Society News

No Kings protests: 3,100 US events, with St. Paul as flagship and Springsteen on stage

Organisers of the “No Kings” protests registered more than 3,100 events in all 50 states on Saturday, March 28, about 500 more than in October, The Associated Press reported. They had estimated 5 million participants in June and 7 million in October and expected about 9 million this time; AP said it was unclear whether that was met. Protesters objected to the war in Iran, Trump's immigration enforcement, especially the winter ICE surge in Minnesota, and the rollback of transgender rights.

The flagship rally was on the Capitol lawn in St. Paul, where the Minnesota State Patrol estimated about 100,000 people, local station FOX 9 reported. Bruce Springsteen performed “Streets of Minneapolis”, written after federal agents fatally shot Renee Good and Alex Pretti, and speakers included Sen. Bernie Sanders, Jane Fonda, Joan Baez and Gov. Tim Walz.

Protests were mostly peaceful, AP said, but Los Angeles police used tear gas near a federal detention center and Denver police made at least nine arrests. Rallies were also held in more than a dozen countries, including Rome, London and Paris. White House spokesperson Abigail Jackson called the protests the product of “leftist funding networks”.

“The only people who care about these Trump Derangement Therapy Sessions are the reporters who are paid to cover them.” — a White House regional press secretary, via FOX 9

How each outlet framed it

• AP — the national scale, the issues and the arrests.
• FOX 9 — the Minnesota flagship: crowd, speakers and the White House reply.
• ShareSansar — a short Nepali summary that adopted the organisers' figures.

Where the numbers differ: ShareSansar reported over 8 million participants, citing organisers, and called it the largest single-day protest in American history; AP did not confirm a total.