Key events
Summary
Closing summary
Our live coverage is ending now. In the meantime, you can find all of our live US politics coverage here. Here is a summary of the key developments from today:
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Millions of people were expected to protest against the Trump administration at more than 3,000 “No Kings” events across the United States. Although organizers do not yet have an exact count of how many people attended, it’s clear that hundreds of thousands of people turned out at rallies in New York City, Washington DC, Minnesota’s Twin Cities, Chicago, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Paris, Berlin, Nashville, Dallas, Denver and elsewhere.
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At the flagship protest in St Paul, Minnesota, tens of thousands filled the streets around the state capitol to commiserate, mourn and speak out again the Trump administration. Bruce Springsteen sang his song about the death and destruction brought by ICE titled “Streets of Minneapolis”.
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Outside the United States, Americans living abroad kicked off the day’s demonstrations alongside their neighbors in France, Portugal, Germany, Italy and Greece. A massive, although unrelated, demonstration against the far-right also took place in the United Kingdom.
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In New York City, Letitia James, the state attorney general, Jumaane Williams, the city public advocate, Robert De Niro, Rev Al Sharpton and Padma Lakshmi attended one of serveral marches that converged in Times Square.
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The White House and Republican leadership denounced the No Kings day events as “Trump Derangement Therapy Sessions” and “Hate America Rallies”.
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Counter-protesters held events in support of the president in a handful of cities, including West Palm Beach, Florida and Dallas, Texas, where leaders of Oath and the Proud Boys were in attendance.
Diana Ramirez-Simon
Police in Hawaii have determined that a bomb threat at the state capitol grounds in Honolulu is “no threat to the public”.
Honolulu police announced in a social media post that all roadways have been reopened and the planned No Kings protest has been moved back to the capitol.
Local news reported that police, with state sheriffs assisting, had evacuated the capitol and closed off four streets nearby. A police news release shortly before 10am announced that the protest would be moved to the Iolani Palace grounds while the validity of the bomb threat could be determined.
Honolulu police called in K-9 and special services units to help investigate the bomb threat.
George Chidi
Several thousand people took to the streets Saturday across metro Atlanta, from the middle of the state’s capitol in the heart of Georgia’s liberal politics all the way to Woodstock, a redoubt of red-state Republicanism. More than 50 locations across the state staged No Kings rallies, with about 10,000 people attending protests in Atlanta and suburban areas such as Tucker.
“I’ve been protesting at every protest that comes around,” said Kevon Watson of Tucker. He’s seen a political shift away from Trump in his community over the last year, but is surprised the events of the last year haven’t had an even stronger impact. “I was hoping the Epstein files release would do that, and it seems like most of the people that I talk to really don’t pay attention to the news. They’re just getting it all on TikTok or YouTube or whatever, and it’s like an echo chamber, so they just kind of get reinforcement messaging about how good things are going.”
Protesters in Atlanta marched about three-quarters of a mile down Memorial Drive to the state capitol. Ahead of that march, Rev Raphael Warnock, a US senator, addressed the crowd.
“They made ICE bigger than the Marines,” he said. “They made ICE bigger than all the other federal law enforcement entities combined … I’m afraid that a wannabe king who is busy building himself and his billionaires a ballroom intends to use ICE as his own private army to do his bidding to make him king. But he is not a king. This is our land. This belongs to we the people. And these powers that he arrogates to himself, these buildings that he tries to put his name on: these things no more belong to him than that fake Nobel peace prize that he had somebody to give him.”
By historical standards, protests in Atlanta have remained enormous. The newest element has been their growth outward into the suburbs and into more conservative communities.
A group of about 500 people rallied on the street near the city green in Sandy Springs, a relatively affluent northern suburb of Atlanta. In a state of deep red and bright blue districts, the area around Sandy Springs splits close to 50-50 by political party.
“Many of my neighbors share my views, and many don’t,” said Kathleen Meitzel, a Sandy Springs resident. “Many who haven’t in the past suddenly do, because the man is so unpopular and so dangerous. Everyone is really beginning to see it if they haven’t already.”
Jenna Pratt of Cumming held a sign that said “No Kings Except Aragorn” referring to the Tolkien novels.
