National and state Democratic officials joined protesters across the country on Saturday to oppose President Donald Trump’s efforts to expand his power.
It’s one of the few things elected Democrats — including congressional leadership and potential 2028 presidential candidates — could do to push back on Trump’s agenda. As sizable, reportedly peaceful rallies took shape in cities including New York City, Chicago and Washington, the Democrats offered a grab bag of examples of Trump pushing the boundaries of his executive power and urged voters to keep speaking out.
“History will judge us by where we choose to stand right now, today. Future generations will ask, ‘What did we do when fellow human beings faced persecution, when our rights were being abridged, when our Constitution was under attack?’” said Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker. “They’ll want to know whether we stood up or we stayed silent.”
As he stood in front of a banner that said “hands off Chicago,” Pritzker made the case that every “attack on free speech, on immigrants’ rights, on due process is an attack on everyone’s rights.” He cited the Trump-directed invasion of roving immigration enforcement patrols on the city’s streets and the attempts to send troops to the city as symptoms of a systemic issue with the Trump administration.
Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson made the case that the U.S. is facing a critical inflection point — accusing the Trump administration of provoking “a rematch of the Civil War.”
“Are you ready to fight fascism? Are you prepared to destroy authoritarianism once and for all?” Johnson asked the crowd. “Are you ready to take it to the courts and to the streets? In cities around the world, we have declared that we will defend our democracy.”
Sen. Chris Murphy of Connecticut told a large crowd in D.C. that “we are in the middle of an authoritarian takeover.”
“No one’s riding to our rescue. … It is up to us to save us,” Murphy said. “All across America, in numbers that may eclipse any day of protest in our nation’s history, Americans are saying loudly and proudly that we are a free people.”
Whether rally speakers focused on Trump’s federal workforce firings, heavy-handed immigration enforcement, or his unwelcomed invasions of blue cities, the day had a throughline argument: Trump is doing too much and exceeding his authorities in nearly every policy space.
In the lead-up to the rallies, Republicans — including congressional leadership — tried to link the protests to political violence and terrorism. Democratic leaders in Congress countered with their support for the rallies, stressing that peaceful assembly is a First Amendment-protected activity.
“Showing up to express dissent against an out-of-control administration, that’s as American as motherhood, baseball and apple pie. That’s the First Amendment,” House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries said in a video he posted Saturday morning. “This weekend is what patriotism looks like.”
Protest organizers urged attendees to gather peacefully and prepared training in the event of a Trump administration crackdown, expecting the day could turn volatile. Organizers said around 7 million people across more than 2,500 locations attended without major incident, though that attendance figure could not be verified by official sources. The New York Police Department said despite 100,000 people across all five boroughs attending different rallies, no related arrests were made. The Chicago Police Department posted a similar message after the city’s rally concluded.
The sheer volume of the administration’s actions that attendees found objectionable was illustrated by the variation of signs visible at larger rallies — some even said they had too many issues to list on a piece of cardboard.
In the District of Columbia, Sen. Bernie Sanders provided a list of reasons he thought the administration was an existential threat to democracy, including Trump’s threats to imprison his political opponents, the erosion of academic freedoms at universities and the ongoing redistricting battles in red states to earn Republicans more seats in the U.S. House.
“It is in danger,” Sanders repeated about democracy alongside each example in a minutes-long diatribe. “The establishment including the corporate media and many of my colleagues in Congress want you to believe that you are powerless. They want you to believe you cannot change the status quo. That is a lie.”
In Chicago, Rep. Delia Ramirez said that Trump administration officials are “doing everything they can to destroy our constitutional rights, to force us to accept authoritarian takeover of our country.”
“They’re trying to do everything they can to break our spirit, but you and I have shown up here,” Ramirez told the crowd.
And in California, where Trump federalized the National Guard against Gov. Gavin Newsom’s wishes this summer — a move decried by critics as an unconstitutional and unnecessary response to mostly peaceful protests against immigration raids in Los Angeles — Newsom welcomed the rallies, but urged peace in the face of concerns about potential provocation by the Trump administration.
“As Californians take to the streets today to stand up against the President’s authoritarian playbook, I urge everyone to stay safe and demonstrate peacefully,” Newsom posted. “Don’t give in to his provocations. Our strength is in our unity and peace.”
There, the mass mobilizations could translate to electoral consequences as early as next month. California voters will decide whether to approve a new congressional district map that is friendlier to Democrats as retaliation for Republicans’ redistricting in Texas.
“No Kings” protesters formed a massive human banner urging people to vote “yes” on that proposition, which Newsom shared.
🇺🇸🇺🇸 PATRIOTS, VOTE YES ON 50!! 🇺🇸🇺🇸 pic.twitter.com/Mv9Vcsi2Vl
— Gavin Newsom (@GavinNewsom) October 18, 2025
Despite laying out what they see as Trump’s threats to nearly every democratic institution, Democrats largely struck an optimistic tone, seeking to make the fight less like an unwinnable battle and more like an achievable civic duty that Americans can accomplish by showing up and speaking out.
“I know these are difficult times — especially for our federal workers — but today was an excellent reminder of what our community is capable of,” Rep. Sarah Elfreth of Maryland posted. “Keep leaning in. Keep demanding Article I exercise the checks and balances of Article II that our Founders envisioned. Keep participating in this grand experiment of self-governance.”
The Trump administration and Republicans in Congress largely ignored the protests, but some chimed in on social media: “Nobody asked. Nobody cares,” Rep. Virginia Foxx of North Carolina posted. “The rest of America will be watching college football instead.”