Thousands protest Trump at the Capitol on ‘No Kings’ Day: 13 photos

Across the country, millions of Americans took to the streets Saturday to protest against the Trump administration’s unconstitutional overreaches, while the president threw himself a birthday parade with tanks and soldiers in Washington, D.C.

But Donald Trump was also spotted in Phoenix among the many thousands who converged on the Arizona Capitol at one of the nation’s 2,000 “No Kings” protests. He was traipsing around, hunched over in an orange prison jumpsuit and intermittently half-singing and grumbling to himself, “Happy birthday to me! Happy birthday to me!” from behind prison bars.

OK, that probably wasn’t actually Trump, but the makeshift fat suit was pretty convincing.


The protest outside the Capitol was unlike any show of dissatisfaction in recent memory — a swarm of people spanning as far as the eye can see, carrying signs ranging from the philosophical to the crude to the very random. The atmosphere was lively but contained, dimmed by weather that reached 100 degrees by noon. Crowds of people also protested at several other sites in the Valley and in the state, but the Capitol gathering was by far the largest.

The whole event had a circus-like vibe, with a coterie of all archetypes: veterans, Latinos, the LGBTQ+ crowd (it is Pride Month after all), hippies and normal suburban kids. It felt like America, or a version of a civically engaged America. People gave away free water bottles, set up tables to provide people with more information about political organizing, mutual aid and other community resources.

Most of the folks at the event moved quietly, walking around in their own parade of expressions. There was little in the way of trouble — only a few scuffles broke out. Around noon, a rough-looking, tattooed man parked his car on Capitol Avenue and tried to pull a Palestinian flag out of another man’s hand. About a dozen people wrestled him away before the man was escorted away by police.

Saturday’s act of civil organizing was likely the largest yet seen in the Phoenix area. As the Trump administration continues to deport thousands of immigrants without criminal histories, radically reshape the federal government, pass tax cuts for the wealthy and flirt with war in the Middle East, the biggest demonstrations might be yet to come.

Here are more photos from “No Kings” Day in Phoenix.