“I think it’s hard to change minds if you’re just having conversations,” she said. “I think it has to be the way we live together, the way we love each other. It has to be on a daily basis. It’s the individual small actions that change people over time, but I think the other part of it is that people have to want to change from the inside.”
Thousands have taken to the streets across California as No Kings protests continue in San Francisco and Los Angeles. The Golden state has been in the Trump administration’s crosshairs, with Democratic leaders in the state pushing back against the president including by advocating for the state to redraw its congressional map.
Law enforcement officers have evacuated the Hawaii state capitol due to a possible bomb threat hours before a No Kings event was scheduled to occur at the building.
Local media reported that the evacuation occurred just before 10am local time, and that protest participants were relocated to the ʻIolani Palace grounds.
From Chicago, my colleague Amy Qin reports:
It’s 4pm and the crowd is starting to thin out but hundreds are still marching through the streets of downtown Chicago as the afternoon light begins to cast dramatic shadows from the adjacent skyscrapers.
In a sea of homemade signs, some protesters are also waving dozens of flags representing Palestine, Ireland, Mexico and Lebanon. “Hands off Gaza now” and “End the war and deportation” chant a group of protesters waving Palestinian flags.
A brass band from LaSalle Street church is posted on the sidewalk playing a jazzed up rendition of This Little Light of Mine against the roar of Chicago’s “El” train system above and people shouting from their apartments several stories up.
I talked to Karime Sepulveda, 25, about what brought her out to protest today.
“I think for me the most personal issue is immigration,” Sepulveda said. “I’m the product of two immigrants who came here to give me a better life.”
For many demonstrators, the influx of ICE and border patrol agents in Chicago last fall during “Operation Midway Blitz” is still fresh in their minds. Federal agents made thousands of arrests, deployed an unprecedented amount of teargas and chemical irritants on protesters, and fatally shot Silverio Villegas Gonzalez and Marimar Martinez.
Proud Boys leader among No Kings counter-protesters
As protesters take to the streets to denounce the Trump administration during No Kings marches today, counter-protesters have organized events in support of the president in a handful of cities as well.
In West Palm Beach, Florida, about 50 Trump supporters verbally clashed with No Kings protesters. CNN reported “some came with mics and flashed ‘Proud Boys’ caps, T-shirts and flags. Police officers were seen deescalating the situation.”
Meanwhile, in Dallas, Trump supporters caused a “major disruption” to the No Kings protest, according to the local Fox station, which added: “Stuart Rhodes, the founder of Oath, and Enrique Tarrio, leader of the Proud Boys, are at the protest.” Both men were convicted for their roles in the January 6th riot at the US Capitol and were subsequently pardoned by Trump.
The wave of No Kings demonstrations is sweeping westward as protesters hit the streets in Texas, Colorado, California and Oregon.
Here’s a selection of images from the marches occuring across the western United States:
Fabiola Cineas
As one of Washington DC’s No Kings marches wound down at the Southwest Waterfront, protesters said they want the country to remember that DC was the “guinea pig”.
“Donald Tump unleashed this on Washington DC first,” Ama’d, 27, said as a group of national guard members stood a few feet away. “We need the rest of the country to know that we are being over-policed in our communities.”
Ama’d, an activist and music artist, helped design protest music that he performed on a float. “No one man should have all that power! We need our rights back! We’re taking back ours,” one musician rapped as crowds of protesters chanted, “Free DC! Free DC!”
As protesters made their way to the Waterfront metro station, organizers distributed flyers for future protests, including a daily “Hands Off the Arts” protest to “keep the Kennedy Center open” and “save jobs,” organizers told the Guardian.
For a 1 May protest, activists are demanding a day of “No work. No School. No shopping,” another flyer states.
“Part of what we are trying to do is be in solidarity with other groups and movements that are being attacked and one of them is the labor unions and working people here in DC,” said Nachama Wilker, 64, a volunteer with Free DC, the local organization advocating for DC home rule and DC statehood. “The May action is in solidarity with all of these labor organizations as Trump guts union jobs in DC.”
Wilker added, “People come out to these big rallies, and they don’t know how to plug in after the rally. That’s a big reason why I am handing out these flyers.”
Rachel Leingang
Jane Fonda, Joan Baez and Maggie Rogers are closing out the day’s speakers in St Paul.
