US army parade live updates: US army’s 250th live birthday parade underway despite rain and ‘No King’s’ protest

Protesters fill streets across US to oppose Trump policies

Protesters filled plazas, streets and parks across the country Saturday, mounting a mass mobilization that called for protecting American democracy from a president whom many demonstrators decried as authoritarian. The protests, in small towns and major cities including Philadelphia, Chicago, Houston and Atlanta, came hours before President Donald Trump was set to host a military parade in Washington.
The “No Kings” events in all 50 states were animated in part by the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown, domestic military mobilization, federal spending cuts and the parade, which was coinciding with the president’s 79th birthday. Many demonstrators struck patriotic themes, waving American flags, reciting the Pledge of Allegiance or carrying signs referencing the nation’s founding fathers.

In Newark, New Jersey, U.S. Rep. LaMonica Mclver stood in front of a statue of Abraham Lincoln and expressed defiance. Mclver, a Democrat who faces federal charges related to a confrontation at a migrant detention center last month, said she would not be silenced or intimidated. “We have to be on the front lines to fight for democracy,” she told a crowd outside the county courthouse.

That message took a particularly ominous tone as news spread from Minnesota that a person pretending to be a police officer had assassinated a Democratic state lawmaker and attempted to kill a second. The state patrol asked people to refrain from attending “No Kings” events in the state because materials about the gatherings were found in the vehicle of the attacker, who remained at large.

The protests come amid building outrage over raids by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents in Los Angeles that led to mass demonstrations and conflicts with law enforcement. The city has emerged as the epicenter of anxiety over immigration enforcement and has seen days of sustained protests; authorities there said they were bracing for crowd sizes Saturday that could be “unprecedented.”

Some 2,000 events were planned from coast to coast. In Atlanta, thousands of people packed into Liberty Plaza, carrying signs that included the message “Stop Trump’s Terrorism” and singing a rendition of “Take Me Out to the Ball Game” adjusted with the words “Take Trump out of the White House.” In Greenville, Ohio, where Democrats are rare, protesters gathered even as police warned that anyone blocking the road would go to jail.

Elected leaders and law enforcement officials across the country encouraged protesters to remain peaceful, and organizers of the “No Kings” demonstrations called on participants to focus on “nonviolent action.” In Houston, some demonstrators handed out flowers to police officers who were securing the route of the protest.

Here’s what else to know:

— LA crackdown: In the months before the immigration raids in Los Angeles, the Trump administration and immigrant rights groups had been preparing for conflict. Then the message arrived: “ICE is here,” one father wrote. “They’re going to take us.”

— Shifting priorities: The Trump administration recently shifted the focus of its mass deportation campaign, telling immigration officials to largely pause raids and arrests in hotels, restaurants and the agricultural industry.

— Military parade: “No Kings” organizers avoided calling for demonstrations in Washington, where the military parade was set to go on despite a forecast of possibly severe storms. Trump warned that anyone seeking to protest at the parade would be met with “very big force.”

— Detained by Marines: Marcos Leao, a 27-year-old Army veteran, was briefly held by U.S. Marines outside a federal building in Los Angeles. The move was noteworthy because federal troops are rarely seen detaining U.S. civilians, even temporarily.

— Congressional inquiry: The House Oversight Committee said it was opening an investigation into the Los Angeles protests, including communications between Gov. Gavin Newsom and Mayor Karen Bass. Newsom responded that the records would include “some highly unusual communications from the White House.”