‘We are out demonstrating our resistance’: Thousands brave the heat in No Kings protests

No Kings Day protests took the nation, and the Valley, by storm. In a mass act of defiance on President Donald Trump’s 79th birthday, hundreds of thousands marched in nearly every major city to protest his administration.

From the dozens that gathered along a pedestrian bridge in Tempe to the crowd of thousands that flooded the state capitol building, people of all ages, ethnicities and backgrounds came together across metro Phoenix to denounce crippling policies that have affected a myriad of citizens and non-citizens alike.

“There’s no truth at all whatsoever coming out of this administration… Everything they say is just, it’s a blanket lie,” Victor German, a protester bundled up in a keffiyeh at the Cole Park pedestrian bridge in Tempe Saturday morning, told CALÓ News. “We just have to take it back. It has to be for the people. It’s very cliche, but united we are stronger. We’re more than they are. But they keep us divided, and that is where they’re winning.”  

Garnering honks of encouragement from the passing cars on the Superstition Freeway below, protestors at the Tempe location — hosted by Organized Solidarity Collective in tandem with the 50501 Movement and Indivisible— began congregating at the playground as early as 6 a.m., bearing the Arizona summer heat for over an hour and a half earlier than the event was initially scheduled for. 

The collaboration of national movements with local organizations to host and table at the protests was a common sight to behold across Valley cities. While additional crowds came together throughout the day in Chandler, along street corners throughout Tempe and marching through popular tourist spots in Old Town Scottsdale, the largest demonstration garnered a crowd of thousands at the center of the Arizona Capitol Complex, where various flags and signs touted anti-Trump, anti-ICE and anti-oligarch sentiments. 

“We are out demonstrating our resistance. We will not stand by as a dictator takes over our country,” Chris Schubert, an organizer with Indivisible’s Arizona branch, said. 

Looking out at the large turnout of the event, Schubert beamed as they shook their head in disbelief. This number of people hadn’t been expected, they said. “I’m hoping we’re sending a message. I really, really hope (the administration) can hear us. They see the resistance, it continues to grow. I just hope they can hear that we’re not going to take it. We’re not gonna back down. We’re going to continue to unite, continue to push back and resist.” 

The protests come as a direct response to the mass deportations enacted by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Department of Homeland Security (DHS) agents in near-daily raids and the escalation in force from the Trump administration after deploying the National Guard and U.S. Marines to Los Angeles areas in response to their city-wide protests. 

“First, they came for the immigrants… we need to stand up even though we may not be immigrants. Because what they’re using and how they attack those communities will be used in the future to attack the rest of us, and that’s the process of imperialism,” said Bobby N., an organizer and former chapter chair of the Phoenix branch of Democratic Socialists of America (DSA),  expressing that showing up to protest was only part of their overarching goal in this fight. “We have to be showing up on the daily for our communities… We have to be able to disrupt the mechanisms of fascism and capitalist domination as much as we possibly can.” 

Among the many signs was a swath of multicultural, multinational and varied symbolic flags flown throughout the crowd, a diverse display that captured the vast diversity in organizations, backgrounds and beliefs that came together on this national day of defiance against the nation’s leaders and the country’s commander-in-chief. 

Local community organizer and longtime protestor with the Fight for Oak Flat and Land Back Movement, Jake Stoner said that this goes way beyond No Kings Day. 

“No Kings Day means no authoritarianism, no centralized control over people and to let people democratically control their land and democratically control their lives. Trump and his authoritarianism is inherently antithetical to that, antithetical to diversity, including Native rights and social justice,” Stoner said with a Palestinian flag in one hand and an Oak Flat sign in the other. “I think people are ultimately showing up to preserve democracy, because if we don’t preserve democracy, none of these other issues matter.” 

“We did show up because we did want to unite with other people, of like-minded people that agree that Trump’s America is not only for the selected few,” said Kiona Arellanes, co-founder of Hopi Relief and organizer with American Indian Movement (AIM) of Central Arizona. “It’s going to take all of us to really, really get something accomplished here. So, we came out here for that reason, because we don’t agree there should be any kings in America. Even in the colonization that happened to our people, we don’t think there should be kings.” 

As protestors hit the streets across the country calling for universal healthcare, funds for scientific research, the return of Native land and release of detained people, Trump’s $46 million military parade was concurrently underway in Washington, D.C. 

While Trump struggled to fill seats for his extravagant celebration of the Army’s 250th anniversary, he also failed to withdraw the 700 U.S. Marines and thousands of National Guard troops he had deployed to California. 

U.S. Army Special Forces and Vietnam combat veteran David Lucier with Common Defense said that he took an oath to defend the U.S. Constitution and understands exactly how the deployed forces feel after having been deployed himself to anti-war protests in Detroit in 1968. 

“It’s wrong. From the very get,” Lucier said. “This is our last line of defense. We’re either going to preserve democracy or we’re going to fall to the fascist dictator.” 

All organizations and movements involved in the No Kings Day protests encouraged people to show up in all spaces, whether it’s signing up for volunteer work at future events, donating any amount to local community outreach and mutual aid, signing petitions or simply handing out water at the next call to action.

As long as you do something, organizers said.

“I’m not here to celebrate. It’s not a celebration,” Stoner said. “We should be mad and we should be in the streets, and we should be directly opposing what is the beginning of a Trump takeover in a police state… If we don’t stop it now, it’s going to grow and grow, and the monsters will become bigger and bigger.”

Analisa Valdez (she/her) is a freelance journalist based in Phoenix. Her reporting includes community & culture, social justice, arts, business, and politics.