Politics

Chicago’s Anti-Trump ‘No Kings’ Protest Fills Downtown Streets With Huge Crowd: ‘We Need to Act Now’

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Thousands of protesters marched through downtown Chicago Saturday and gathered at sites across the city and suburbs as part of the national “No Kings” movement. 

The demonstrations are a mass mobilization effort across the U.S. and globe positioned as a denouncement of President Donald Trump and his administration’s policies. More than 2,600 rallies were planned Saturday in cities large and small, organized by hundreds of coalition partners.

In Chicago, the largest protest began in Grant Park at noon, with a march through downtown stepping off after 1 p.m.  

Organizers say they believe more than 100,000 people filled Grant Park but that number doesn’t include those who didn’t make it into the park before the march started.

As of 3:15 p.m, CPD reported there were no major incidents from the march or rally. By 4 p.m., after the march returned to Grant Park, a small group remained banging drums and chanting, “More power to the people.” 

The rally began with the crowd standing shoulder-to-shoulder at Butler Field in Grant Park as protesters holding signs and some American flags overflowed onto Jackson Drive toward Buckingham Fountain.

As the march geared up to step off, crowds assembled down Jackson Drive. The sound of whistles, beating drums and chanting pulsed through the crowd. Police cars sat parked nearby. 

The protesters began chanting, “Hey ho, hey ho, Donald Trump has got to go.” Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker, Lt. Gov. Juliana Stratton and U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin joined the front of the march. 

 

 

 

 

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There was some initial confusion from organizers and police when the march reached Michigan Avenue, leading to a tight redirection as marchers were told to turn north onto the Mag Mile. Marchers walked on both sides of the median, filling both sides of the street as they passed Millennium Park. Onlookers lined the streets and sidewalks chanting along with those marching. 

The local protests are taking place amid continuing raids by federal immigration agents across the city and suburbs in an operation Trump officials have named “Midway Blitz.” The threat of National Guard deployment also hangs over the city. A federal judge and a panel of appeals court judges has put a pause on that deployment, but the U.S. Supreme Court is expected to weigh in.  

Protesters carry a sign in downtown Chicago during the "No Kings" protest march on Oct. 18, 2025. (Eunice Alpasan / WTTW News)

Breanna Bello, 27, said her parents, who are from Mexico, are living in fear and she felt it was important to attend the protest for them and everyone else amid the ongoing ICE operations in the Chicago area. 

“When that fear kind of takes over, you just kind of have to tell yourself, ‘You know what? Go out and do it for those that can’t’” Bello said. “Even though in the news, we see a lot of bad, there’s still good people out there, and there’s still good people out there using their voice.”

Isaac Palmiter, 23, an iron worker from the south suburbs arrived at the downtown protest via the Metra and dressed in a Captain America costume.

Isaac Palmiter, 23, attents the "No Kings" protest in downtown Chicago on Oct. 18, 2025. (Eunice Alpasan / WTTW News)

“The person who’s in our office of the president of the United States of America, as well as many of his friends, including Peter Thiel and others, seem to want to turn this place into some combination of an oligarchical fascist regime,” Palmiter said. “I do not use those words lightly. I believe in a world where we can all have very different political opinions, but still work together and make one great country, one great world. But I do not believe in one where workers’ rights are trampled on, where immigrants’ rights are trampled on, and … especially where the military, the biggest military in the world, should be deployed upon the great cities such as this in Chicago.” 

David Robinson, 60, attended the Milwaukee “No Kings” protest in June and today made the trip to downtown Chicago.

“There’s a lot of power being grabbed right now, and we need to act now to get things back under control,” Robinson said as walked toward Grant Park’s Butler Field. “When I was still extremely young, people were being thrown in jail for the right to vote, a right to vote that our Supreme Court is saying, ‘Well, maybe we don’t have to work that hard for it anymore.’ So, those people went through a lot more than just making a sign and walking down the streets of Chicago. This is a cakewalk and so this is the easy part.”

Robinson said showing up to protest is easy compared to living in a country with fewer rights. 

“I want those politicians to realize that people aren’t OK with this,” Robinson said. “The majority is not OK with this. The majority is out on the street, and we want to be listened to.”

Marchers near Grant Park in downtown Chicago as part of the "No Kings" protest on Oct. 18, 2025. (Bridgette Adu-Wadier / WTTW News)

Sara Stevens, 38, is a volunteer with Indivisible Chicago. She was helping hold up a large banner showing the preamble to the Constitution.

“The power resides in ‘We the people,’” Stevens said. “The Constitution is a fundamental part of America. Right now, our current government is willing to just straight out ignore parts of it. At least, for me and a lot of other systems, that’s not OK.

“There are just a lot of people who are energized,” Stevens said. “There are a lot of people who are frustrated with what’s going on and are willing to stand up and speak for the people who really can’t afford to … A lot of people were willing to come out here, despite some of the threats, some of the rhetoric.”

Lucy Larkin, an activist coordinator with the Seattle-based organization Backbone Campaign,  said versions of the banner with the Constitution’s preamble were also used in protests in Washington, D.C. and Seattle.

“It’s definitely becoming an icon and a symbol of the movement of generally just everybody rising up together …,” Larkin said. “We won’t take it, we won’t back down and we’re all united as we the people.”

Larkin said this protest was their first time in Chicago. “It was iconic,” Larkin said. “Walking in front of the Trump Tower — it was crazy.”

A large version of the Constitution was carried during the Oct. 18, 2025 march in Chicago. (Eunice Alpasan / WTTW News)

Kathy Tholin, organizer and board member with Indivisible Chicago, said before the event that safety marshals would be on hand to help participants with anything they might need and ensure their safety above all else.   

“We, as the organizers of this event and all of the sponsoring organizations are committed to peaceful protest, and we ask everyone who comes to participate also commit to that,” Tholin said.  

Chicago police officers line the protest route on Oct. 18, 2025. (Eunice Alpasan / WTTW News)

The Chicago Police Department did not disclose if it would be canceling days off for officers, but a spokesperson said the CPD “will have additional resources visible and present across the city to protect all those exercising their First Amendment Rights, as well as all those living, working and visiting in the area.”

During the march, officers were seen on bikes and directing the crowd's route along with organizers. 

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.”

Trump himself is away from Washington at his Mar-a-Lago home in Florida.

“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 are expected nearby Saturday.

Protesters head to the "No Kings" rally in Grant Park on Oct. 18, 2025. (Eunice Alpasan / WTTW News)

Heather Cherone, Joel Ortiz and The Associated Press contributed to this report. 

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