Something extraordinary is unfolding across America today, and across the world. Millions of people have taken to the streets in what organizers are calling the single largest nonviolent day of action in United States history. Nine million people were expected at No Kings protests today. More than 3,300 events were registered across all 50 states. This is No Kings Day 3, and it’s unlike anything this country has ever seen.
Organizers said the protests today were larger than the Women’s March and larger than the Vietnam War protests.
We’ll also explain how the billionaire press — including the New York Times — tried to smear and belittle the largest protest in U.S. history. It’s ugly and predictable. If you’re just getting home from the protest and want to make a difference, please consider supporting independent media today.
At the end of this email, we’ve also included some of the best protest signs we saw today.
Let’s go city by city.
Minneapolis — St. Paul: The Heart of the Movement
The flagship rally today was in Minnesota. This is where federal agents shot and killed two American citizens, Alex Pretti and Renee Good, during Trump’s immigration crackdown in January.
Bruce Springsteen performed his new protest anthem at the Minnesota State Capitol, joined by Joan Baez, Maggie Rogers, and Jane Fonda. Bernie Sanders, Governor Tim Walz, Attorney General Keith Ellison, and Rep. Ilhan Omar spoke. The rally was not a political event. It was a reckoning.
New York City
In Manhattan, protesters held anti-ICE, anti-Trump and anti-Iran war signs, chanting as they marched south from Midtown. One 81-year-old demonstrator who started protesting during the Vietnam War told CNN she believes nothing compares to what is happening today. “We were suffering then,” she said. “But not like we are now.” More than 100,000 protesters participated in New York during October’s demonstrations, reaching over 350,000 across the five boroughs. Today’s numbers are expected to exceed that.
Washington, D.C.
This morning, a group of people marched from Arlington, Virginia, to the National Mall, chanting to a steady drumbeat: “No justice, no peace. No ICE in our streets.” Previous No Kings demonstrations saw more than 200,000 protesters in the capital alone.
Raw America’s Luke De Cresce was on the ground for the flagship march to Fort McNair in Washington, DC. Many of Trump’s appointees have relocated to the military base in an effort to seclude themselves from criticism around the city.
Raw America’s Luke De Cresce in Washington, D.C.
Luke writes: “Today, however, No Kings wanted to make one message clear: Stephen Miller, the far-right Trump appointee and Fort McNair resident who has exercised a major influence on this administration’s policy direction, needs to be removed from office immediately.
“I caught the protest at 1:30 p.m. at the edge of Anacostia Park,” he adds. “Protesters marched around the fort, demanding that Miller leave his fortress and be removed from his post. Though Miller failed to face his critics, the mood of the protest was celebratory, as people from all around the country gathered to shut down the places where the Cabinet members hide.”
San Francisco and the Bay Area
Protesters flooded San Francisco’s Embarcadero Plaza wielding American flags and No Kings signs, marching down Market Street to Civic Center Plaza. Demonstrators waved Ukrainian, Iranian and transgender pride flags, while others wore costumes from The Handmaid’s Tale and held anti-ICE signs. In addition, protesters assembled to form a message reading “TRUMP MUST GO NOW!” at San Francisco’s Ocean Beach.
Philadelphia, Portland, Chicago, Raleigh and Beyond
Hundreds of thousands turned out in Philadelphia today.
Massive marches wound through Philadelphia. Thousands gathered at the Oregon Convention Center in Portland before marching to Tom McCall Waterfront Park, with the Portland Police Bureau closing the Burnside Bridge to vehicle traffic. Chicago’s Grant Park filled with tens of thousands. In North Carolina alone, over 3,000 people marched in Southern Pines — a town most national media would never cover — while ACLU speakers called on attendees to end ICE in the state. More than 70 cities and towns across North Carolina hosted events today.
This is not just a coastal phenomenon. About 66% of planned protests took place outside major urban centers, with nearly half in red or battleground states. Idaho, Wyoming, Montana, Utah — all showed up in double digits.
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Raw America’s Carl Gibson was also at protests in Louisville, Kentucky.
The World Is Watching
This is not just an American story.
Protesters rallied against Trump in more than a dozen countries, from Europe to Latin America to Australia. In Paris, several hundred people gathered at the Bastille. Ada Shen, the Paris organizer, put it plainly: Trump’s wars are illegal, immoral, and reckless, and the world knows it. In Amsterdam, protesters carried signs reading “WTF America.”
In Sydney, a man held up a sign: “We can’t stand him either.” In Rome, protesters marched against both Trump and Italian Premier Giorgia Meloni, waving banners opposing the U.S.-Israeli attacks on Iran and calling for a world free from wars. In London, demonstrators held signs reading “Stop the Far Right” and “Stand Up to Racism.”
Berlin, Paris, Rome, Sydney, Amsterdam, London. The world isn’t confused about what is happening in America. They see it clearly. The only ones who can’t seem to see it are the billionaires who own our press.
Millions March, But the Billionaire Press Asks: Is It Enough?
While millions of Americans took to the streets today, the legacy media’s response was typical. The New York Times’ big No Kings piece questioned whether the crowds were diverse enough, whether the message was focused enough, and whether protesters have “mastered the harder work of organizing.”
The Times quoted academics calling the rallies “collective therapy.” It fretted over the lack of a single demand.
Millions of people in the streets, and the Times wanted to know if they have the right vibes.
The Times wasn’t alone. Rupert Murdoch’s Wall Street Journal ran an op-ed by a New York psychotherapist comparing No Kings rallies to “bad group therapy,” arguing that the protests offer validation without challenging participants’ thinking.
The message from the Journal: go home. Meanwhile, right-wing aggregators called the protests a “years-long tantrum” and mocked Bruce Springsteen as an “aging has-been.”
Sense a pattern? The mainstream media is telling you: don’t believe your own eyes.
This is why independent media is a necessity. Thank you if you’re already a paying subscriber. If not, now is the moment. Every subscriber makes it possible for us to be everywhere this movement goes.
What This Moment Actually Means
The first No Kings protests drew approximately 5 million people in June 2025. October brought an estimated 7 million. Today, organizers anticipated nearly 9 million, which would be the largest single day of nonviolent domestic protest in American history.
The movement is growing. It’s spreading into red states. It’s crossing oceans. It’s happening in small towns in Georgia and North Carolina and Florida, not just Manhattan and San Francisco.
A mother drove two hours from Lake of the Ozarks, Missouri, because her daughter is in the Army and she is terrified of a ground war in Iran. An 81-year-old woman who marched against Vietnam says today is worse.
Nobody who was in the streets today went home feeling like they’d just done therapy. They went home feeling like they were part of something real. Because they are.
The New York Times can keep asking whether it’s enough. We’ll keep covering it like it matters. Because it does.
Thanks for being with us tonight. If you’re already a subscriber, we salute you. If you’re looking for a way to make a difference, join our No Kings movement by subscribing tonight.
Here are some of the day’s best protest signs.
P.S. If you’ve got photos, please post them to our chat. We’d love to see them!
