In the USA, opponents of President Donald Trump’s policies have once again called for nationwide protests. Demonstrations took place in numerous places under the motto “No Kings”. The organizers said they wanted to send a signal against what they saw as Trump’s authoritarian policies. At noon (local time) they announced that millions of people were taking part in peaceful demonstrations in more than 800 cities. CNN reported 2,500 protests across the country.
There were protests in several places in the east coast metropolis of New York. According to the New York police, more than 100,000 people took part in the various actions – so there were no riots; no one was arrested.
A protest helper told the German Press Agency at Times Square that the crowd had filled the street south to Union Square – over several kilometers. There were also protests in the capital Washington, Boston, Atlanta, Chicago, Los Angeles and numerous other cities. In Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, thousands of people took to the streets, as a dpa reporter reported. People also took part in the rallies in smaller towns such as Bethesda in the Washington area and in Sarasota County in Florida.
The movement’s website says Trump’s administration is sending “masked agents onto our streets,” terrorizing communities and arresting people without warrants. He is also accused of threatening elections, dismantling health and environmental protections and giving benefits to billionaires while many families suffer from rising living costs. “The president believes his power is absolute,” it continues. “But in America we don’t have kings.”
Since Trump’s second inauguration at the end of January, there have been significantly more demonstrations in the United States than during his first term in office. This emerges from counts by the “Crowd Consortium” at Harvard University. In mid-June, several million people took to the streets in the “No Kings” protests – the mass protest is considered one of the largest in US history.
