Protesters assemble in front of City Hall before marching through downtown Los Angeles on Saturday during nationwide “No Kings” rallies on October 18, 2025. Photo by Axel Koester, Southern California News Group. (Source: The Torrance Breeze)
By Madeline Armstrong, Sydney Barragan, Mona Darwish, Jason Henry, Christina Merino, Sierra van der Brug, Allyson Vergara and Beau Yarbrough (Staff writers of the Southern California News Group)
Thousands of people distressed by President Donald Trump’s policies and worried about the future of democracy in the U.S. turned out across Southern California on Saturday for “No Kings” protests.
The third mass mobilization and the second national No Kings Day since Trump’s return to the White House come amid a federal government shutdown, controversial immigration crackdowns and what many decry as a turn toward authoritarianism.
More than 2,600 rallies were planned around the nation in cities large and small, including dozens in Southern California. One protest in downtown San Bernardino that drew hundreds of people was organized by a 14-year-old boy.
Organizers have stressed they hoped for peaceful protests to warn about the direction of the country under Trump, though various events had a festive air, with musicians entertaining crowds and demonstrators decked out in cartoonish, satirical costumes. Some Republican leaders, though, dubbed the demonstrations “Hate America” rallies.
In Torrance, around 4,000 people lined the streets and parking lots near City Hall on Saturday morning. Demonstrators waved American flags and held signs reading, “No hate. No fear. Immigrants are welcomed here,” and “Respect my existence or expect my resistance.”
Katharine Nhyus of Indivisible South Bay, the group that organized the Torrance protest, encouraged those present to vote yes on Proposition 50, California’s redistricting ballot proposition, which seeks to favor Democrats in California’s congressional elections as a way to counter similar, Republican-led plans elsewhere in the country to boost the GOP.
“The way we make a difference is by doing things like this,” Nhyus told the cheering crowd.
“Since day one in January, L.A. has been a target of ICE (U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement), with masked men taking people off the street, being kidnapped, being torn from their families,” Nhuys said. “This is not acceptable, and so to me, this is still the No. 1 issue in the South Bay, and it is one of the biggest reasons we say, ‘No Kings.’ ”
“I think it’s more important than ever to stand up for the First Amendment,” said Lawndale resident Tom Tran, 42. “If we don’t use it, then there’s a real danger that we’ll lose it. It’s a scary time we’re living in, and it’s more important than ever to speak up.”
Palos Verdes resident Klarysa, 47, felt passionately about attending the No Kings protest because of her experiences living in Poland as a teenager.
Klarysa, who declined to give her last name, left Poland 23 years ago but said she is seeing what she saw happen there, happen in the U.S.
“The same depletion (of rights) from every part of the system,” she said. “From women’s rights to education to dismantling the institutions and going after judges.”
A protest along Ocean Boulevard in Long Beach drew around 3,000 people by noon. The event remained peaceful with only a small police presence and the crowds had largely dispersed by 3 p.m.
As with other events around the nation, some demonstrators were in costumes. Many brought their dogs.
Corey Leis was accompanied by Penelope, a poodle dressed as an “Antifa K-9 Unit.”
“I don’t think we’re freer, I don’t think we’re safer,” the 39-year-old Long Beach resident said. “I think life is getting worse in the country for whole segments of the population and obviously more vulnerable populations are living in fear. I just think this is not America.”
Long Beach resident Louis Mestaz wore a “Cat in the Hat” getup.
“The Cat in the Hat is a crazy kind of character,” Mestaz said, “and right now, that’s what we’re seeing in the White House. A crazy character.”
Even his sign had a Dr. Seuss vibe: “No Not for Us. We’ll not have a king. Not at all. Not at all.”
TJ Hedin, another Long Beach protester, said it was his first time attending a No Kings rally. A doctoral student at UCLA, Hedin said funding cuts and Trump’s attacks on academia are affecting his future as an educator.
