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'No Kings' rally against Trump in Sacramento expected to draw thousands to Capitol grounds Saturday

Ethan Wolin, The Sacramento Bee on

Published in News & Features

SACRAMENTO, Calif. – Protesters are set to rally at the state Capitol and around the Sacramento area on Saturday as part of nationwide demonstrations against the Trump administration under the slogan “No Kings.”

The protests — which organizers have billed as the largest public mobilization yet against what they deem President Donald Trump’s authoritarian actions — will coincide with a military parade in Washington, D.C. This Saturday, June 14, is the U.S. Army’s 250th anniversary, Flag Day to mark the adoption of the Stars and Stripes — and Trump’s 79th birthday.

In downtown Sacramento, a rally on the west steps of the state Capitol building is planned between 10 a.m. and 1 p.m.. It will feature musical performances by a local church choir and a band and speakers including Assemblymember Maggy Krell, D-Sacramento, and people to address a variety of causes, according to Ellen Chapman, an organizer with the group Indivisible Sacramento.

“Protesting should be as American as apple pie because, in our view, Donald Trump is violating the Constitution,” Chapman said. “We don’t tolerate people who are willing to dispense with the rule of law and due process in order to augment their own power.”

Organizers plan to set up the rally near 10th Street, with speakers facing the Capitol, so the crowd can pack into the Capitol grounds, Chapman said. Indivisible Sacramento obtained a permit for the event with an estimated 5000 attendees. No street closures are expected.

The No Kings events will follow a week of heightened protests against Trump after the president deployed the National Guard to Los Angeles against the wishes of Gov. Gavin Newsom. Nearly 150 protesters joined an “ICE Out of Sac” march in Sacramento on Monday, objecting to the aggressive deportation policy being executed by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

Leah Greenberg, a leader of the national Indivisible organization, which she co-founded to oppose Trump during his first presidency, said in an open Zoom webinar Thursday that the No Kings message was even more fitting now than when planning for the protests began weeks ago.

“The events of the last week have made it more important than ever,” she said. “This is a chance to say that we stand with Los Angeles, we stand with California.”

A website promoting the No Kings protests calls the effort “a nationwide day of defiance,” designed as an alternative to the military parade in Washington — a display that Chapman, the Sacramento activist, said “would not look out of place in Moscow.”

 

Asked about the planned protests, Trump said Thursday, “I don’t feel like a king. I have to go through hell to get stuff approved.” The parade is officially a celebration of the Army’s birthday, not Trump’s.

According to the No Kings coalition, over 1,800 rallies are scheduled for Saturday across the country.

The No Kings website says the group is not hosting a rally in Washington “to draw a clear contrast between our people-powered movement and the costly, wasteful, and un-American birthday parade in Washington.”

But several protests are planned for 10 a.m. Saturday in the Sacramento region in addition to the rally at the Capitol.

In Woodland, demonstrators are set to march from the new courthouse at 1000 Main St. to the old courthouse at 725 Court St. In Elk Grove, they will meet outside the Designer Shoe Warehouse at the corner of Laguna Boulevard and Bruceville Road. In Folsom, protesters will meet on East Bidwell Street near the Highway 50 overpass.

Chapman said she expects the Capitol protest she has helped organize to attract a varied crowd united against Trump.

“We’re looking forward to a peaceful, nonviolent, joyful celebration of some basic American values,” she said.

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©2025 The Sacramento Bee. Visit at sacbee.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

 

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