Hundreds gather in Aurora to protest Trump policies at ‘No Kings’ event

CORRECTION: An earlier version of this story incorrectly said that Aurora Councilmember Stephanie Hancock was seen at the Aurora No Kings protest. She was in a parking lot near the protest, but she did not attend the protest. The Sentinel regrets the error.

AURORA | While many “No Kings” protests popped up around the country, Aurora had a surprisingly large turnout.

About 900 people gathered to protest policies and actions by President Donald Trump and his administration, while members of the president’s Republican Party disparaged the rallies as “Hate America” events.

“They don’t hate America,” said 22-year Navy veteran Craig Lilly about himself and the other protesters in the crowd. “They love America. That’s why they’re here.”

Similar protests were held across the metro area and Colorado.

The local rally filled all four corners of the busy intersection of Parker Road and Havana Street. The intersection, which doesn’t seem like the most ideal protesting spot, was filled with honks of support and the occasional middle finger, along with a few members of Congress like Democratic Rep. Jason Crow and Sen. John Hickenlooper.

There was even a food truck for the Taste of Back Home, a local Cajun and soul food restaurant in Aurora.

Protesters kept it calm while dressing up in frog outfits and other goofy costumes, such as Oogie Boogie from “The Nightmare Before Christmas.” One man, who said he is usually pretty introverted, dressed as the president while making exaggerated facial expressions to mimic Trump. 

Some of the women who attended said that they did this kind of protesting when they were younger for women’s rights, but it was “never this bad.”

“It’s because I care about my country, and I care about everybody in it,” Bernie Mazor said. “This is what democracy looks like. We don’t want to lose this.”

Mazor came to protest with her friend Tobi Lindley. They said that voting doesn’t end with choosing a president. Voting “down ballot” and knowing who you are voting for is equally important, with everything from the Federal government to local government and even your local school boards. 

“If they don’t vote, this doesn’t matter,” Lindley said. “The presence is good, but they can ignore this. They can’t ignore the vote. Got to vote.” 

Other women said they were carrying on the legacy of standing up for their democracy by doing what their parents and grandparents would have done. 

“My parents protested in the 60s for freedom of protests and freedom to assemble, and I didn’t see any purpose in not standing up for the freedom myself, now, and carrying on the torch,” Cathryn Hart said. 

Another woman, Melody Parish, said she brought her cousin Gregory Martin for his first-ever protest, and he said he was not disappointed. He said he’s been feeling a lot of emotions about the world lately and wanted to get out and do this. For him, everyone was so kind and welcoming, and it was a beautiful day to be out. 

Throughout the rally, there were no visible counter protesters and no hostility or fights. 

Parish said this is the third protest she has attended, and this one was much larger than the others. She had more critical signs with Trump portrayed as Adolf Hitler, and she said that Trump and Stephen Miller “absolutely terrify her.”

People had knitted frog hats, and one woman had Kermit wrapped around her head like a scarf or hat. Others were more cautious and covered their faces in case there was a harsh response to the protest. 

Rhett Butler, who said he is usually an unaffiliated voter, also said he was fed up, along with others who attended with him, Whitney Butler and Michael Hess.  

“When you start to see the erosion of civil liberties, even just Trump trying to encourage people not to protest, like saying that all of us don’t have the right to be out here,” Rhett said. “That’s a pretty dire warning.”

Rhett said that protesting doesn’t end when the protest is over, or even when elections are over, but they can be affected by how people spend their money. There are many ways to show the government how you disagree with them. 

Whitney, who had a sign for the federal government to keep its hands off public lands, had clear places she disagreed with the Trump administration, and she said that was the beauty of a protest like this. 

“It’s inspiring to see what brings people here,” Whitney said. “What’s important to me may not be what brought anybody else here, and to see that there are other people that care about what you care about, and maybe inspire you to care about things that you didn’t know about.”

The group said they were proud of where the protest was held because it had so much visibility from people of all ranges of incomes and livelihoods. Whitney said she was even a little shocked by the amount of positive responses, even by vehicles she might have expected to honk in approval. 

Hess said that he hoped the movement would grow and help push for a general strike from the whole nation.

Lilly, a Navy veteran, said that a dictatorship could be possible in a different reality, but he doesn’t think the United States is there yet. Many people in the crowd said they were still optimistic about the future because of experiencing people practicing their democracy, like in this protest. 

“Absent people like this, it could happen, but Americans are not built that way,” Lilly said. “We are not gonna let this happen. And so we will get through this moment, but it will not happen by sitting at home.

— Cassandra Ballard, Sentinel Colorado

‘No Kings’ protests against Trump bring a street party vibe to cities nationwide

Large crowds of protesters marched and rallied in cities across the U.S. Saturday for ” No Kings ” demonstrations decrying what participants see as the government’s swift drift into authoritarianism under President Donald Trump.

People carrying signs with slogans such as “Nothing is more patriotic than protesting” or “Resist Fascism” packed into New York City’s Times Square and rallied by the thousands in parks in Boston, Atlanta and Chicago. Demonstrators marched through Washington and downtown Los Angeles and picketed outside capitols in several Republican-led states, a courthouse in Billings, Montana, and at hundreds of smaller public spaces.

Trump’s Republican Party disparaged the demonstrations as “Hate America” rallies, but in many places the events looked more like a street party. There were marching bands, huge banners with the U.S. Constitution’s “We The People” preamble that people could sign, and demonstrators wearing inflatable costumes, particularly frogs, which have emerged as a sign of resistance in Portland, Oregon.

