Across Central Florida on Saturday there were more than 20 No Kings protests in cities like Palm Bay and Lakeland up to Ocala. In downtown Orlando, more than a thousand people gathered to chant and wave signs outside City Hall.
No Kings, which says it helped coordinate 3,300 protests nationwide on Saturday, stresses that it is a peaceful, leaderless movement that aims to mobilize local partner organizations and fellow citizens against what it sees as overreach and harmful conduct from the Trump administration. No Kings’ grievances include immigration policies and detainment methods; cuts to Affordable Health Care subsidies; alleged political gerrymandering and voter suppression attempts; bombings and ongoing war in Iran; and economic struggles around gas, food and the cost of living.
The Orlando protest brought out a diverse crowd with an array of concerns.
Kristen Schack brought her 8-year-old daughter to the rally she said to augment the history she’s learning in school. “She brought home papers about Elizabeth Cady Stanton and the Women’s Suffrage Movement. I look at her answers to questions like, ‘When Stanton’s husband died, why couldn’t she keep her farm?’ And my daughter had to write, ‘Because women couldn’t own property then.’ All I can think is that one day her grandchildren will be reading something [about today], and I want them to know, this is where we stood.”
“I know so many people lost so much to fight for what we have today,” said Schack, “and I don’t want to lose that. I want my daughter to have every opportunity.”
Disabled Vietnam war veteran Bob Cope sat in a shady spot with a sign reading, “Defend the Constitution” on one side and “Defend Freedom” on the other. He said he’s disturbed by ICE and CPB agents wearing masks and detaining people without Constitutionally regulated due process. “It looks a lot like what happened in 1937. It’s really scary.”
Concerns about the war in Iran also spurred him to attend the rally, he said. “We jumped into a war without ever considering the consequences. It looks to me as if we’re getting beaten, by the effect it’s having on [the price of] oil.”
In particular, Cope opposes deploying “boots on the ground” in Iran. “I think that would be a really good way to kill a lot of our people, and a really huge number of Iranians. I see no point in it. We always think about the American casualties. We never talk about other people that are killed in wars. Are we really so much better than the rest of the world, that our casualties count more than the rest of the world’s? It makes no sense to me. We’re all people.”
Recent college grad Maddie Hull held a sign shaped like an upside down elephant that said “Republican’t.” She said her main worry is the safety of her queer and trans friends. “The amount of people I’ve spoken to - queer friends and trans friends - who are considering leaving America is astounding. Considering Canada, considering Europe, considering anywhere else where they won’t have to fear for their safety.”
However, she said, fear tactics aren’t necessarily working. “It’s kind of had a reverse effect, it’s made us more angry and more resilient and wanting to find community, and trying to help as much as possible. I think there are more Good Samaritans out there than ever, looking to make a difference.
Not everyone present opposes the Trump administration’s policies. Counter-protester Nick - who asked that we not use his last name because he wants to keep his job separate from his personal life - was one of about a half-dozen people who were holding a banner that said, “Trump loves you,” and having occasional spirited debates with passersby.
Of Trump’s policies, he said, “My favorite thing is securing the border and reducing the illegal immigrant population,” adding that he thinks the current tactics employed by the administration to remove illegal immigrants from the country are “too gentle.”
“I think these are criminals by the fact that they’re in our country... I think we need to be a lot more aggressive,” he said. “I think we need to go where we know they are and arrest all of them.” He also encouraged the crowd to “read their Bibles.”
This is not the first No Kings protest held in downtown Orlando. Similar rallies were held in June and October of 2025, each drawing thousands of people.
.
Ocala residents turn out for No Kings
Sixty-nine-year-old Nancy Carp, who was in a wheelchair, arrived at 9:30 a.m., a half hour early for the No Kings protest in downtown Ocala.
"I am here today to protest this regime because they are taking away democracy," Carp said. She wore a "No Kings in America" T-shirt and held a hand-made anti-Trump sign.
"All people deserve freedom. They're breaking the Constitution, and that is the most important thing to me," she said. Carp also wore an "unpaid protester" button -- a reference to the unsubstantiated allegation that No Kings protesters are doing it for the money.
"I'm unpaid," Carp said as she rolled along. "I love my country for free."
Carp joined more than a thousand protesters who held signs, chanted and waved at the cars passing by.
Some drivers honked their horns in approval. One man in a pickup truck held a well-worn red "Make America Great Again" cap out the window, pointed to it and made a thumbs-up gesture while the crowd hooted at him.
Seventy-seven-year-old Karen Eide showed off a "Dump 47" sign featuring a hand-drawn dump truck unloading a lot of the things that protesters had in mind.
"The USA dump truck with the Dems are dumping 47," Eide said, pointing to the labels on her sign. "They're dumping racism, chaos, fascism, Epstein files, war, Nazi regime, liars, corruption, ICE, pedophiles and their protectors."
Raven White, a minister with A Mother's Love Ministries in Ocala, walked among the crowd quietly in a scarf and floral dress.
"Everything about my life has to do with Jesus," White said, "and I believe that that extends to how you treat people ... to how you write policy on, you know, people that are immigrants, people that are orphans."
She painted peace signs in blue on the backs of fellow protesters' hands.
"For me, personally," she added, "I'm here because I believe there needs to be enough people who love Jesus … on the other side of people who are using Christ as a weapon. So I'm completely nonviolent. So I'm just out here painting peace signs and handing out flyers. It's very simple, but it's very effective."
Meanwhile, on the Down Square itself, another Christian minister led a public prayer service, preaching to his flock and reaching out to the much larger crowd that had gathered to protest.
Prior to this weekend, there had been two other No Kings marches, in June and October.