“There’s been a lot of fascist behavior by the administration from all the ICE activity with no due process, cracking down on freedom of speech, actions they’ve taken against universities,” Hedin, 34, said. “I think it’s important to show up as a community and hopefully pressure our elected officials and demonstrate that we don’t all support this.”
Nearby, Kristin G., an LAUSD teacher who asked that her last name be withheld, said she has seen enrollment go down out of parents’ and students’ fears of immigration enforcement. Some students, she said, have returned to their home countries.
“We’re close to those kids,” she said. “We know them, and we know their families.”
She said protests like these remind everyone that they’re not alone.
“We’re all in this together, no matter what background we come from,” she said, “You feel like we’re in this as a nation and everybody together.”
Politicians at several of the rallies used the local events to stump for Proposition 50. Long Beach Mayor Rex Richardson urged residents to support the proposition and to stand united “around the principle and values of democracy.”
“If there’s anything that comes out of this,” Richardson said, “cut the politics and do your job, get the government back open. And let’s make sure that Long Beach supports Proposition 50, so we can get some balance back into our government.”
As hundreds began gathering in Huntington Beach, lawyers Susan Westover and Dale Giali showed up with large cutouts — Giali hoisting one of Trump with the words “clownish” and “traitor” hovering above the president’s shoulders and Westover with a cutout of Pam Bondi’s head beneath a sign reading, “Lying Lawless Despot.”
Both of them said they were registered Republicans until Trump received the Republican nomination in 2016.
Westover said that the president’s “blatant hypocrisy” and “unconstitutionality” were driving factors in their appearance Saturday, as well as at the last No Kings rally in Huntington Beach in June.
“There are a lot of people who think like us,” Giali said. “Keep the faith. Let’s take our country back.”
About 300 protestors gathered outside City Hall in downtown San Bernardino on Saturday. The protest was organized by San Bernardino High School student Andy Fuentes, 14.
Normally, the intersection of Third and D Streets is quiet on weekends, but during the No Kings protest, the streets echoed with chants, music, cowbells, the honks of motorists showing support and the cheers of protesters in response.
“I’ve been fighting for our rights ever since Donald Trump got elected again,” Fuentes said. “As a young person, I know that I am the future, so this is something I have to do.”
In Orange, several thousand people gathered before noon at Yorba Street and Chapman Avenue, near Chapman Global Medical Center. Traffic monitors were trying to manage the growing crowd.
Jon and Margaret Pendleton, 60, of Irvine showed up at the rally in Santa Ana to protest the policies of the Trump administration.
Jon Pendleton, a history teacher, said he’s concerned with censorship of the press and ordinary civilians. Margaret Pendleton, who works in education, said the cuts to special education were “reprehensible.”
“Generations of children are going to suffer because of the tax cuts for billionaires,” she said.
Outside Pasadena City Hall, some 2,000 people were expected.
“We are about ‘love our neighbors as ourselves,’ ” Patrick Briggs, an organizer with San Gabriel Foothills Indivisible, told the upbeat protesters.
Pasadena Mayor Victor Gordo, the son of immigrant parents, told the crowd that America is more than a simple geographical location, it is a belief.
“It is a belief that we’re all equal, that we embrace diversity, that we embrace other people’s views and opinions,” Gordo said. “We may not agree with what they say, but we will defend to the death their right to say it.”
An inflatable balloon of Trump flew above the crowd gathered in front of Los Angeles City Hall. The orange and yellow balloon portrayed Trump with an angry expression, clad in a diaper with rainbow flags around his neck.
The crowd filled the street in front of City Hall, spilling into Gloria Molina Grand Park. Protesters held signs calling for the release of the Epstein files, and for the protection of democracy and against fascism. They waved American flags, pride flags, Mexican flags and anti-Trump flags and danced down Grand Avenue, whooping, shaking bells and playing tambourines. Cars on the 101 Freeway honked in support as the crowd crossed the overpass.
Massive crowds took to the streets during the first No Kings protest in June, an event that fell on Trump’s 79th birthday. The June 14 protests were mostly peaceful until protesters and local law enforcement officers clashed in downtown L.A., leading to officers deploying chemical irritants and flash bang grenades at civilians.
