'No Kings' aims for record turnout in Saturday's anti-Trump protests

"March 28 will be the biggest protest in U.S. history," the group, which comprises a progressive coalition of activists, wrote on its website. "Find your local No Kings event to make it clear that America rejects the regime's brutality at home and abroad." Organizers planned more than 3,000 events in cities across the United States, with several more planned abroad, including in Mexico and Canada. This is the third series of nationwide protests organized by the group, which says Trump's actions in office are more akin to those of a monarch than a democratically elected leader. "The only people who care about these Trump Derangement Therapy Sessions are the reporters who are paid to cover them," Jackson said. But those attending the protests said they had legitimate grievances with the president and his allies and hoped that mass, nonviolent demonstrations might help make a change. Carina Kagan is a Mexican-Filipino American whose daughter is in the Army stationed overseas. She drove more than two hours from Lake of the Ozarks, Mo., to Kansas City, Mo., to protest the U.S. war in Iran. "Right now, the military boots on the ground possibility is the biggest thing in my head," she said of the potential for a ground deployment of U.S. troops. On Friday, Secretary of State Marco Rubio said that the U.S. could achieve its goals in Iran without ground troops. Trump's stated goals for starting the war in Iran have shifted over the weeks, but one consistent objective he and top administration officials have pursued is the elimination of the country's ballistic missile arsenal and ensuring Iran never acquires nuclear weapons. Kagan has attended No Kings events before and said that she feels a responsibility as a Latino person to make her presence known. "We have all our Mexican family in San Diego with all our Mexican friends and whatnot. At an event in Rutland, Vt., hundreds of people had gathered by early afternoon, including Hannah Abrams. "I'm here because of the incredible amount of cruelty that's going on in the world," she said. This was Abrams third time attending a No Kings rally. She said she hopes there's no need for a fourth. "It's just cruel conditions for people who are taken by ICE, it's the cruel way that they're taken," she said. "It's the cruelty of our economy and how we are paying more, even though we're told that the economy has improved. We're cruel towards other countries, taking their leaders and deciding those leaders' fates. He says intergenerational solidarity is a key part of the movement and that there are many older people willing to take to the streets alongside their younger compatriots. "If you've been to any of the No Kings protests that have happened so far, you'll see a lot of people with hairlines like mine, which is to say, scant," he joked. "This is a very weird moment in our political history," he said. "Look, there have been plenty of presidents in my lifetime I didn't much like or didn't agree with politically, but there's never been any that I thought were fascist, and I think that that's very clear what we're now starting to deal with in this country." Politics Harris called Trump a 'fascist.' Experts debate what fascism is — and isn't President Trump has said repeatedly that he's not a fascist or a king and has previously scorned the protests. "I think it's a joke," he said last year of the October demonstrations. "I looked at the people. They're not representative of this country." He has, however, simultaneously leaned into the royal comparisons, even while mocking critics, posting an AI-generated video of himself wearing a crown. Coming together in protest, he said, helps combat that social seclusion. Glazer and other members of his group plan to protest Saturday in Paramus, where the organization was founded. "We are a force of treating people with individual human dignity and respect, and connection," he said. "And that's what brings us together. "The reason why we're in this mess is because there has been a lack of civic engagement overall because people have been trained that just by nature of voting every two to four years that they're doing their civic duty," he said. The name of the book is The Handmaid's Tale.