Demonstrations took place in New York, Chicago, San Francisco, Los Angeles and New Orleans, among others – but also in small cities in the center of the USA. In some places, US citizens also gathered on the side of roads to express their protest against Trump.
At several events, participants carried banners depicting Trump as the embodiment of Soviet dictator Josef Stalin, the Queen of England or the Sun King Louis XIV. Slogans often called on the Republican to resign. Other participants called for the abolition of the immigration police ICE, which has been cracking down on irregular immigrants for months at Trump’s direction.
Republican leaders sharply criticized the protesters. House Speaker Mike Johnson spoke to reporters of an “America hate rally.” The organizers of the demonstrations are bringing together “Marxists, socialists, antifa supporters, anarchists and the pro-Hamas wing of the radical left-wing Democratic Party,” he added. Trump himself was comparatively cautious about the protests. He said on Fox News television: “They say they call me a king. I’m not a king.”
In New York, hospital worker Stephanie, who did not want to give her last name, summed up her feelings about Trump’s governing style: “The president is a disgrace, and I hope millions take to the streets today,” she said in New York. The 36-year-old was among several hundred demonstrators who gathered in the Queens district that morning to protest against Trump. Participants chanted, among other things, “We love our country, we can’t stand Trump.” They also held placards that read “No Kings.”
A little later, thousands of people gathered in the world-famous Times Square in the east coast metropolis to demonstrate against Trump. According to the New York Police Department, more than 100,000 people took to the streets “peacefully” in the city.
Protests against the president were also reported in Boston and Chicago. In Washington, thousands of demonstrators chanted “This is what democracy looks like” and “Donald Trump must go.” They gathered near the National Mall, along which the city’s landmarks stretch.
“The president believes his rule is absolute. But in America we have no kings,” said the website of the “No Kings” movement, which brings together around 300 organizations. “We will not back down from chaos, corruption and cruelty.”
Among other things, Trump’s dispatch of National Guard troops to several cities governed by the opposition Democrats recently caused outrage in the USA. The Trump administration’s violent crackdown on irregular migrants and increasingly strict restrictions on media reporting have also met with sharp criticism.
On June 14, hundreds of thousands of people demonstrated against Trump in several US cities under the slogan “No Kings”. The occasion was a military parade in Washington to mark the 250th anniversary of the US Army, which Trump had wanted and which coincided with his 79th birthday.
