CHICAGO — The sounds of one of Chicago’s largest protests in recent memory reverberated throughout downtown streets Saturday afternoon, as tens of thousands gathered in a united admonishment of President Donald Trump and then marched through the center of the city, pausing in front of the tower bearing his name to direct their ire.

Organizers believed the downtown Chicago protest to be one of the largest among the more than 1,500 “No Kings” protests that were scheduled throughout the country, in what leaders of the demonstrations described as “a national mobilization to reject authoritarianism and stand united against fear.”

Theresa and Robert Hoban, retired attorneys who split their time between Chicago and Florida, were among those who crowded into downtown Saturday morning and waited for the protest to begin. They were “doing this for our grandchildren’s future,” Theresa Hoban said, “because we believe the country has taken a turn for the worse under this administration.”

In an intentional move, the No Kings protests were planned for the same day as President Donald Trump’s 79th birthday and the military parade his administration organized in Washington, D.C., at a cost estimated to be as much as $45 million. No Kings organizers said in a statement Saturday afternoon that millions gathered around the country, and that “the turnout has exceeded expectations.”

In Chicago, those attending the downtown demonstration arrived hours before the noon start time, first packing into Daley Plaza and then filling the streets that border it. Many of them carried signs that lambasted and mocked the president, or ones that defended ideals they believe the Trump administration has forsaken.

“Facism is bad,” read one of those signs. “Rise up, fight back,” said others. “The wannabe king deserves a royal flush,” was written on one poster, near another that read, “Melt ICE.”

The demonstration in Chicago, like those throughout the country, came amid a simmering tension in the aftermath of recent Immigration and Custom Enforcement raids in Los Angeles. In reaction to unrest there, Trump deployed the California National Guard and the Marines, over Gov. Gavin Newsom’s objections.

In Chicago, Mayor Brandon Johnson and other leaders have expressed concern that the city – already a target of ICE raids throughout Trump’s second term – could find itself even more in the cross-hairs of the administration’s war on illegal immigration. Johnson earlier this week urged Chicagoans to “resist” amid that looming threat, and to fight back.

Many of the protesters in Chicago on Saturday carried signs rebuking ICE, and defending immigration. Marcos Sanchez, 20, was among them. On his back, he wore a large city of Chicago flag, with its light blue stripes and four red stars, while he carried a sign that read:

“Chicago serves it neat – no ICE.”

“It’s hard, because it’s so inhumane,” Sanchez, a Chicago native whose parents immigrated from Mexico, said of the ICE raids he’d been following in the city and around the country. “They don’t treat people how they should be treated. I mean, it’s the law, yeah. I understand.

“But at the end of the day, we’re all people. We all deserve the same rights.”

By the time the rally began a few minutes past noon, with several speeches, there was hardly room to move in Daley Plaza. Protesters stood shoulder-to-shoulder, holding high their signs – “Dump Trump,” “Say No To Kings,” “No Kings in America since 1776” among them – and occasionally broke out in raucous chants that carried throughout the Loop.

The most repeated of those chants was: “No Kings! No Kings! No Kings!”

Donald Nash and his wife came to Daley Plaza with their daughter, Colleen, and three grandchildren. They’d come in part to speak out against Trump and in part to provide an example to the youngest members of their family.

“These are teachable moments even for the littlest,” Colleen Nash said. “I think it’s important to show them that there is something we can do about the many things that are clearly wrong right now and that protest is a powerful communal voice.”

Said her father, Donald: “I’m protesting because I want my grandchildren and their children to live in a society richly endowed with democracy, and I want them to enjoy all the freedoms that I enjoyed growing up in Louisiana and then here in Chicago.”

The rally began with a speech from a member of Indivisible Chicago, an advocacy group whose mission is “to advance progressive values,” according to its website. The group was among the main organizers behind the downtown rally. U.S. Rep. Jesús “Chuy” García, a Democrat from the Little Village Neighborhood, was also among those who addressed the crowd.

Even with loudspeakers placed throughout Daley Plaza, the speeches could be difficult to hear through the packed city streets. Garcia, though, spoke over the noise and spoke in plain terms about a presidential administration he and his Democratic colleagues have attempted to fight in Washington.

“This is not leadership, it is a hostile takeover of our government,” Garcia told the crowd. “This is not about law and order, it’s about domination and control.”

By about 1:30, almost 90 minutes after the demonstration began, those at the front of the line began to march north on La Salle Street and east on Wacker Drive. The gathering was so large that the people toward the back of the line waited more than 20 minutes for their turn to move, and to join the procession through downtown.

At the height of the march, the demonstration stretched for several city blocks. It filled the street, sidewalk to sidewalk, with people carrying their signs and chanting loud enough to be heard from several blocks away. Almost four hours after the protest began, a few thousand still lingered in Daley Plaza.

They attempted to march through the loop, again, before police contained them. “Let us through! Let us through!” the most determined of them yelled.

Chicago police Superintendent Larry Snelling could be seen in the Loop as part of a police presence around the crowd. The group was largely peaceful during the early stages of the demonstration.

One person climbed a light pole and lit a small American flag on fire, bringing mostly “boos” from the crowd below.

There were also several other No Kings protests scheduled around Chicago, including in Evanston, Geneva, Naperville, Highland Park and Arlington Heights, among other suburbs, and Indiana.

Organizers said they had felt compelled to do something.

“We could all just sit at home and scroll on our phones and be really worried about what’s happening with our country, or we can go out and be in the streets and, very visibly, say we are not OK with what is going on with this administration,” said Sally Schulze, a spokesperson for Indivisible Chicago, which organized the downtown protest.

Midway through their march, as the protesters passed below Trump Tower across the river, they began to chant:

“Power to the people, no one is illegal!”

And then: “Say it loud, say it clear, immigrants are welcome here.”

Others cursed Trump Tower with their hands, while singing, “Hey hey, ho ho – Donald Trump has got to go.” The protest continued to wind its way downtown, eventually making its way to Michigan Avenue and then back toward Daley Plaza, where it began.

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