The Escanaba are resident submitting this photo from Saturday's protest said that she likes its nonpartisan message. (Photo courtesy of Vicki Volk McGaffigan)

ESCANABA — A protest in Escanaba on Saturday was one of thousands around the country and abroad during which people banded together over the “No Kings” theme, which encompasses several causes. Activists marching and holding signs during No Kings events speak against the war in Iran, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), and other actions by President Donald Trump’s administration.

Estimates place upwards of 8 million participants at over 3,300 No Kings events in the country on Saturday, according to CBS News. If that’s true, it might be the second-largest demonstration in the country’s history. Encyclopedia Britannica records only the first Earth Day in April 1970 as having more, with 20 million Americans taking to the streets that April 22 to demand action on environmental issues. A few months after that event, Congress created the Environmental Protection Agency, and the Clean Air Act and Clean Water Act followed.

No Kings demonstrators also hope their actions will help effect political change.

“President Trump has doubled down,” states nokings.org. “His administration is sending masked agents into our streets, terrorizing our communities. They are targeting immigrant families, profiling, arresting, and detaining people without warrants. Threatening to overtake elections. Gutting healthcare, environmental protections, and education when families need them most. Rigging maps to silence voters. Ignoring mass shootings at our schools and in our communities. Driving up the cost of living while handing out massive giveaways to billionaire allies, as families struggle. Spending billions of our tax dollars on missile strikes abroad all while driving up the cost of living and handing out massive giveaways to billionaire allies.”

On Friday, the Daily Press received an email from Assistant Press Secretary for the White House Elizabeth Huston, apparently sent to news outlets around the nation. The email requested that the following quote be included in any coverage of the weekend’s protests:

A screenshot of an email from the White House with its statement on the March 28 No Kings protest.

“The only people who care about these Trump Derangement Therapy Sessions are the reporters who are paid to cover them,” says Abigail Jackson, deputy press secretary for the White House.

March 28 was the third protest of its kind; the first and second No Kings events were held in June and October of 2025. Those events attracted 6 and 7 million participants.

Opponents to the protesters, who are often Republicans and/or supporters of President Trump, decry the No Kings events and the activists who participate. They ridicule the slogan, pointing out that if dictatorship were truly what the country was facing, people wouldn’t be allowed to exercise their freedom of speech with protests.

Though many of the people who attend are unaffiliated with any organization, there are a handful of groups who support the initiative, such as the Interfaith Alliance, Indivisible, 50501 and some local Democratic parties.

Indivisible, an organization that was founded in 2016 by former Congressional staffers, is “a nationwide movement of everyday people organizing on the ground in all 50 states to stop the rise of authoritarianism in the United States and to build a real democracy that works for all of us,” states indivisible.org.

One protester in Escanaba appears to be opposed to monarchs but in favor of local pizza. (Photo courtesy of Vicki Volk McGaffigan)

Because donations have been made to the organization, some dissidents of the No Kings movement have dismissed attendees as “paid protesters.” But individuals standing on the street, as well as leaders of local branches, say they do not receive funds from large donors.

“We are a 501(c)(3) certified entity, and we have never received funding from Indivisible (National) or from George Soros,” said a leader of Traverse Indivisible Education & Solidarity.

Fox News Digital recently published a couple articles saying that No Kings is not the decentralized movement some claim it to be, noting that the No Kings website provides documents offering guidance on how to mobilize and arrange protests. These resources also offer talking points.

“A network of about 500 groups with an estimated $3 billion in combined annual revenues is behind the coordinated nationwide ‘No Kings’ protest Saturday, including communist groups who are using the day to call for a ‘revolution’… Fox News Digital has also identified key participation by a network of radical socialist and communist organizations funded by Neville Roy Singham, an American tech tycoon and avowed communist living in China,” Fox News reported.

In Escanaba, demonstrators say the rumors of payment are laughable and couldn’t be farther from the truth, remarking that the only thing that would get them out in the cold was passion for the cause.