Costumes were a fixture in downtown L.A. on Saturday, with demonstrators donning taco costumes, blow-up animal suits and Trump masks.
Dani Vogt, a 55-year-old attorney, was among the dozens clad in taco costumes. She decided to dress up, wearing a taco costume, hat and taco-shaped glasses to not only reference the “Trump always chickens out,” or TACO, phrase adopted by protesters in recent months regarding the president’s tariffs, but also to show a different side to the way protesters have been characterized.
“The administration has been trying to portray protesters as these scary terrorists,” she said. “Even though this is a very serious issue, we are not scary, anti-American, Antifa types.”
Her taco gear is meant to poke fun at “bullies” rather than feeding into their power by calling people tyrants, Vogt said.
“Mocking them as opposed to building up their power seems to hopefully deflate them a bit,” she said, standing in a group of protesters also dressed as tacos.
Following the end of the march, hundreds of protesters in Los Angeles redirected and gathered outside the Metropolitan Detention Center, a federal facility that processes people detained by ICE.
They chanted, “I don’t see no riot here, why are you in riot gear?” and “shame on ICE.”
Los Angeles Police Department officers carrying less-lethal weapons and donning helmets, but not full riot gear, monitored the crowd.
A group of clergy formed the front row of the protesters.
“We are part of the resistance, but also we have children and mothers here that aren’t trained for this,” said Guillermo Torres, a director of immigration programming for Clergy and Laity Untied for Economic Justice.
Torres stood with protesters, wearing a tie-dyed, embroidered stole, alongside other members of CLUE.
The demonstrators at the detention center emphasized their peacefulness, with some holding flowers as they called for an end to ICE raids in the city. The faces of those inside the federal facility could be seen watching from the windows.
At one of the earliest protests Saturday in the Inland Empire, more than 200 people had gathered by 9:30 a.m. near Rancho Cucamonga City Hall. Organizers said the number grew to about 2,000 by the end of the rally.
Some carried signs with such slogans as “Defend our Democracy” and “Protest while it’s still legal.”Motorists honked their support for demonstrators at the busy intersection of Haven Avenue and Civic Center Drive, where protest organizers distributed upside-down U.S. flags and bottled water.
Octavio Zavala made special note that as a former Marine he joined the protest the same day Vice President J.D. Vance was expected to attend a training exhibition at Marine Corps Base Camp Pendleton in Oceanside in advance of the Marine Corps’ 250th anniversary.
“I fought for this country and became a disabled veteran, for freedom and for justice and for love, so that everybody could do the best in the U.S.,” the 78-year-old Rancho Cucamonga resident said.
At the Corona protest, resident Claudia Hernandez said it was crucial for her to stand up for her community, especially as a queer, brown woman.
“We all know where our strength is: together. If we don’t stand up now, they could take it away — this democracy that we stand for,” Hernandez said. “We’re still the United States of America. That means all of us, and the true king is the U.S. Constitution, not a wannabe dictator.”
Trump was away from Washington at his Mar-a-Lago home in Florida on Saturday.
“They say they’re referring to me as a king. I’m not a king,” Trump said in a Fox News interview airing early Friday, before he departed for a $1 million-per-plate MAGA Inc. super PAC fundraiser at Mar-a-Lago. Protests were expected to occur nearby.
Republicans have sought to portray participants in Saturday’s rallies as far outside the mainstream of American politics and a main reason for the prolonged government shutdown, now in its 18th day.
From the White House to Capitol Hill, GOP leaders disparaged the rallygoers as “communists” and “Marxists.”
They say Democratic leaders, including Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer of New York, are beholden to the party’s far-left flank and willing to keep the government shut down to appease those liberal forces.
“I encourage you to watch — we call it the Hate America rally — that will happen Saturday,” said House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La.
“Let’s see who shows up for that,” Johnson said, listing groups including “antifa types,” people who “hate capitalism” and “Marxists in full display.”
Correspondent Jarret Liotta, The Associated Press and City News Service contributed to this report.
