October 27, 2025 by Sarah Pipino (‘26)
With the backdrop of the government shutdown entering its 27th day, making it the second longest in history, another event was stopping the streets of America. On Saturday, October 18th, the chants and cheers of the second national No Kings Day protest of 2025 rang out across the world. This event marked the largest single day of protest in US history, with an estimated 7 million people participating in all 50 states and US territories, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands. However the span of this protest was not only coast to coast- it was continent to continent. No Kings Day protests reportedly took place in Australia, Iceland, Sweden, Denmark, Ireland, England, Germany, the Netherlands, France, Austria, Switzerland, Italy, Spain, Portugal, Panama, Mexico, Canada, the British Virgin Islands, and South Korea.
The aim of these protests is, as the No Kings website states, to “peacefully [mobilize] millions of people to take to the streets and declare with one voice: America has No Kings.” Many Americans have found themselves deeply dissatisfied with the manner in which Donald Trump’s second term has been conducted so far, and that frustration was reflected today in these nonviolent, yet still incredibly powerful protests. Although the broad goal was to show unified dissent against the actions of the Trump administration in his second term, a few specific grievances stood out: most notably, the aggressive tactics used by ICE to enforce immigration control, the cuts to Medicaid and Social Security, and the deployment of the National Guard against U.S. citizens to crack down on protests. Such decisions by the current administration have come under fire, with many calling them “undemocratic” and “authoritarian.”
Saratoga Springs was one out of over 2,700 American cities to hold a No Kings protest. Both sides of Broadway, from the Saratoga Arts building to the city center, were filled to the brim with people wearing No Kings in America shirts and carrying handmade signs with quotes, both clever and moving, to express their disapproval of the current state of American politics. The Saratoga demonstration lasted from 4:30p.m.-5:30p.m., when the organizers of the protest offered for the crowds to relocate to Congress Park for food and music.
Protesters stood along the sides of Broadway as cars drove past, many honking to show their support. Some cars had kids leaning out of the windows, waving American flags, as the parents in the front seats beeped their horns and held thumbs up. This event seemed more like a celebration of the core values of our country than a protest- a sentiment that was reportedly expressed in almost every city that participated. Later, the crowd moved to Congress Park, where there was music and a group sing-a-long of This Land Is Your Land as kids played with the ducks in the pond. The No Kings protest on the 18th was in effort of uniting those of the same views in such a divided and tense political atmosphere, and (Saratoga at least) did just that.
