US President Donald Trump has responded to Saturday’s anti-Trump “No Kings” rallies taking place across the US in his typical aggressive style, posting an AI-generated video on his Truth Social platform depicting him as a king.
He is shown wearing a crown and piloting a fighter jet that drops filth on anti-Trump protesters, soiling their clothes and causing chaos among the crowd.
Huge crowds took to the streets in all 50 US states at “No Kings” protests on Saturday, venting anger over President Trump’s hardline policies, while Republicans ridiculed them as “Hate America” rallies.
Organisers said seven million people marched in protests spanning New York to Los Angeles, with demonstrations popping up in small cities across the US heartland and even near Trump’s home in Florida.
House of Representatives Speaker Mike Johnson, a Republican, on Friday echoed a common refrain among his party, labelling the “No Kings” protests “the hate America rally.”
Protesters spanning all age groups took to the streets en masse for “No Kings” rallies across the United States on Saturday, denouncing what they view as authoritarian tendencies and unbridled corruption of US President Donald Trump.
Organisers expected millions of people to turn out by day’s end at more than 2,600 planned rallies in major cities, small towns, and suburbs, challenging a Trump-led agenda that has reshaped the government and upended democratic norms with unprecedented speed since he took office in January.
Demonstrators filled Times Square in New York City, where police said they made “zero protest-related arrests” even as more than 100,000 people rallied peacefully across all five boroughs.
Events in Boston, Philadelphia, Atlanta, Denver, Chicago, and Seattle also drew crowds that each appeared to encompass thousands, if not tens of thousands, of people.
On the West Coast, more than a dozen rallies occurred around the Los Angeles area, including the primary site downtown. In Seattle, demonstrators filled a parade route that stretched for more than a mile from downtown through the Seattle Centre plaza around the city’s landmark Space Needle. More than 25,000 protested peacefully in San Diego, police said.
The protests reflected growing unease among many Americans, mainly on the ideological left, with developments such as the criminal prosecution of Trump’s perceived political enemies, his militarised immigration crackdown, and the sending of National Guard troops into US cities — a move Trump has said was aimed at fighting crime and protecting immigration agents.
Trump has said little about Saturday’s protests. But in an interview with Fox Business aired on Friday, he said that “they’re referring to me as a king – I’m not a king.”
Saturday’s protests were aimed at building on the momentum gained from more than 2,000 “No Kings” protests that were staged on June 14, coinciding with Trump’s 79th birthday and a rare military parade in Washington.
