Thousands protested Saturday against the war in Iran and President Donald Trump’s actions in a slate of events branded “No Kings” across the United States and in Europe, with organizers designating a Minnesota demonstration as the national flagship. In St. Paul, Minnesota, the Capitol lawn rally drew Bruce Springsteen as its headliner and framed the winter uprising as resistance to Trump’s aggressive immigration enforcement. Organizers also tied the demonstrations to broader grievances, including opposition to the United States’ war footing and domestic policy shifts.
Springsteen performed “Streets of Minneapolis,” the song he wrote after the fatal shootings of Renee Good and Alex Pretti by federal agents, and he lamented the deaths while linking the state’s pushback against ICE to hope for the rest of the country, according to the Associated Press report. Speaking from the stage, Springsteen said, “Your strength and your commitment told us that this was still America,” and later added that “this reactionary nightmare, and these invasions of American cities, will not stand.”
The AP report said U.S. organizers have described the “No Kings” rallies as drawing national scale beyond major urban centers, with organizers and participants traveling to events ranging from New York City to Driggs, Idaho, a town of fewer than 2,000 people in a state Trump carried with 66% of the vote in 2024. The group’s estimated earlier participation numbers were also cited: organizers said the first two rounds drew more than 5 million people in June and 7 million in October, while organizers expected 9 million participants Saturday, though it was not clear whether that target was met.
Organizers said they registered more than 3,100 events, including 500 more than in October, and that they had listings in all 50 states. The protests were largely described as peaceful, but the AP report also said some arrests were made. In Los Angeles, authorities deployed tear gas near a federal detention center downtown, and the Los Angeles Police Department later arrested people for failing to disperse; the report also described earlier dancing and a band playing Spanish-language music nearby.
In Denver, police said a small group of protesters blocked a road and did not leave after being asked, prompting the department to declare an unlawful assembly and deploy smoke canisters, according to the AP report. The report said some people threw the canisters back at officers and that at least eight people were arrested, with a ninth arrested later after police said the person was throwing objects.
The demonstrations drew sharp dismissal from Republican figures. White House spokesperson Abigail Jackson said the rallies were “leftist funding networks” with “little real public support,” adding, “The only people who care about these Trump Derangement Therapy Sessions are the reporters who are paid to cover them,” in a statement reported by the AP. The National Republican Congressional Committee also criticized the rallies, with spokesperson Maureen O’Toole saying, “These Hate America Rallies are where the far-left’s most violent, deranged fantasies get a microphone.”
Beyond immigration enforcement, speakers at the Minnesota rally and others nationwide listed additional grievances that included the war in Iran and opposition to a rollback of transgender rights, the AP reported. Speakers also criticized what they described as billionaires’ economic power, while some signs and slogans reflected a wide range of political themes. In Washington, hundreds marched past the Lincoln Memorial into the National Mall, holding signs such as “Put down the crown, clown” and “Regime change begins at home.” The report said Bill Jarcho, from Seattle, staged a “mock and awe” segment with six people dressed as insects in tactical vests labeled “LICE,” spoofing ICE.
Several speakers tied the protests to expectations that supporters in conservative-leaning areas were participating as well. Organizers said two-thirds of RSVPs came from outside major urban centers, including communities in states such as Idaho, Wyoming, Montana, Utah, South Dakota and Louisiana, as well as suburbs in competitive states including Pennsylvania, Georgia and Arizona. At a news conference in New York, Donna Lieberman, executive director of the New York Civil Liberties Union, said Trump and his supporters want people to be afraid to protest, adding, “They want us to be afraid that there’s nothing we can do to stop them,” before saying, “But you know what? They are wrong — dead wrong.”
The Minnesota event’s program included remarks from labor and elected officials and entertainment and political figures. Before Springsteen took the stage, organizers played a video featuring actor Robert DeNiro and described the segment as expressing depression about Trump during the week but relief on Saturday as “millions of people were protesting,” and congratulating Minnesotans for “running ICE out of town.” The AP report said the lineup also included singer Joan Baez, actor Jane Fonda, Vermont U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders, and a list of activists, labor leaders and elected officials, and that protesters held a large sign on the Capitol steps reading, “We had whistles, they had guns. The revolution starts in Minneapolis.” Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers, said, “Donald Trump may pretend that he’s not listening, but he can’t ignore the millions in the streets today.”
Organizers said demonstrations also took place in more than a dozen other countries, according to Indivisible co-executive director Ezra Levin, who helped spearhead the events. The AP report described marches in Rome with chants aimed at Italian Premier Giorgia Meloni, demonstrations in London with slogans including “Stop the far right” and “Stand up to Racism,” and a gathering in Paris at the Bastille attended by several hundred people, mostly Americans living in France, alongside labor unions and human rights organizations. At the same time, one organizer in the report, Ada Shen, said, “I protest all of Trump’s illegal, immoral, reckless and feckless, endless wars.”