Large Crowd Protests Trump In Newark At No Kings Rally: 'Racist, Fascist And Unjust'

NEWARK, NJ — A large crowd showed up in Newark for a “No Kings” protest against the administration of Donald Trump on Saturday.

The protest began at the Lincoln statue on Springfield Avenue and continued up Broad Street. Demonstrators carried signs that read: "Impeach Trump," "Health Care For All," "Tax The Rich" and "We Have No Kings."

The march was sponsored by People’s Organization For Progress (POP) and co-sponsored by the Martin Luther King People’s Convention for Justice and Resistance Planning Committee. Dozens of other organizations endorsed the protest.

“The purpose of this march is to protest the racist, fascist, and unjust policies at home and abroad of President Trump, his administration, the Republican-controlled Congress and the ultra-conservative U.S. Supreme Court,” said Lawrence Hamm, chair of the POP.

Bashir Muhammad Ptah Akinyele, a high school history teacher in Newark, said he joined the No Kings march because he is “outraged over Donald Trump’s racist and oppressive policies that are working to stifle Black, Brown and Muslim progress in the United States and in the world.”

“Solidarity between marginalized groups are needed to fight off White supremacy,” he urged.

Saturday’s rallies were the third wave of “No Kings” demonstrations against the Trump administration since the president took office for his second term. Organizers estimated that more than eight million people attended nearly 3,300 events worldwide last weekend.

An estimated five million people attended thousands of events during the first wave of protests in June 2025. A second round of No Kings protests last October reportedly attracted even larger crowds, with 2,700 separate events drawing an estimated seven million people.

Trump has fired back at demonstrators, denying that he is a “king” and saying that he “works his ass off to make our country great.” The president has dismissed the protesters, saying that they don’t represent the majority of the country.

“The demonstrations were very small, very ineffective and the people were whacked out,” he has said.

After the last round of No Kings protests, Trump shared an AI-created video of himself piloting a fighter jet emblazoned with the words “King Trump.” Wearing a crown on his head, the president zooms over a crowd of demonstrators and airdrops a payload of sewerage on their heads. The video got laughs from some internet commenters – but left others shaking their heads in disbelief and anger.

Some people have supported the president and bashed the No Kings protests.

“Don’t these people have jobs?” a Republican pundit questioned ahead of last weekend’s rallies. “What will they accomplish?”

No Kings organizers have continued to demand change, including the ongoing federal immigration crackdown and the war in Iran on their list of complaints:

“President Trump has doubled down. His administration is sending masked agents into our streets, terrorizing our communities. They are targeting immigrant families, profiling, arresting, and detaining people without warrants. Threatening to overtake elections. Gutting healthcare, environmental protections, and education when families need them most. Rigging maps to silence voters. Ignoring mass shootings at our schools and in our communities. Driving up the cost of living while handing out massive giveaways to billionaire allies, as families struggle. Spending billions of our tax dollars on missile strikes abroad all while driving up the cost of living and handing out massive giveaways to billionaire allies. The president thinks his rule is absolute. But in America, we don’t have kings – and we won’t back down against chaos, corruption and cruelty.”

According to national No Kings organizers, a “What’s Next?” mass phone call is scheduled for Tuesday, March 31. Another national wave of protests is being planned for May 1.

'WHY ARE YOU MARCHING?'

Hamm, a former U.S. Senate candidate, said he's been asked repeatedly about why he planned to march last weekend.

Here's his reply, the longtime activist said:

“We are marching against Trump’s attempts to become a dictator, his criminality, his administration’s flagrant violations of the law and the constitution, his blatant, breathtaking and boundless corruption, and his efforts to repress and crush dissent.

“We have a number of demands which include an immediate end to the illegal, unjust and immoral war in Iran, abolishing ICE, releasing all of the Epstein files, removal of all federal troops and national guard from our cities, impeaching Trump, members of his administration and Supreme Court justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito.

