Driven by factors like the ongoing war in Iran, over 3,300 “No Kings” protest events are expected around the U.S. on Saturday, including several in the Sacramento region.
This is the third “No Kings” event, which is centered around protesting U.S. President Donald Trump and his administration. Previous “No Kings” protests were held on June 14 and on Oct. 18, with thousands taking to the streets each time. This included around 7,000 people at the state Capitol at the October event.
NPR noted a claim from event organizers on the “No Kings” website that Saturday’s protest would “be the biggest protest in US history.”
Shortly after noon Saturday, hundreds began to march across the Tower Bridge from West Sacramento toward Sacramento’s Capitol Mall, led by three yellow signs reading “No Kings!”, “We are the power” and “Somos el poder” (”We are the power” in Spanish).
A map shows protests scheduled throughout the Sacramento region, from downtown at the Capitol to surrounding suburbs like Folsom, Roseville and Lincoln.
Here is how things looked as of about 2:15 p.m. Coverage will be updated throughout the day.
Speakers get underway outside Capitol
Speakers started addressing the crowd around 1 p.m. in front of the Capitol.
Among them was Sandra Olewine, a bishop of the United Methodist Church’s California-Nevada Conference.
“Every day we wake up unsure of what new disaster or atrocity this administration might have carried out overnight,” Olewine said.
“The rule of law, freedom of the press, the Bill of Rights, the Constitution itself seems little more than pieces of paper that are torn up and thrown aside by this administration,” she continued, condemning the Trump administration’s “greed, arrogance, ignorance, and cruelty.”
Another speaker was immigration attorney Karen Pedraza, who described a year of the Trump administration violating the civil rights of her clients. “ICE has detained my clients with no due process,” she told the crowd. “They have unlawfully transferred them to far away detention centers against a federal judges’ orders.”
Immigration agents, she said, “have detained entire families who are following the rightful process set forward by the United States for lawful asylum.”
Protesters stood along L street outside the Capitol, waving flags and holding signs condemning the administration as passing cars honked in support. The cheering and chanting from the protest could be heard loudly from blocks away from the Capitol.
Smaller but vocal protest in Lincoln
The turnout in Lincoln was smaller, but hundreds of people still stood out on a busy street corner near the city’s Lincoln Crossing Marketplace shopping area, holding signs, flags and cheering as people drove by honking.
“I’m angry about this all the time and coming out here and showing a physical presence is just as important as speaking out online,” said Annmarie Azevedo, 49. “This is amazing. I never thought that this many people would show up in Lincoln.”
Azevedo was at the Roseville protest earlier in the day but also wanted to show up in Lincoln where she lives. She clanked a cowbell and stood in the crosswalk as people moved from each side of the intersection.
Along Ferrari Ranch Road in Lincoln, Karl and Jan Hess clutched to protest signs.
“Our democracy is going down the tubes,” said Karl Hess, 73, a veteran of many area protests.
He criticized Trump’s cabinet, saying they came “out of a clown car” and lamented that other leaders in government weren’t doing more: “Where are the checks and balances?” Both he and Jan said it was importantly to be out in the community that they live in and bring awareness all the issues they and the other protesters found concerning.
“If people get together and organize,” said Jan Hess, 73, “there’s a lot we can do.”
State Capitol draws demonstrators ahead of event
People began congregating near the state Capitol a couple of hours before Saturday’s event officially began.
These included Eric Scherrer, 59, an Elk Grove resident. He joined the protest with his friend Kitty McVey, 72. Scherrer criticized the Trump administration’s “self-centeredness” and its attack on Iran, asserting that the military action stemmed from the president’s own interest to divert the public’s attention from alleged connections to the Jeff Epstein files.
“It’s all business for them,” Scherrer said. “It’s all money, money, money, money for me, me, me, me - nothing for the people.”
By just before noon, there was an estimated crowd of at least 1,000 people outside the state Capitol.
Nora Bruce, 50, born and raised in Sacramento, said she joined the protest to “feel the hope” as the federal leadership centers on “greed and racism.”
“I’m here because of the collective grief and the pain that our country is going through,” Bruce said.
She voiced her concern for the U.S. attack on Iran, emphasizing the need for people to keep alert for misinformation.
“There’s such a commitment to ignorance in our country ... we need to do our own research, and until we all, collectively as a country, do that work, we’re stuck,” Bruce said.
Bailey McCraw, 17, a Sacramento-born C.K. McClatchy High School student, said she joined the protest because she does not want to be an “accomplice” to the Trump administration’s immigration policy.
“They’re not giving them due process ... it’s scary because they could just do the same thing to any of us,” McCraw said.
A permit for the event at the state Capitol allows for up to 5,000 attendees.
Hundreds line sidewalks near Roseville Galleria
The sound of honking horns blared almost constantly while hundreds of people took to sidewalks near the Westfield Galleria at Roseville mall on Saturday morning.
Stan Guido, 73, danced near an intersection by the mall to “Happy” by Pharrell Williams. “It’s an emotional and spiritual upliftment,” Guido said of dancing and protesting at the same time.
