Note: For a report on Flagler County’s three marches, see: “Over 1,300 ‘No Kings’ Protesters at 3 Locations in Flagler Beach and Palm Coast Proclaim Diversity of Opposition to Trump.”
The third “No Kings” protest of Donald Trump’s second term lured crowds across Florida, even in areas dominated by Republican voters, including cities with strong military presences like Pensacola and Jacksonville.
Even deep-red Polk County, where Trump won by 21 points in the 2024 presidential election, saw an enthusiastic crowd of at least 2,000 people at Freedom Park in downtown Lakeland.
“We’re in a very red county here in Polk County and it’s really nice to be around like-minded people,” Auburndale resident Stephanie Block said. “People who share the same thoughts, ideologies, have the same scruples, if you will. Care about our fellow man, not just the bottom dollar, and I really don’t like Donald Trump so I’m very happy to be here protesting.”
In Tallahassee, hundreds of protesters flocked to the state Capitol, lining Monroe Street in front of the Capitol Complex. Chants echoed calling to free Palestine, end mass deportations, stop the bombing in Iran, and to criticize both Trump and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis.
“The honks are up this time!” 75-year-old Jim King told the Florida Phoenix, gesturing toward the packed traffic inching along Monroe Street, many adorned with American flags and criticisms of Trump.
The former president of his high school’s teen Republicans club, King said he’d been to all three No Kings Day Protests.
Why? Because of the “lawlessness” in the country under Trump, he said, and the President’s involvement with Jeffrey Epstein.
A small squadron of Tallahassee police said they’d been told to expect roughly 1,000 protesters.
Harshly critical signs depicting Trump littered the crowd. One non-party-affiliated protester, 58-year-old Keith Frechete, proudly bannered an AI poster of Trump kissing Vladimir Putin’s bare behind. The words “Putie and the Blowfish” floated above their heads.
Frechete, a former New Hampshire-ite, said he was inspired to come out to protest the “government falling apart.”
Meanwhile, others with bullhorns led chants ranging from “Donald Trump, let’s be clear, immigrants are welcome here” to “When Iran is under attack, what do we do? Stand up, fight back. When Palestine is under attack what do we do? Stand up, fight back. When trans lives are under attack, what do we do? Stand up, fight back.”
Others listed names of those who’d died in ICE custody, accusing the federal immigration authorities of “slaughter.”
Panhandle protest
In Pensacola, attendees waved signs alongside the four corners of Airport Road and N. 9th Ave., near the airport and Pensacola State College.
According to the event organizer, Margaret Hostetter, at the first No Kings event during the summer of 2025 there were 500 attendees at this location and in October more than 3,000. Several people who’d attended the October event told the Phoenix Saturday that the crowd had grown since then or was about the same size.
Pensacola is the seat of Escambia County, home to 98,000 registered Republicans and 58,205 registered Democrats. The city is in the district formerly represented by Rep. Matt Gaetz in the U.S. House, a conservative with nationwide name recognition. The area hosts military facilities including Naval Air Station Pensacola and Eglin Air Force Base.
In a community partially sustained by the body of water now identified by the Trump administration as the “Gulf of America,” various signs and shirts donned at the event insisted, “Gulf of Mexico.”
Mel Briggs, an 83-year-old Democrat from Pensacola, told the Phoenix, “I don’t want any kings in charge of the U.S. and I think Trump is acting like a king.”
During his three years in the Army during the Vietnam era, Briggs said, he “saw the government do wrong things, bad things, and they’re into it again.”
The Phoenix did not observe any law enforcement present other than an unmanned county sheriff’s portable security camera. Hostetter said her security team reported no disturbances, such as counter-protesters.
“I feel very encouraged and happy and pleased with all of the wonderful participation,” Hostetter said. “But mostly, I am emotionally determined that we have a fight on our hands as a nation and as individuals, all of us, that we cannot let up.”
A man, who identified himself as Jimmy T, said he is new to Florida. “I drove all the way from Seattle, Washington, to Pensacola, Florida, doing DoorDash for the most part,” he told the Phoenix.
“The conditions for people on the street, the conditions for the homeless shelters, the conditions for low-income housing and corruption within the smaller cities has become absolutely rampant,” Jimmy said, based on people he has talked with and his Doordash customers.
Jimmy, a 47-year-old no-party-affiliated voter who chose to remain anonymous citing fear of retaliation MAGA followers, was waving to passersby an American flag that he found abandoned on a Missoula, Montana, street.
Jimmy said he put up the first tent in the Washington state Capitol lawn during the Occupy Wall Street protests in 2010.