Demonstrators participate in a "No Kings" protest in Juneau, Alaska, on Saturday, March 28, 2026. (Jasz Garrett/Juneau Independent via AP)

Over 200 people showed up to the Escanaba intersection that has now hosted protests every week for over a year. Saturday’s appeared to be the largest yet, with people waving flags and signs on all four corners of the intersection of Lincoln Road and Ludington Street. Christiana Reynolds, who ran for election to the Michigan House of Representatives to represent District 108 as a Democrat in November 2024, spoke into a megaphone from atop a snowbank on the corner in front of Walgreens.

“(Young people) are asking the right questions, they are questioning authority, they are skeptical, they are honest, they are exactly what this country needs,” boomed Reynolds’ voice. “One day they will be the ones making decisions, shaping policies… Thank you for being here, for caring, and for continuing the long, steady work of democracy, because it does not end. It is a process, and it’s something we strive for every single day.”

A Facebook user called Christine Pepin shared a video of her walking through the crowd of protesters in Escanaba, stating, “These are the people who are going to help make a difference.”

Other protests in the Upper Peninsula were held in Iron Mountain, Ironwood, Iron River, Houghton, Marquette, Munising, Manistique, St, Ignace, Pickford and Sault Ste. Marie.

Protesters in other countries took to the streets, too. “No Kings” became a message Saturday in Kenya, Spain, Portugal, Ireland, England, Iceland, Sweden, Germany, Italy, Greece, France, Ecuador, Mexico and Australia — in addition to over 3,000 U.S. communities.

A map from the No Kings Coalition shows where rallies scheduled for March 28 occurred. The vast majority are in the United States, but people in Portugal, Spain, the United Kingdom, Ireland, France, Australia, Ecuador, Kenya, Germany, Sweden and other countries also participated. (map screenshot from nokings.org)

The “flagship” rally took place in Minnesota’s Twin Cities. It included a performance by musician Bruce Springsteen and speeches by Congressmember Ilhan Omar, Governor Tim Walz, Senator Bernie Sanders, actor and activist Jane Fonda and others. About 200,000 reportedly attended the event at the Minnesota Capitol in St. Paul.

While the movement aims to be nonviolent, clashes occurred in at least one city: Los Angeles. After demonstrators failed to leave after dispersal orders following the end of the protest, 74 people were arrested, one was taken into custody on suspicion of possession of a dagger, and people threw rocks and bottles at officers, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security said in a statement late Saturday night.

After authorities gave the dispersal order in Los Angeles, they deployed tear-gas canisters when people didn’t comply, the Associated Press reported. “Some protesters wearing shields and gas masks on the other side of a fence at the federal complex picked up the canisters and tossed them back at police,” wrote John Raby.

That single event in Los Angeles stood as an outlier, as the vast majority of the protests were peaceful. Videos from West Palm Beach, Fla. showed a verbal argument between protesters and Trump supporters, but the altercation didn’t appear to escalate.

In Escanaba, one person yelled, “Braindead!” out a car window at the protesters, which was the only negative reaction the Daily Press reporter observed during 30 minutes on the scene. Most passersby who gave any indication to the crowd honked and waved, seemingly in support.

A woman dressed as the Statue of Liberty takes part in the "No Kings" protest in Paris, France, Saturday, March 28, 2026. (AP Photo/Aurelien Morissard)

In Little Rock, Ark., protesters walked across the Broadway Bridge.

In Portland, Ore., 30,000 people marched, some in inflatable costumes.

In Paris, France, several hundred people — mostly Americans living in France — gathered at the Bastille and were joined for the first time by French labor unions and human rights organizations.

In Detroit, Michigan Lieutenant Governor Carlin Gilchrist II posted a video to social media, announcing that he had just attended the No Kings event there, and warned people that threats to democracy were at multiple levels, using the Secretary of State race as an example.

In the capital of the USA, thousands marched from Arlington across the Memorial bridge and into Washington, D.C. “Protesters came to the capital from across the nation, with some telling FOX 5 they traveled from as far away as Vermont, Texas and Minnesota to name a few places,” reported Fox.

A crowd marches toward the Wisconsin State Capitol in Madison on Saturday. (Photo courtesy of Irene Darlington)

No Kings protestors at the Michigan Capitol in Lansing. March 28, 2026 | Photo by Tyler Scott/Michigan Advance

No Kings protestors at the Michigan Capitol in Lansing. March 28, 2026 | Photo by Tyler Scott/Michigan Advance