Guido lives in Newcastle, an unincorporated community in Placer County. He had thought about going to downtown Sacramento but decided against it.
“It’s easier, we don’t have to deal with the crowds,” Guido said.
But the crowd outside the mall was made up of many people just before noon. There appeared to be more than 1,000 people onhand.
Kennedy Crosby, 11, made more than a dozen stickers for the Roseville protest. She was joined by her mom and her brother Cash, 7. Kennedy said she made the stickers for a previous protest and planned to do so again.
“People really love stickers,” she said. One had a picture of a Monarch butterfly, with a message that this was the sole “Orange Monarch we want!”
The Roseville protest had mostly cleared out by about 12:30 p.m. A protest in nearby Lincoln was set to begin at that time.
Protesters prepare, march from West Sacramento
At the entrance to River Walk Park, Yolo Indivisible volunteer Noelle Ploof greeted arriving protesters while standing next to a sidewalk chalk block of text reading “Step into your power.” Arrivals had been steady through the morning and she expected them to only increase, she said.
By 11 a.m. hundreds of people were gathered on the banks of the Sacramento River ahead of a noon march over Tower Bridge down the Capitol Mall to the state Capitol.
Ploof, 49, was driven to get involved in the protests by a sense of panic about what she saw occurring in America. “The overreach, the criminality, I feel like we’re on the precipice of going in a really horrible direction,” Ploof said.
Mass protest was increasingly important because right-leaning tycoons were growing their influence through the mergers and acquisitions of media companies, she said.
“They’re understanding how to use propaganda,” Ploof said.
Craig Lundgren from Davis was handing out six different types of signs to those who wanted them. “Another stupid war?” one side said, in a reference to the United States’ bombardment of Iran. “Have you had enough yet?” read another while a third called on people to “Support Science.”
But the sign going fastest, by far, Lundgren said, was a white sign with red letters proclaiming the message: “Love your neighbor.” The sign defined people of all different types of race, religious creed, sexuality and ability as a “fully human neighbor.” About 85% of sign-takers were picking this sign.
“I thought the war signs would be a lot more popular,” Lundgren said.
Lynda Jolley wore a shirt she’d had since the first Trump administration that called for the president’s impeachment. During his first term, Trump was impeached twice and convicted neither time in subsequent Senate trials. He has been more empowered in his second term. “I just can’t stand it,” Jolley said of the second Trump administration’s actions and rhetoric. “I hate feeling powerless.”
Though she is naturally averse to large crowds, she joins protests because they provide her a relief from that feeling of powerlessness, she said. “It helps to be active,” Jolley said.
People began to march toward the state Capitol at about noon. Ahead of the march, Deema Tamimi, an organizer from Davis, urged people drawn out by outrage over the Trump administration to channel that frustration into broader social justice movements.
“Maybe it’s ICE raids that brought you here,” Tamimi said. “Maybe it’s this war in Iran. Maybe it’s Palestine. Maybe it’s watching authoritarianism creep closer and closer to home.“
Protest movements grow, Tamimi said, when “when people begin to see things clearly.”
The size of the protest appeared to measure well into the thousands by about the time people were marching from West Sacramento. It took 15 minutes or more for the crowd to finish crossing Tower Bridge. During that time the flow of people was thick and steady.
Mark Lizcano, a Sacramento resident and a U.S. Marine Corps veteran, marched carrying the flag of his armed forces division - on a day the New York Times reported a force of more than 2,500 Marines had arrived in the Middle East with the potential for a ground incursion in the war in Iran.
Lizcano disagreed with the Iran war, which he said was not lawful and seemed designed to create profit for military contractors with ties to the Trump administration.
“Everything he does is for money,” Lizcano said of the president.
“All the people in the military following his orders right now, they’re in a tough spot,” he said. “But some of them should stand up and say no.”
Crowd gathers at Folsom bridge
An estimated crowd of more than 300 people had gathered by 10:30 a.m. at the Lake Natoma Crossing bridge on Folsom-Auburn Road.
The crowd was there for a demonstration organized by the Folsom Area Democratic Club.
“We don’t support a war that we didn’t ask for,” said Susan Cunningham, a vice president of the club. “We might be in a blue state, but it’s very red here.”
Dave Phillips, a Folsom resident, clutched a pole flying the American flag, and called it the “OG anti-king symbol.” He said he was particularly distressed by what happened on Jan. 6, 2021.
“It was an insurrection supported by the president,” Phillips said. “I was really let down that he wasn’t held accountable.”
Ruth Haskins, an OBGYN, stopped a reporter to say that rising gas prices following the country’s attack on Iran have led patients to not come in for appointments. “The gas prices are making a real difference in health,” Haskins said. “That’s what made me want to come out today.”
Haskins said one of her patients may give birth later in the day, but she wanted to be at the Folsom protest.
Julia Garland waved a sign at the protest reading: “My grandkids will know that I did not stay silent!”
“I see almost every day that we have our rights being taken away and trampled,” said Garland, who has four grandchildren, all under 13 years old. “If we don’t resist now, I’m afraid it will be too late.”
Homemade signs included slogans like, “Untrump the world” and messages denouncing war and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE.