Duval
In Jacksonville, colder temperatures and 20-plus mile per hour wind gusts didn’t dampen enthusiasm for the third area No Kings march.
Thousands of people gathered in front of Friendship Circle, an hour before the rally started. From there, the protesters walked across the John T. Alsop Jr. Bridge and to the Duval County Courthouse. Along the way, car horns honked support.
Duval County has a strong military presence with facilities Naval Air Station Jacksonville, Naval Station Mayport, and Naval Submarine Base Kings Bay. And veterans could be seen throughout the crowd.
Twenty-year Navy veteran “Drew A” described himself as a Minneapolis native who has lived in Jacksonville since first being stationed here. He resigned from the Navy in 2016 after Trump was first elected. “I saw the direction the country was heading and I didn’t like it,” he said. “And then when he got elected again, to watch it again.”
Drew continued: “I did two tours in Iraq. So, I know what it’s like. I know what a legal war looks like. I know how it affects people back home. And I just had to get out and do something.”
There are about 641,000 registered voters in Duval County, according to the Duval County Supervisor of Elections. Democrats hold a slight advantage in the number of active registered voters in the county.
President Donald Trump won Duval County by nearly 1.5% points in 2024, although President Joe Biden defeated Trump by roughly 4 points in 2020.
Navy veteran Steve Guilmette lives in the historic Mandarin neighborhood. Saturday was his third No Kings Rally.
“I think Trump has earned much more frustration and anger from real Americans,” Guilmette, a Vietnam vet, told the Phoenix. “I’m hoping his son will be on the front line instead of these other guys. You know, [Trump son-in-law] Jared Kushner, he should be on the front line.”
Guilmette was carrying an upside down American flag with a black ribbon tied on top.
It’s “an international symbol of distress, an upside down flag,” he said. “And the black ribbon represents the people we’ve lost. And that’s what this is for. The people we’ve lost in Iran and more in Minnesota. And well, especially now, but for everybody who’s been lost in a war, especially pointless wars.”
Imperial Polk
Donald Trump won Polk County by 21 points in the 2024 presidential election, so the gathering of at least 2,000 people at Freedom Park in downtown Lakeland was welcomed by Auburndale resident Stephanie Block.
“We’re in a very red county here in Polk County and it’s really nice to be around like-minded people,” Block said. “People who share the same thoughts, ideologies, have the same scruples, if you will. Care about our fellow man, not just the bottom dollar, and I really don’t like Donald Trump so I’m very happy to be here protesting. “
Tiffany Sullivan was with two family members who all moved to Polk County from Riverside County in Southern California last fall. She acknowledged it has been a “big change” to now live in a much more conservative region of the country, and said she was surprised by how many people were in attendance.
“It gives you hope,” she said.
A 27-year-old Lakeland resident who only wanted to be identified by her first name, Mary, said this was her first time attending a No Kings protest. Mary voted “by default” for Kamala Harris in 2024 but said she wasn’t excited about either of the two major party candidates that year.
“They all feel like puppets to me, so it was more of a ‘I don’t believe what they say’ kind of choice,” she said.
Mary acknowledged that many 20-somethings like herself are extremely disaffected by politics, but added that the conditions the country faces in this second Trump administration demand involvement.
“It’s more critical than ever for young people to register and vote,” she said. “I know a lot of people think that the system’s rigged and that we don’t have any say and that democracy is rigged, but we still have to try.”
Jeff Potter, 76, of Winter Haven, has been a lifelong independent voter. He said he was in attendance because he’s “just tired of what’s going on.”
“Nobody standing up for what they need to stand up for, whether it be Republicans or Democrats,” he said. “We need an overall change to how we respond to the overall lack of response that we get from our elected leaders.”
Potter said he feels extreme disdain for Republicans for falling in line and not speaking out more against their elected leaders. He hopes the overall size of these No King rallies, combined with the upset victories by Democrats in two GOP state legislative strongholds last week, will compel lawmakers to rebel more against the party establishment.
“Maybe we can actually get some members locally in Tallahassee that are going to understand what’s going on,” he said. “They are all oblivious. They go by what their guys says whether it’s DeSantis or Trump. They need to wake up, and hopefully this is going to make them wake up.”
