It was a beautiful day for a walk on Saturday, which several million patriotic Americans did (including yours truly!) for the third No Kings protest of the second Trump term sentence. And just as expected, more people showed up than at the major 2025 rallies: Hands Off saw 3-5 million, the first No Kings saw 6 million, and the second No Kings saw 7 million. But this time, amid a war in Iran no one wants, ICE agents murdering US citizens, and the ongoing saga of the Epstein Files, a whopping 8 MILLION people united in joyful yet rageful opposition to the worst president our country has ever seen. And we made history in the process, making Saturday’s No Kings protest the largest single-day demonstration in US history since 20 million celebrated the very first Earth Day in 1970.
Dogs marched too!! “A divine entanglement of democracy,” Sarah Elizabeth Greer, 56, called it as she marched in Manhattan, pushing her two tiny dogs in a cart festooned with a pair of handwritten signs: “NO barKING” and “BITE the Power!”
WH spox’s lame pre-response: “Trump derangement therapy sessions,” spokeswoman Abigail Jackson called them beforehand, of interest only to “the reporters who are paid to cover them.” National Republican Congressional Committee spokesman Mike Marinella called them “hate America rallies.”
The largest US demonstration since the first Earth Day in 1970: The organizers’ crowd count, not verified by independent analysts, put the total at 8 million people, topping the 7 million estimated at the previous No Kings day, in October. This time, there were more events scheduled — 3,300 versus 2,700 — and larger crowds were reported in some places, boosted in part by opposition to the war in Iran. The only larger single-day protest ever held in the United States was the first Earth Day in 1970, when an estimated 20 million participated in environmental rallies and teach-ins.
More impressive numbers: In a nation with a population approaching 349 million, the participation of 8 million people means that more than 1 of every 50 U.S. residents joined a No Kings rally. Organizers said two-thirds of participants who signed up live in suburban, small town or rural areas. That’s a 40% increase over last time in protesters from outside big cities. … But the fact that the rallies were in local plazas and the marchers headed down hometown streets also, presumably, makes it more difficult for critics to dismiss the protests as the province of radical liberals from the East and West coasts.
Soooo much to protest: Protesters’ signs opposed the war in Iran, decried the cost of housing and health care, supported Ukraine in its war with Russia and raised the Jeffrey Epstein scandal. Some of them called for Trump’s impeachment. “Arrest Them!” demanded a banner at one of the marches in Washington, DC, listing the names of Vice President JD Vance, Secretary of War Pete Hegseth, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt and others. At some rallies, there were signs to “Abolish ICE.” A Palestinian flag waved among the crowd at one of the marches in Washington, DC.
Beyond the Democratic Party: The No Kings movement hasn’t depended on the Democratic Party to organize its protests; it’s built its own infrastructure using social media and digital resources. The coalition of labor unions, progressive activists, civil rights groups and others who sponsor it include established organizations such as Public Citizen, MoveOn and the Human Rights Campaign and newer groups such as Indivisible and 50501. They have appealed to progressives who find the Democratic Party too moderate as well as to the tide of independent voters, some of them centrists, who have been disenchanted by both major parties. “Eggs are Expensive BC All the Chickens Are In Congress,” read a woman’s sign in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware.
Damn, that “Eggs are Expensive BC All the Chickens Are In Congress” line is eggsellent! I always love the creativity on display in the signs. The top three I saw marching down 7th Avenue in NYC: “You can take the Ayatollah out of Iran, but you can’t take Trump out of the Epstein Files,” “Know Your Parasites: Deer Tick, Dog Tick, Luna Tick,” (complete with appropriate pictures), and, my absolute favorite, “Terminate Unwanted Presidency.” Really, there’s such a clusterf–k of catastrophes, the hardest part was picking which single issue to address in your poster. The cynics and naysayers will say these protests don’t mean anything, but I respectfully disagree. With this president in particular — for whom so many of his adulthood problems stem from an unhinged need to be liked by others — I think it matters a great deal to show him just how bigly he isn’t liked. And as my friends and I palpably felt the increased crowd size in NYC, it warmed my heart to know his hometown was sending him the undeniable message that we despise him.
MASSIVE Anti-Trump Protests Across America for No Kings Day pic.twitter.com/C02WhMn8ei — Ryan Rozbiani (@RyanRozbiani) March 28, 2026
My Favorite sign of all time at a No Kings Protest.
So F–king True! pic.twitter.com/YgoD6NreP3
— Brian Krassenstein (@krassenstein) March 29, 2026
Photos credit: Andrew Thomas/CNP/INSTARimages, Getty Images