{"id":314487,"date":"2025-10-18T22:29:10","date_gmt":"2025-10-18T22:29:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/314487\/"},"modified":"2025-10-18T22:29:10","modified_gmt":"2025-10-18T22:29:10","slug":"thousands-gather-for-no-kings-protests-across-southern-california","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/314487\/","title":{"rendered":"Thousands gather for ‘No Kings’ protests across Southern California"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Thousands of protesters across Southern California took to the streets Saturday for \u201cNo Kings\u201d demonstrations to voice their disapproval of President Trump as part of a nationwide effort<\/a> to push back against what they believe is government overreach. <\/p>\n

In June, millions of demonstrators rallied across the nation for the first \u201cNo Kings\u201d protests as the Trump administration\u2019s agenda began coming into focus. At that time, the Department of Homeland Security had begun carrying out large-scale immigration raids across Southern California, and Trump deployed military troops to Los Angeles in response to mass protests. <\/p>\n

Since then, many Americans believe that Trump\u2019s actions \u2014 doubling down on immigration raids in major cities, deploying National Guard troops to Washington, D.C., and embarking on an aggressive campaign against political opponents \u2014 have only become more severe. <\/p>\n

In Downtown Los Angeles hundreds had started to gather around a group of Native American dancers midday as protests across the West Coast began to take shape. Protesters at Grand Park gathered under the shade of a 20-foot inflatable of Trump in a diaper as a band belted out an Epstein files-themed parody of Johnny Cash\u2019s \u201cFolsom Prison Blues.\u201d <\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re here to fight fascism, and we\u2019re not afraid,\u201d said 25-year-old Jess Sanchez, who has had family members targeted in recent immigration raids. \u201cThis is our city and our country.\u201d<\/p>\n

More than 2,700 \u201cNo Kings\u201d demonstrations are scheduled across the country, roughly 600 more events than in June, in which more than 5 million people participated. Demonstrations in New York, Chicago, Atlanta and Boston drew massive crowds. <\/p>\n

Trump pushed back against the underlying premise of the protests in an interview with Fox<\/a> News on Friday. \u201cThey\u2019re referring to me as a king,\u201d he said. \u201cI\u2019m not a king.\u201d<\/p>\n

Los Angeles protesters held signs criticizing Trump both for his political stances and his personal character. Some were draped in LGBTQ+, Mexican and American flags.<\/p>\n

A cohort of people in inflatable costumes\u2014dinosaurs, chickens and sharks\u2014 strolled through the crowd, an adoption of a recent strategy undertaken by protesters in Oregon meant to ease tensions and signal nonviolence. <\/p>\n

Matt Faw, a documentary filmmaker, showed up at the demonstration in Grand Park in an Uncle Sam costume. It was his way of criticizing what he said was the Trump administration\u2019s perversion of American symbols. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe symbols of America have been stolen by people who want to insist that America means white, Christian patriarchal power,\u201d Faw said. \u201cAs opposed to what I see \u2026 which is groups that are very different from each other learning to get along and form a better union together.\u201d<\/p>\n

Faw said he generally attends such protests as an observer with his camera in hand. But this time, fear and fury drove him to get involved. <\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m afraid that it\u2019s happening so fast that we won\u2019t be able to get the country back that I grew up in,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

Pedro Sanchez, who immigrated to the United States from Mexico more than 50 years ago, said the protest was an expression of the 1st Amendment, which he said the administration has continued to challenge. <\/p>\n

He pointed to last month\u2019s temporary suspension of Jimmy Kimmel after the talk show host made remarks following the death of Republican activist Charlie Kirk as a key example.<\/p>\n

\u201cLook at what happened to Kimmel \u2014 if that could happen to him, it can happen to any of us,\u201d Sanchez said. \u201cWe want our rights back; we can\u2019t take this anymore.\u201d<\/p>\n

In Long Beach, thousands of protesters packed the bluffs along Ocean Boulevard holding signs that read \u201cNo Kings\u201d and \u201cVeto The Cheeto.\u201d Rep. Robert Garcia (D-Long Beach) posed for a photograph with another attendee holding a sign that read \u201cFascists have small dictators.\u201d <\/p>\n

\u201cNO KINGS in Long Beach,\u201d he wrote on X. \u201cSo proud of our city for turning out and opposing Trump.\u201d <\/p>\n

In an attempt to broaden the scope of \u201cNo Kings,\u201d organizers are appealing to Americans upset over the rising cost of living, gutting of environmental protections, sweeping overhauls of federal agencies, and the government shutdown over looming healthcare cuts. <\/p>\n

In Orange County, demonstrators arrived at Centennial Park in Santa Ana on Saturday afternoon to protest not only Trump\u2019s immigration actions, but also his policies on healthcare, environmental protections and education. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe the People have had enough of the illegal actions being carried out by this sham administration,\u201d Amy Stevens, one of the Orange County demonstration\u2019s organizers, said in a statement. \u201cChange starts from the bottom up.\u201d <\/p>\n

Organizers say the goal of \u201cNo Kings\u201d goes beyond just getting Americans out on the streets, hoping to connect people who are upset and frustrated with the Trump administration to local organizing groups.<\/p>\n

\u201cGetting involved in those groups, making those face to face connections and joining them will have a much larger impact over the next few days, the next few weeks, next few months, the next few years, than just one day of protest,\u201d said Hunter Dunn, a spokesman for 50501, one of the \u201cNo Kings\u201d coalition\u2019s core organizing partners.<\/p>\n

California Gov. Gavin Newsom urged protesters to demonstrate peacefully saying in a statement on X that \u201cour strength is in our unity.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe values Americans cherish are under assault by [Donald Trump],\u201d he said. \u201cTHIS IS THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, and California will keep peacefully pushing back against the Trump Administration\u2019s authoritarian takeover.\u201d <\/p>\n

Saturday\u2019s rallies are happening amid a major disruption to one of Southern California\u2019s major freeways. <\/p>\n

The state announced Saturday morning that it would close a 17-mile stretch<\/a> of Interstate 5 for several hours after military officials confirmed that live-fire artillery rounds will be shot over the freeway during a Marine Corps event at Camp Pendleton. <\/p>\n

The unprecedented closure is expected to cause massive gridlock<\/a>, but it is not clear what impact, if any, it will have on the day\u2019s demonstrations. <\/p>\n

Staff writers Jenny Jarvie and Nathan Solis contributed to this report.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Thousands of protesters across Southern California took to the streets Saturday for \u201cNo Kings\u201d demonstrations to voice their…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":314488,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5123],"tags":[1582,276,4538,1756,158282,21132,2961,158283,224,2444,5337,158280,158281,1036,54642,3546,1807,1809,5395,2549],"class_list":{"0":"post-314487","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-los-angeles","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-california","10":"tag-demonstration","11":"tag-environmental-protection","12":"tag-healthcare-cut","13":"tag-king","14":"tag-la","15":"tag-large-scale-immigration-raid","16":"tag-los-angeles","17":"tag-los-angeles-times","18":"tag-losangeles","19":"tag-many-americans","20":"tag-next-few-day","21":"tag-orange-county","22":"tag-organizer","23":"tag-people","24":"tag-president-trump","25":"tag-protest","26":"tag-saturday","27":"tag-southern-california"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115397536695769355","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/314487","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=314487"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/314487\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/314488"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=314487"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=314487"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=314487"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}