June<\/a>\u00a0and 7 million\u00a0in October.<\/a>\u00a0This week they told reporters they expected 9 million participants Saturday, though it was too early to tell whether those expectations were met.<\/p>\n Organizers said\u00a0more than 3,100 events<\/a>\u00a0\u2014 500 more than in October \u2014 were registered, in all 50 states.<\/p>\n In Topeka, Kansas, a rally outside the Statehouse had people impersonating a frog king and Trump as a baby. Wendy Wyatt drove with \u201cCats Against Trump\u201d sign from Lawrence, 20 miles to the east, and planned to drive back to her hometown for a later rally there.<\/p>\n Wyatt said \u201cthere are so many things\u201d about the Trump administration that upset her, but \u201cthis is very hopeful to me.\u201d<\/p>\n In Los Angeles, demonstrators marched beneath a floating inflatable caricature resembling a baby Trump wearing a diaper. They also carried signs with slogans such as \u201cWar Crimes don\u2019t hide sex crimes\u201d and \u201cImmigrants make America Great.\u201d Outside the federal building in downtown, a crowd faced a line of California National Guard soldiers.<\/p>\n GOP officials dismissive of protests<\/p>\n White House spokesperson Abigail Jackson characterized them as the product of \u201cleftist funding networks\u201d with little real public support.<\/p>\n The \u201conly people who care about these Trump Derangement Therapy Sessions are the reporters who are paid to cover them,\u201d Jackson said in a statement.<\/p>\n The National Republican Congressional Committee was also sharply critical.<\/p>\n \u201cThese Hate America Rallies are where the far-left\u2019s most violent, deranged fantasies get a microphone,\u201d NRCC spokesperson Maureen O\u2019Toole said.<\/p>\n Protesters have a long list of causes<\/p>\n Trump’s immigration enforcement push, particularly in Minnesota, was just one item on a long list of protester grievances that also included the war in Iran and the\u00a0rollback of transgender rights<\/a>. Speakers at the Minnesota rally decried billionaires’ economic power.<\/p>\n In Washington, hundreds marched past the Lincoln Memorial and into the National Mall, holding signs that read \u201cPut down the crown, clown\u201d and \u201cRegime change begins at home.\u201d Demonstrators rang bells, banged drums and chanted \u201cNo kings.\u201d<\/p>\n Bill Jarcho was there from Seattle, joined by six people dressed as insects wearing tactical vests that said, \u201cLICE\u201d \u2014 spoofing ICE \u2014 as part of what he called a \u201cmock and awe\u201d tour.<\/p>\n \u201cWhat we provide is mockery to the king,\u201d Jarcho said. \u201cIt\u2019s about taking authoritarianism and making fun of it, which they hate.\u201d<\/p>\n About 40,000 people marched in San Diego, police there said.<\/p>\n In New York, Donna Lieberman, executive director of the New York Civil Liberties Union, said during a news conference that Trump and his supporters want people to be afraid to protest.<\/p>\n \u201cThey want us to be afraid that there\u2019s nothing we can do to stop them,\u201d she said. \u201cBut you know what? They are wrong \u2014 dead wrong.\u201d<\/p>\n Organizers said two-thirds of RSVPs for the rallies came from outside of major urban centers. That included communities in conservative-leaning states like Idaho, Wyoming, Montana, Utah, South Dakota and Louisiana, as well in electorally competitive suburbs in Pennsylvania, Georgia and Arizona.<\/p>\n Main event at the Minnesota Capitol<\/p>\n Organizers designated the rally there as the national flagship event.<\/p>\n Before Springsteen took the stage, organizers played a video in which actor Robert DeNiro said he wakes up every morning depressed because of Trump but was happier Saturday because millions of people were protesting. He also congratulated Minnesotans for running ICE out of town.<\/p>\n The bill also included singer\u00a0Joan Baez<\/a>, actor\u00a0Jane Fonda<\/a>, Vermont U.S.\u00a0Sen. Bernie Sanders<\/a>\u00a0and a long list of activists, labor leaders and elected officials.<\/p>\n Protesters held up a massive sign on the Capitol steps that read, \u201cWe had whistles, they had guns. The revolution starts in Minneapolis.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cDonald Trump may pretend that he\u2019s not listening, but he can\u2019t ignore the millions in the streets today,\u201d said Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers.<\/p>\n Rallies overseas<\/p>\n Demonstrations were also planned in more than a dozen other countries, from Europe to Latin America to Australia, according to Ezra Levin, a co-executive director of Indivisible, a group spearheading the events. In countries with constitutional monarchies, people call the protests \u201cNo Tyrants,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n![\"Kansas](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/1774729797201.png\")
Kansas City area rally -photo courtesy KCTV<\/p>\n![\"At](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/1774729400633.png\")
At the rally in Minneapolis-image courtesy CSPANBiggest crowds yet expected<\/p>\n![\"No](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/1774734124101.jpeg\")
No Kings rally in Hays, Kansas -Photo by Tony Guerrero\/Hays Post<\/p>\n