8 Million Strong: 'No Kings' Turnout Breaks All Past Protest Records

Click play above for Deceleration's 12-minute recap of 'No Kings' in San Antonio.

On Saturday*, millions of people across the United States (and the rest of the world) rose up against “kings” in the United States, shorthand for the chronic oversteps and abuses of a President Donald Trump working to crush dissent and consolidate power.

Signs weaving through downtown San Antonio decried the billionaire class. Full-throated chants echoed against the U.S./Israel war on Iran. Palestinian solidarity was on display. Unions marched. Moral outrage mixed with artistic creativity in calls for the abolition of ICE (U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement). And Trump was held out for refreshing mockery at every turn, including in piñata effigies with layered and cutting symbolism.

Deceleration, which has documented most of the protests since Trump’s reelection, met with many of those marching for the 12-minute video summary above. We heard from them about the courage attendance fosters. And we witnessed further evidence of the broader coalitions forming up—a critical aspect on the path to realizing not just the goals of our intertwined struggles but the ultimate arresting and reversal of planet-consuming heat driven by fossil fuel billionaires.

Roughly 8 million people in the United States were in the streets on Saturday. The day eclipsed the previous No Kings march as the largest national day of action in our history.

Many airports may be in turmoil over the Congressional standoff over masking of ICE agents—but that's just an opening display of the demands and power needed to break the hold of MAGA abuses.

Next up is a national strike—“no work, no school, no shopping”—planned for May 1, 2026. Looking for something to do with your day off? Corresponding demonstrations are already being planned—it's "Workers Over Billionaires."

No Kings, San Antonio

*View slideshow of entire march at* *emerge.photos*.

This call for general strike may finally bring in those resistant leftists withholding support for the marches. Jacobin columnist Ben Burgis this week gently calls in the stragglers, reminding:

“If we’re going to arrive at a form of society that extends democracy from politics to economics, we need to fight like hell to defend the level of democracy we already have — which is precisely what gives us room to agitate, organize, and maneuver.”

The No Kings marches for a media-obsessed Trump are generating deeply cutting headlines within a mainstream press (like this and this) that has too often softened their blows as what were once considered fundamental constitutional rights—including speech—are picked apart.

And yet the marches are just the most obvious evidence of antifascist and pro-democracy forces deepening and spreading across urban and rural landscapes like. Much more, by necessity, continues to happen off-line.

Deceleration's own house meetings began before Trump’s re-inauguration. From the start, we discussed the new political paradigm we were organizing within (shifting from neoliberalism under Biden to rising authoritarianism under Trump) and what that should mean for our tactics.

Readers found these reflections first in a November 2024 newsletter (lost in our transition to a new web host) and later elucidated in more detail by Deceleration Executive Editor Marisol Cortez in February 2025:

What researchers on people’s movements have seen is that the most successful struggles against strongmen like Musk, Trump, and Vance are those in which the institutional pillars join up with social movements. To put it more directly, we need those inside institutions to refuse to cooperate. We don’t need to share an analysis on all things. But we need people on the inside not to abandon those being most violently scapegoated—migrants, trans people—in this moment. We need those on the inside not to roll over and comply.

Many law firms and universities have rolled over. Many media houses, a frightening number being rolled up and consolidated by Trump's billionaire allies, too. Yet to be effective our support must flow to those who continue to hold out within institutional spaces. This is not because we agree on everything, but because it is in these vital junctures where a shared insistence on a functioning democracy slows down the fascist creep and creates room for everything else that is required.

Deceleration did not ask every demonstrator we spoke with what they did to fight fascism between marches. To be clear: They had our respect just for showing up, especially those attending their first march. But it became obvious in the course of dialogue that most we met were engaging in weekly or daily acts of resistance and regeneration.

And nothing against familiar faces, but city streets flooded with unfamiliar ones hoisting signs against war, decrying climate collapse, demanding an end to the attacks on women, immigrants, and trans and queer friends and neighbors, this is a nightmare scenario for Trump, MAGA, and the entire billionaire class. And one we all should celebrate and support.