People hold flags and signs as a large crowd gathers outside the Minnesota State Capitol during a "No Kings" protest in St. Paul, Minnesota, on Saturday. — AFP SACRAMENTO/NEW YORK, United States, March 28 (Xinhua) -- Millions of Americans took to the streets Saturday in the third wave of "No Kings" rallies across the United States, protesting policies of the U.S. administration, ranging from military action in Iran to controversial immigration enforcement.
Over 3,100 demonstrations were planned nationwide and staged in major U.S. cities such as Washington D.C., New York, Boston, Los Angeles and San Francisco. U.S. media reports projected the protests involved some 900,000 people, making it the largest single-day protest event on record. "No Kings" organizers said that the previous two rounds of peaceful rallies drew more than 5 million people in June and 7 million in October 2025.
On Saturday, the flagship rally was held at the Minnesota state Capitol in Saint Paul, where nearly 100,000 people participated despite chilly weather, organizers said. The State Patrol confirmed at least 50,000 participants.
The protests were mainly against the U.S. military action in Iran, the January deaths of two U.S. citizens involving U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents in Minneapolis, and what the organizers described as the excessive power of the Donald Trump administration, according to organizers.
Organizing groups included Indivisible, MoveOn, the American Civil Liberties Union, and the American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations.
The Indivisible non-profit's co-executive director, Leah Greenberg, said Friday on the broadcast program Democracy Now! that Minnesota represented "the occupation of an American city, the unleashing of a reign of terror and racial profiling, that was pushed back by organized, nonviolent, disciplined people power."
U.S. independent Senator Bernie Sanders, a politician from Vermont state and headline speaker at the Saint Paul flagship event, sharply criticized U.S. policies, noting Americans were lied to about the wars in Vietnam and Iraq, "and we are being lied to today about the war in Iran. This war must end immediately."
Minnesota Governor Tim Walz also addressed the crowd. Referring to the January ICE shootings and resulting fatalities, he said: "We demand justice for Renee Good and Alex Pretti. We will never forget what they did here."
Rock musician Bruce Springsteen performed his protest song "Streets of Minneapolis" at the rally, and hailed Minnesotans' resistance to the administration's immigration policies, noting, "Their bravery, their sacrifice, and their names will not be forgotten. Thanks, Minnesota, No Kings! No War!"
Protesters held up a massive sign on the Capitol steps reading, "We had whistles, they had guns. The revolution starts in Minneapolis."
In New York City, protests took place across all five boroughs of the Bronx, Brooklyn, Manhattan, Queens and Staten Island. In Manhattan, tens of thousands of protesters marched along Seventh Avenue on Saturday afternoon, stretching more than 10 blocks, chanting slogans and carrying signs reading "No ICE," "NO Kings," and "No Wars."
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