ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) — Large crowds protested Saturday against the war in Iran and President Donald Trump’s actions in “No Kings” 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.
Minnesota’s flagship event on the Capitol lawn in St. Paul drew Bruce Springsteen as 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.
Springsteen performed “ Streets of Minneapolis,” the song he wrote in response to the fatal shootings of Renee Good and Alex Pretti by federal agents. Springsteen lamented Good and Pretti’s deaths but said the state’s pushback against ICE gave the rest of the country hope.
“Your strength and your commitment told us that this was still America,” he said. “And this reactionary nightmare, and these invasions of American cities, will not stand.”
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.
Big but mostly peaceful crowds
U.S. organizers have estimated that the first two rounds of No Kings rallies drew more than 5 million people in June and 7 million in October. They expected 9 million participants Saturday, though it was not clear whether those expectations were met.
Organizers said more than 3,100 events — 500 more than in October — were registered, in all 50 states.
Protests were mostly peaceful, but some arrests were reported.
In Los Angeles, authorities deployed tear gas near a federal detention center downtown. One man had a leaf blower, attempting to clear the air. The Los Angeles Police Department later arrested people for failing to disperse. Earlier in the day, a band was playing and people were dancing to Spanish-language music.
The Denver Police Department said on the social platform X that it declared an unlawful assembly and deployed smoke canisters after a small group of protesters blocked a road and did not leave as asked. Some threw the canisters back at officers, police said. At least eight people were arrested, as was a ninth person later on who police said was throwing objects.
GOP officials dismissive of protests
White House spokesperson Abigail Jackson called them the product of “leftist funding networks” with little real public support.
The “only people who care about these Trump Derangement Therapy Sessions are the reporters who are paid to cover them,” Jackson said in a statement.
The National Republican Congressional Committee was also sharply critical.
“These Hate America Rallies are where the far-left’s most violent, deranged fantasies get a microphone,” spokesperson Maureen O’Toole said.
Protesters have a long list of causes
Trump’s immigration enforcement push, particularly in Minnesota, was just one item on a long list of grievances that also included the war in Iran and the rollback of transgender rights. Speakers at the Minnesota rally decried billionaires’ economic power.
In Washington, hundreds marched past the Lincoln Memorial and into the National Mall, holding signs that read “Put down the crown, clown” and “Regime change begins at home.” ”
Bill Jarcho was there from Seattle, joined by six people dressed as insects wearing tactical vests that said, “LICE” — spoofing ICE — as part of what he called a “mock and awe” tour.
“What we provide is mockery to the king,” Jarcho said. “It’s about taking authoritarianism and making fun of it, which they hate.”
About 40,000 people marched in San Diego, police there said.
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.
“They want us to be afraid that there’s nothing we can do to stop them,” she said. “But you know what? They are wrong — dead wrong.”
In Topeka, Kansas, a protesters dressed up in an inflatable frog costume and a baby version of Trump. Wendy Wyatt showed up with a “Cats Against Trump” sign. Many things upset her about the administration, she said, but the rallies are “very hopeful to me.”
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 as suburbs in electorally competitive Pennsylvania, Georgia and Arizona.
Main event at the Minnesota Capitol
Organizers designated the rally there as the national flagship event.
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.
The bill also included singer Joan Baez, actor Jane Fonda, Vermont U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders and a long list of activists, labor leaders and elected officials.
Protesters held up a massive sign on the Capitol steps that read, “We had whistles, they had guns. The revolution starts in Minneapolis.”
“Donald Trump may pretend that he’s not listening, but he can’t ignore the millions in the streets today,” said Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers.
Rallies overseas
Demonstrations were also held in more than a dozen other countries, according to co-executive director Ezra Levin of Indivisible, which spearheaded the events.
In Rome, thousands marched with chants aimed at Premier Giorgia Meloni, whose conservative government saw its referendum for streamlining Italy’s judiciary fail badly this week. Protesters also waved banners protesting Israeli and US attacks on Iran.
In London, demonstrators held banners with slogans such as “Stop the far right” and “Stand up to Racism.”
And in Paris, several hundred people, mostly Americans living in France, along with labor unions and human rights organizations, gathered at the Bastille.
“I protest all of Trump’s illegal, immoral, reckless and feckless, endless wars,” organizer Ada Shen said.
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Richmond reported from Madison, Wisconsin, and Hanna from Topeka, Kansas. Associated Press journalists Jennifer Sinco Kelleher in Honolulu; Nicholas Garriga in Paris; Mike Pesoli in Washington; Colleen Berry in Milan; Amy Taxin in Santa Ana, California; and Jill Connelly in Los Angeles contributed.