Randy Furst
ST. PAUL, MINNESOTA — Millions of Americans took to the streets Saturday, March 28 to protest the Trump administration and its assault on democracy, in likely the most massive turnout of demonstrations on a single day in U.S. history.
Organizers of the No Kings protests estimated that 8,000,000 people demonstrated. Protests took place in 3300 cities and towns across the nation, according to organizers from Indivisible, one of the groups sponsoring the action. They also reported 38 international protests.
Twin Cities was seen as the flagship demonstration because of the horror inflicted on the state by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents, whose thuggish behavior, abduction of thousands of immigrants in Minnesota, and murder of two ICE observers, Renee Nicole Good and Alex Pretti, outraged the nation.
Their killings and a massive grassroots resistance that included courageous efforts by ordinary Minnesota citizens to defend immigrants, captivated Americans across the United States and forced the Trump Administration to withdraw a large portion of the 3000 ICE agents it had sent into the state. (Hundreds of agents remain, however, less visible but still conducting abductions.)
The Minnesota State Patrol estimated Saturday’s crowd that filled the vast lawns in front of the State Capitol in St. Paul at 100,000, while protest organizers put the figure at 200,000. Either way, it was huge. Speakers at the rally included U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz and actress Jane Fonda, and musicians Joan Baez and Bruce Springsteen, who sang “Streets of Minneapolis,” a song that he wrote, honoring the memories of Good and Pretti.
“This past winter, federal troops brought death and terror to the streets of Minneapolis,” Springsteen said in his introduction to the song. “Well, they picked the wrong city. The power and the solidarity of Minneapolis, of Minnesota, was an inspiration to the entire country. Your strength and commitment told us this is still America and this reactionary nightmare, these invasions of American cities will not stand.”
Across the Country
No Kings actions on Saturday stretched from Kotzebue, Alaska in the Arctic Circle (there were about 25 protests in Alaska) to Bangor, Maine (there were 50 demonstrations in Maine). In Minnesota, 90 separate demonstrations were scheduled, according to the No Kings website.
“This sign is too small to list all the reasons I’m here,” read one Minnesota protest placard, carried by Corinne Bedford, 40, of Minneapolis, who works as a financial advisor. “I’m here for my daughter,” she said. “We need to do better on so many fronts.”
Meghan O’Connor, 18, a freshman at the University of Minnesota, held a sign that read, “Only you can prevent fascists.”
Why had she come to the demonstration? “I’m sick of this administration trampling on my rights,” she said. Her friend Eva Stavrou, also 18 and a student at the University, carried her own sign that read. “This isn’t about politics, it’s about humanity.”
Opposition to President Trump’s war on Iran played a major role in increasing the size of the protests.
“I’m here because my city is under attack,” said Wayne Nealis, 73, a retired toolmaker and writer, who held up a sign at the St. Paul rally that read “Prosecute the killers of Renee and Alex.”
He added, “I’m here because I’m opposed to the war on Iran and here to support the Palestinian people.”
Murders with Impunity
Rally speakers repeatedly referred to the shooting deaths of the two Minneapolis residents, Good, 37, a poet and mother of three, and Pretti, also 37, an intensive care nurse for the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs.
Both were acting as nonviolent observers of ICE and were killed by ICE and border patrol agents in separate incidents in January.
No agents have been charged, and the U.S. Justice Department has refused to turn over evidentiary materials to the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension and the Hennepin County Attorney’s office, which are investigating the shootings to determine whether to prosecute the agents.
Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison and Hennepin County Attorney Mary Moriarty announced earlier in the week that he has filed suit to force the federal government to turn over the materials.
Ellison also addressed the rally. “Justice is not optional,” he said. “Accountability is coming.”
Nekima Levy-Armstrong, an attorney and past president of the Minneapolis NAACP, celebrated how Minnesotans refused to capitulate to the ICE assault. “They underestimated us,” she told the St. Paul rally. “We told them, ‘Hell no, we won’t go.’”
Levy-Armstrong is among 39 protesters facing federal charges for disrupting a St. Paul church service where one of the pastors also leads a local ICE field office. U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi ordered the arrests.
Also charged were two independent journalists, Don Lemon and Georgia Forte, who were covering the January demonstration. It’s part of the federal government’s attempt to muzzle journalists.
Labor Turns Out
Labor unions are playing a big role in organizing the No Kings protests, having seen many of their own immigrant members abducted by ICE.
Speakers at the St. Paul rally included Liz Shuler, president of the AFL-CIO, Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers, and April Verrett, president of the Service Employees International Union.
“Over and over this year we’ve seen this administration try to divide us, as working people,” said Shuler. “Whether we were born here, whether we were blue collar, white collar, gay, straight, trans, Black, white, Latino.”
Senator Sanders saved his strongest words and drew a vociferous, positive response for his comments, criticizing the war on Iran. The war, said Sanders, was begun by Trump and “his partner, Benjamin Netanyahu,” and is unconstitutional and a violation of international law
He ticked off the war’s consequences so far: 13 U.S. soldiers dead, hundreds wounded, nearly 2000 Iranian civilians killed and wounded, 498 schools bombed by American and Israeli missiles, more than 1000 Lebanese killed and one million displaced, which is 15 percent of Lebanon’s population.
In Israel, Sanders said 20 people had been killed and 5000 wounded, and on the West Bank, “Israeli vigilantes are burning down homes and killing Palestinians.”
“At a time when gas prices are soaring,” said Sanders, “when many Americans cannot afford the basic necessities of life, it is estimated that this war has already cost a trillion dollars. At a time when the American people are politically divided, there is one issue that is bringing us together. Conservatives, moderates and progressives are speaking out in unison, ‘End this war.’”
Repeated chants of “End this war,” echoed across the crowd.
“It’s a good feeling being here among like-minded people” said Rodney Massey, 59, an IT worker from Minneapolis, who is Black. He wore a sign on his back that said, “Staying silent in times of injustice is privilege.”
His daughter Kassia Massey, 33, a host at a Minneapolis nightclub, was beside him. She came, she said, to oppose “the racism, the fascism” and felt good to be at an event where, “Everybody, together, is trying to make change.”
Randy Furst was a reporter for 52 years at the Minnesota Star Tribune and retired in 2025. He was an active member of the NewsGuild.
Bravo Randy! You are a stellar, fearless reporter. Deepest thanks.