“This is not the America I was told existed,” Fonda said. “I was told we are the people.”
Rogers praised Minnesotans for their resilience, saying it was inspiring. “So much love in the face of evil,” she said.
Baez praised Minnesota’a resistance, saying “thank you, Minneapolis”.
Then, Baez and Rogers ended the rally by singing The Times They Are A-Changing.
As No Kings protests begin to wrap up on the east coast, they’re just getting started in California.
Here’s a glimpse of the demonstrations under way in San Francisco and Los Angeles:
Lex McMenamin
The multiple No Kings contingents in Manhattan merged through Times Square, continuously flanked by photographers. Families carried LGBTQ+ pride flags and Palestinian flags, while older marchers held pun-heavy protest signs, and others handed out whistles. Across age groups and race – though the crowd did overall lean white and older, it was by no means homogenous – the consistent themes were anti-ICE, pro-LGBTQ+, and, obviously, anti-Trump.
But perhaps the most consistent theme was anti-war. Multiple signs connected the Epstein files to the Trump administration’s decision to target Iran and spend immense amounts of funding on warfare. “This war has to stop,” said MB, 55, who came in from Queens to protest. “American people do not want what this administration is doing. We don’t want it. We need healthcare, we need jobs. We need infrastructure.”
The front of the march reached the dispersal point at Madison Square Garden by 3:30 local time, and more than an hour later, protesters still streamed through the closed intersection. Leftist organizing groups and political parties set up shop to peel protesters off as they walked to the subway, flyering for future actions and ways to get involved in their work.
Rachel Leingang
Organizers in Minnesota estimate at least 200,000 are at the main march at the state capitol in St. Paul.
The crowd stretches back further than I can see in multiple directions.
“Fuck ICE” and “ICE OUT” signs and pins are a frequent site, an indicator of how much the federal government’s incursion into the state left a mark on its people.
Speakers on the stage talked about how they and their organizations responded on the ground to their neighbors’ needs during the surge.
Bernie Sanders riled up the crowd with remarks about the role of the ultra rich in politics.
My colleage Amy Qin is continuing to report live from Chicago, where a diverse slate of speakers, including faith leaders and legal advocates, have addressed a crowd gathered at Butler Field in Grant Park:
The loudest cheers came when two student protest leaders came on stage, including Leah Sophia Lopez, a student at Social Justice High School in Chicago’s Little Village neighborhood, a predominately Latino neighborhood that was a frequent target of Trump’s immigration enforcement campaign last fall.
“My fellow Americans: kids are being put into cages while our government funds war and genocides,” said Lopez, who led hundreds of students in a school walk out protesting ICE last year. “America is built off of protest, immigrants, slaves, we built this county.”
Illinois lieutenant governor Juliana Stratton closed out the rally to thunderous cheers from the crowd. “We came here to make it clear that we will never bow to a king,” she said. “Illinois will stand up and fight back like we always do.”
Fabiola Cineas
Thousands of protesters are rallying across the Washington, DC region as No Kings protests spread across the nation’s capital.
One protest group, made up of about a dozen Palestinian mothers, stood at the steps of the Lincoln Memorial and waved a massive 10-foot-tall Palestinian flag. One of the mothers, activist Hazami Barmada, 42, said she was protesting to draw attention to “Israel’s atrocities against the Palestinian people.”
“Most Americans don’t know that our tax dollars are being used to subsidize violence,” Barmada said. “This is happening while many Americans can’t afford housing, milk, school, or healthcare. Prices continue to go up as we are fighting Israel’s wars.”
Other protesters, led by local activist organizations including Free DC, gathered at the Frederick Douglass Bridge in southeast Washington, DC. The crowd marched across the bridge to Fort McNair in Southwest DC where White House senior advisor Stephen Miller resides. The protest’s organizers say Miller is “running the effort to take over DC.”
Protesters told the Guardian they wanted to draw attention to the occupation of Washington, DC. In August, President Trump issued an executive order that put the federal government in charge of the Washington, DC Metropolitan Police Department. Trump used an additional executive order to deployed more than 2,000 members of the National Guard to the nation’s capital. Trump said the Guard members were mobilized to fight crime, though violent crime in DC is at a 30-year low.