–Mitch Perry, Christine Sexton, Jay Waagmeester, and Liv Caputo, Florida Phoenix
JimboXYZ says
What did the Flagler County rallies look like. All I could find was Daytona Beach, FL & to be candid, IMHO, Daytona Beach has seen better days. I didn’t recognize much of Flagler Beach or Palm Coast from the photos at this link ?
https://bluewaterhealthyliving.com/news/national-news/florida/thousands-gather-for-no-kings-rallies-in-volusia-flagler/
Some strange locations ? Usually they are held in Town Center or at the Park across the street from the pier.
https://happeningnext.com/event/no-kings-march-28th-eid3a0de1g7il
PaulT says
Ah Jimbo. If you’d attended one of the rallies you would have found out. I’m told that quite a few local Republicans supported the event.
If you iust needed images check out Saturday’s Flagler Live, the back and forth in the comments section was as lively as the rally I joined at one of the ‘usual places’ though not quite so peaceful since some commentators seem offended by First Amendment assembly.
JimboXYZ says
I am all for 1st Amendment gatherings. I avoid the extremist, domestic terrorists that they are for being there to cause trouble. And that’s both sides. I can do Target Retail shopping another day. And it’s not just the protestors ? All one needs is a mass shooter there and there’s a slaughter being served up for the taking. As gasoline has always been a precious commodity, sitting in traffic ? No thanks, I’ll commute/travel when traffic is lighter. Not sure what they accomplished last Saturday for any solution(s). I mean the Israel & Palestinian War is still going on. I think Trump even did his best to implement Biden’s plan that failed. If a higher energy, cognizant POTUS that Trump is vs Biden’s low energy babbling/stuttering. non-cognizant persona was declining to become. Biden was never ending those 2 wars either as failure ? Biden could’ve gotten 4 more years & the entire 4 years would’ve been a lame duck administration. Just keeping that much real ? At what point does anyone want to wake up to the news that Iran has become more than the conventional war power they are in the Middle East.
Too many have forgotten the 1970’s for terrorism. The Olympics (Israel’s team hostaged & murdered), USA hostages under Carter’s watch taken by Iran & Terrorism of that era. At the end of the day, Iran has never made the progress they have in the last 16 years. One POTUS has made the attempt to keep Iran from becoming exactly what they were Oct 07, 2023 when they attacked Israel thru Hamas. And this was the Biden-Harris solution ?
https://www.heritage.org/middle-east/commentary/bidens-6-billion-ransom-payment-iran-fuels-their-terror-machine
https://mast.house.gov/2023/11/biden-handed-over-16-billion-to-iran
DaleL says
Well Jimbo, I was at the one in Palm Coast. There were about 50% more “No Kings” people than I remember that were at past events. My biggest surprise was that the counter, pro-MAGA, protesters were very few. I counted just 3 on the NW corner of Palm Coast Parkway and Old Kings. I had expected that with all the publicity leading up to the event that the MAGA folks would have been out in droves to support Epstein’s best buddy.
I’m still skeptical that Jeffery committed suicide. In August 2019, Trump was gearing up to run for re-election. It was rather convenient for him that Epstein conveniently was out of the picture. Of course Democrats didn’t seem at the time to mind either. Mr. Biden certainly didn’t release the Epstein files. That was one of the issues that Trump ran on in 2024. Then Trump got elected and all of a sudden he didn’t want the files out either. It took an act of Congress to get them released in a strange over redacted manner.
The No Kings rally in Palm Coast was good fun and a bit of exercise. The wind made waving a sign a real workout.
JimboXYZ says
I can see why no PRO-MAGA types would show up. Not like anyone there is going to change their minds about why they attended. It’s a waste of time & resources really. High risk, no reward. No burning & looting like BLM 2020. In the end, after all of this 1st Amendment protesting assemblies, everyone casts a vote Nov 2028. People get fed up with the direction for their personal misery. They vote out what they got fed up with. Dress up like a Little Caesars Roman and wave a protest sign at me, that isn’t going to change my vote for what I’m fed up with, just like if I’m not feeling pizza for the Little Caesars character advertising a special will get me to buy a pizza in that moment. So you wave & yell your viewpoint at them, they do it to you just the same, there’s some village idiot(s) that goes too far & an escalation always results. So why even be there, the silent majority realizes the vote is all that matters for any power. A parking lot full of protestors isn’t changing any positions.
If anything has come from this ? Iran may have lost their Ayatollah, but if the month plus here is perceived as Iran controlling the Strait of Hormuz, a win over the mighty USA & Trump. That was the Ayatollah’s legacy for giving back to Iran. We’re all going to die, the Ayatollah too. The Ayatollah in that regard served his country, religion in order with what any American serves the USA’s interest for military, etc.. So yeah, the Ayatollah is their hero. The rest of us survive & live thru the misery of higher gasoline prices & inflation for it.