It was the third mass mobilization since Trump’s return to the White House and came against the backdrop of a government shutdown that not only has closed federal programs and services but is testing the core balance of power, as an aggressive executive confronts Congress and the courts in ways that protest organizers warn are a slide toward authoritarianism.

In Washington, Iraq War Marine veteran Shawn Howard said he had never participated in a protest before but was motivated to show up because of what he sees as the Trump administration’s “disregard for the law.” He said immigration detentions without due process and deployments of troops in U.S. cities are “un-American” and alarming signs of eroding democracy.

“I fought for freedom and against this kind of extremism abroad,” said Howard, who added that he also worked at the CIA for 20 years on counter-extremism operations. “And now I see a moment in America where we have extremists everywhere who are, in my opinion, pushing us to some kind of civil conflict.”

Trump, meanwhile, was spending the weekend at his Mar-a-Lago home in Florida.

“They say they’re referring to me as a king. I’m not a king,” the president said in a Fox News interview that aired early Friday, before he departed for a $1 million-per-plate MAGA Inc. fundraiser at his club.

A Trump campaign social media account mocked the protests by posting a computer-generated video of the president clothed like a monarch, wearing a crown and waving from a balcony.

Nationwide demonstrations

In San Francisco hundreds of people spelled out “No King!” and other phrases with their bodies on Ocean Beach. Hayley Wingard, who was dressed as the Statue of Liberty, said she too had never been to a protest before. Only recently she began to view Trump as a “dictator.”

“I was actually OK with everything until I found that the military invasion in Los Angeles and Chicago and Portland — Portland bothered me the most, because I’m from Portland, and I don’t want the military in my cities. That’s scary,” Wingard said.

Tens of thousands of people gathered in Portland for a peaceful demonstration downtown. Later in the day, tensions grew as a few hundred protesters and counterprotesters showed up at a U.S. Immigration and Customs enforcement building, with federal agents at times firing tear gas to disperse the crowd and city police threatening to make arrests if demonstrators blocked streets.

The building has been the site of mostly small nightly protests since June — the reason the Trump administration has cited for trying to deploy National Guard troops in Portland, which a federal judge has at least temporarily blocked.

About 3,500 people gathered in Salt Lake City outside the Utah State Capitol to share messages of hope and healing after a protester was fatally shot during the city’s first “No Kings” march in June.

And more than 1,500 people gathered in Birmingham, Alabama, evoking and the city’s history of protests and the critical role it played in the Civil Rights Movement two generations ago.

“It just feels like we’re living in an America that I don’t recognize,” said Jessica Yother, a mother of four. She and other protesters said they felt camaraderie by gathering in a state where Trump won nearly 65% of the vote last November.

“It was so encouraging,” Yother said. “I walked in and thought, ‘Here are my people.'”

Organizers hope to build opposition movement

“Big rallies like this give confidence to people who have been sitting on the sidelines but are ready to speak up,” Democratic U.S. Sen. Chris Murphy said in an interview with The Associated Press.

While protests earlier this year — against Elon Musk’s cuts and Trump’s military parade — drew crowds, organizers say this one is uniting the opposition. Top Democrats such as Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and Independent Sen. Bernie Sanders are joining what organizers view as an antidote to Trump’s actions, from the administration’s clampdown on free speech to its military-style immigration raids.

More than 2,600 rallies were planned Saturday, organizers said. The national march against Trump and Musk this spring had 1,300 registered locations, while the first “No Kings” day in June registered 2,100.

“We’re here because we love America,” Sanders said, addressing the crowd from a stage in Washington. He said the American experiment is “in danger” under Trump but insisted, “We the people will rule.”

Republican critics denounce the demonstrations

Republicans sought to portray protesters as far outside the mainstream and a prime reason for the government shutdown, now in its 18th day.

From the White House to Capitol Hill, GOP leaders called them “communists” and “Marxists.” They said Democratic leaders including Schumer are beholden to the far-left flank and willing to keep the government shut to appease those liberal forces.

“I encourage you to watch — we call it the Hate America rally — that will happen Saturday,” said House Speaker Mike Johnson of Louisiana.

“Let’s see who shows up for that,” Johnson said, listing groups including “antifa types,” people who “hate capitalism” and “Marxists in full display.”

Many demonstrators, in response, said they were meeting such hyperbole with humor, noting that Trump often leans heavily on theatrics such as claiming that cities he sends troops to are war zones.

“So much of what we’ve seen from this administration has been so unserious and silly that we have to respond with the same energy,” said Glen Kalbaugh, a Washington protester who wore a wizard hat and held a sign with a frog on it.

New York police reported no arrests during the protests.

Democrats try to regain their footing amid shutdown

Democrats have refused to vote on legislation that would reopen the government as they demand funding for health care. Republicans say they are willing to discuss the issue later, only after the government reopens.

The situation is a potential turnaround from just six months ago, when Democrats and their allies were divided and despondent. Schumer in particular was berated by his party for allowing an earlier government funding bill to sail through the Senate without using it to challenge Trump.

“What we are seeing from the Democrats is some spine,” said Ezra Levin, a co-founder of Indivisible, a key organizing group. “The worst thing the Democrats could do right now is surrender.”

— The Associated Press