“We are marching for an end to Trump’s tariffs which are driving up the cost of living, an increase in the minimum wage to $20 an hour, restoration of federal budget cuts and DOGE cuts, rehiring of laid off and fired federal workers, the payment of the TSA workers.

“We also demand congressional support of pro-labor and union organizing legislation, free college, abolition of student debt, universal healthcare/Medicare for all, and for millionaires and billionaires to pay their fare share of taxes.

“We are marching to demand that the president and his administration cease all efforts aimed at interfering with, impeding, sabotaging or canceling the congressional midterm elections. We demand the return to Fulton County, Georgia the ballots illegally seized by the Trump administration.

“We demand Congress vote against Trump’s Save Act, an immediate halt to all efforts to end mail-in ballots, the passage of the John Lewis voting rights acts at the state and federal level, the passage of same day voter registration legislation, and overturning the Citizens United Supreme Court decision to get big money out of our elections.

“We are marching for the prosecution of ICE agents responsible for the deaths of Alex Pretty, Renee Good, Keith Porter, Jean Wilson Brutus and all victims of ICE, an end to illegal detentions and deportations, the removal of ICE from our airports and our communities, the elimination of all warehouse detention centers and a halt to the opening and construction of new ones , the closure of Delaney Hall in Newark, and dropping of charges against Congresswoman Monica McIver.

“We are marching against Trump’s racist, white supremacist and anti-black policies. He has targeted the African American community in a particularly destructive way. Trump and his racist and fascist movement have accelerated a sixty year long attack on Black people the goal of which is to roll back the progress we made fighting against the racial inequality, injustice, segregation, discrimination and oppression in this country.

“We demand an end to the attacks on African Americans and our voting rights, civil rights, human rights, and civil liberties. We are marching to restore affirmative action and Diversity, Equity and Inclusion programs, the rehiring of all workers, including the 300,000 black women who lost their jobs as a result of the elimination of those programs.

“We are protesting to demand the reopening and re-staffing of civil rights divisions and offices in all government agencies, the passage of slavery reparations legislation at the state and federal levels, the passage of anti-police brutality legislation including establishment of police review boards with subpoena, investigatory and disciplinary powers, and an end to ongoing discrimination and inequality in housing, employment, education, health care and other areas of society.

“Two years ago the FBI and Department of Homeland security said the greatest threat to public safety in America was racist, white supremacist, domestic terror and violence. The Trump administration has attempted to erase this fact, but racist violence and bias attacks are on the rise.

“We are marching to demand that the Department of Justice focus its effort on stopping these racist attacks on African Americans and other people rather than looking for some imaginary “antifa” organization. We demand a halt to attempts by Trump’s Department of Justice to drop charges against police officers that killed George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and other victims of police brutality.

“We demand an end to book banning, an immediate halt to all attempts to remove Black history and Black studies curriculum, programs, courses and departments from our schools, colleges and universities, the full implementation of the Amistad African American history law throughout the state of New Jersey, and removal of all statues and names associated with slavery and the confederacy from all government buildings, parks, and streets.

“We are marching to oppose government policies and legislation that discriminate, penalize or harm people because of their race, ethnicity, nationality, disability, age, creed, color, sex, sexual orientation, or gender. We are marching against attempts to deny, limit, or eliminate women’s equality and reproductive rights. We demand an end to any policies, laws and legislation that will adversely affect or deny the rights of the LGBTQ community.

“We are marching for a just, fair, and peaceful foreign policy that respects human rights, a halt to U.S. support for Israel’s genocidal war against the Palestinians and an end to U.S. military aid to Israel, and an end to the blockade and sanctions against Cuba and the normalization of relations.

“We demand an end to the illegal detention of President Maduro and his wife and their return to Venezuela, the return of money, oil, and resources stolen by the United States from Venezuela, an end to U.S. imperialist domination and repression in Haiti, an end to U.S. support for war and genocide in the Congo, Sudan, and other African countries, and an end to the use of nuclear weapons.”

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