Flagler has never been huge for protests ? BLM & LGBTQ ran their courses 2020-whenever the last event happened. Those lost their steam just the same. The LGBTQ festival was unprofitable, Capitalism exposed that for what it was. unmarketable nonsense. Nobody opposed the festival, nobody showed up 500-800 people wasn’t the get rich quick scheme that the one’s with booths had hoped for ? And this No Kings will loses steam too, Either for a USA pullout between now & election day 2028. Trump won’t be on the ballot as POTUS for a 3rd term. It is what it is ?
Ann Williams says
There were even Republicans at this event. I spoke to a group that came to protest and they said they despised Trump. Some voted for him prior, some didn’t vote for him this last election, two women said they never voted for him. No one admitted they voted for him this time; but, I suspect some did. It was a group of eight people that I got to talk to when I arrived at Target on Rt. 100 in Palm Coast.
Me says
The people showed Trump he isn’t well liked and the 8 million that marched also go out and vote.
JimboXYZ says
Trump won’t be there to be voted against in 2028, go figure the logic in that ? The 8 million that marched, most likely voted against him in the 1st place ? Recalling 2024, what a crappy choice that was. How soon one forgets the propping up of Joe Biden until it was too late, then Harris was slid into the slot. Democrat voters didn’t get their primary vote to at least make Harris earn the ticket. Harris did well for a 1st timer though, more because she wasn’t Trump than the votes that would be required to get her own party’s nomination. We’re talking that head to head in 2020, Tulsi Gabbard smoked her for votes received. 2028 we’re going to get a new choice. Only because one has to win. Anyone thinking whoever is after Trump is going to fix just the last 6 years of installing Joe Biden as POTUS is going to happen is a fool of the highest order. Again, I’m on record as seeing Trump as unable to reverse the course of Biden-Harris. One can’t reverse entirely 4 years of DC Swamp sandbagging America. Just as Norris wasn’t going to reverse Alfin-Holland.
Gasoline prices were lower for just around a year. That much had seemed to be corrected. The tariffs were a revenue grab before any middlepersons got involved to inflate the price of anything. That even worked because the CPI for inflation ticked down 10th of a percentage. Biden-Harris/Democrats did their job well for sandbagging anyone succeeding them. Just as Alfin & others in Flagler Beach & Bunnell have done. Reversing any of it and no value added litigation to sue is the result. Look at Flagler County ? it’s a mess of built & unbuilt projects, many of which are grossly underfunded & completely unfunded. I noticed the other day, the SW side of the intersection of Belle Terre & FL-100 is leveled to dirt. Traffic for growth prior to that was gridlock at peak commutes. Piling on residential or commercial there is just going to make that a 35 mph speed zone at best instead of the 45-50 mph it was formerly.
No Kings ? this is how they’ve always done it. Things have to be destroyed to clear he way for the next round of growth. Funny that this is Trump’s war. yet all the evidence points to Obama & Biden administrations funding nuclear weapons for Ayatollah of Oppression and Terrorism. Every POTUS has removed a leader including & since W. Bush. Nobody had an issue with doing Bin Laden, because he wasn’t a head of state for a nation. Wasn’t recognized in that role. Yet he was the “leader of Terrorism” since 9/11/2001 ? And like the Ayatollah’s son that recently took power, went into hiding. Point is, I see little difference between Bin Laden & Ayatollah, one was a lot closer to being nuclear weapons capable & we can thank Bush, Obama & Biden for that much. Trump is on the record for opposing nuclear capability. Just me, but why wasn’t Biden working with North Korea for nuclear capability ? Every war we have was really started under Biden-Harris. Ukraine & Middle East. But that isn’t “No Kings”. The Democrats weaponized the Justice system. Then Biden pardoned his family, made Trump prove POTUS immunity was a defense. And so we may never know how corrupt the Biden’s have been for a dozen plus years. And nobody seems concerned about the fraud & abuse of the Biden-Harris administration in MN alone.
Al says
Thousands across a state of 22 million, wow I’m impressed. They must of done the job because we don’t have a king. We do have someone who paid the tsa people when the looney bins of democrats refused to, now the lines are shorter so you can catch a flight to NY, LA, Portland or Chicago and be with your kind. When you go take 2 of your friends with you please.
Grandson Of A LEGAL Immigrant says
Strong work! Still no king! See you out there for the next one!
Sherry says
The next protest will be May 1st. . . No Work! No School! No Shopping!
SOLIDARITY!
TRUMP OUT!
ICE OUT!
NO WARS!