On Saturday, October 18, an estimated 90,000 people attended the No Kings Day rally and march at Seattle Center. Organized by local progressive advocacy groups, the event featured a host of speakers, from LGTBQ+ activists to current King County Council chair Girmay Zahilay. The protest was focused on the actions of the Trump administration, such as the recent flurry of immigrant deportations and the deployment of National Guard troops to major American cities. Tyna Ek, the press coordinator for the event, shared her thoughts regarding the protests in an interview with the Messenger.
The goal of the rally was to “get the message across that this is a people’s fight and that the authoritarianism that we’re seeing come down from the Trump administration is really dangerous, and we need to stop letting him divide the people,” Ek said, adding “[n]o saviors are coming in to help the people,” she stressed how “it’s really up to the people to be the firewall for our democracy.”
The rally started at Seattle Center, and after the lineup of speakers was over, protestors marched around the neighborhood, occupying streets, and carrying signs to express their disapproval.
While the protest was successful, organizers like Ek hope that participants will continue to be vocal even after the march. To encourage further advocacy, leaders put together a list of after action items, such as calling and messaging Senators and Representatives, signing petitions, and joining other advocacy groups. For the No Kings Day rally, Ek noted that they received the highest engagement on after action events in recent history.
The No Kings Day rallies are regarded as the largest single day political protest in US history, with estimates of 5-7 million people marching at over 2,700 No Kings Day events across the nation.
The protests are a sign of a country fed up with the federal government and wary of its abuse of power. At the protest, Pramilia Jayapal, a democratic congresswoman from Seattle, called it “a force used around the world to topple authoritarians and dictators.” Protestors marched for numerous reasons over the weekend, namely the Trump administration sending National Guard troops into major US cities such as Chicago, Portland, and Washington, D.C., weaponizing and politicizing the Department of Justice, and extending tax cuts to the rich while seemingly ignoring working-class Americans.
Republican officials, like House Speaker Mike Johnson, largely dismissed the protests, with Johnson labeling the protest in D.C. as a “hate America rally,” claiming that it was “all the pro-Hamas wing and, you know, the ANTIFA people.”
In spite of criticism, Ek called the event “very successful” as “people [were] absorbing a very positive message that we do love our country, and that’s why we’re fighting for it.”
Graphics by Rafael Brewer
