‘No Kings’ protests across CT attract thousands: 'People are not happy'

Thousands of Connecticut residents rallied at dozens of events across the state Saturday as part of the national “No Kings” protests.

Demonstrations were held from New London to the state Capitol in Hartford to Greenwich to protest President Donald Trump’s actions. Thousands of similar protests took place across the country.

In Hartford, people gathered at the state Capitol Saturday morning with signs, flags, puppets and bubble machines to protest multiple aspects of the Trump administration — from ICE and immigration enforcement to the conflict in Iran, as well as the Epstein files, along with the treatment of LGBTQ people and people of color.

“Feed the hungry, tend the sick, welcome the stranger, make America kind again,” read one sign. Another said: “We the people want no kings (except Elvis!) No crowns.”

About 5,500 people gathered, according to State Capitol Police. Protesters ranged from young people to first-time activists to those who remembered marching for civil rights decades earlier. Saturday's crowd was smaller than a similar Capitol rally in October, when 12,000 people gathered.

“Good morning defenders of democracy,” U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal said as he addressed the crowd.

“We’re going to say ‘no’ at the polls this November and send a message to Donald Trump,” Blumenthal said, pledging no more money to ICE, to end the conflict in Iran and to vote against the SAVE Act voting legislation.

Tyler Russell

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Connecticut Public

Patrick Farley was among those gathered at the Capitol.

“The point of these large demonstrations ... they show the body politic that people are not happy with the way things are going,” he said.

In Stamford, concerns about Iran war

In Stamford, about 1,000 people gathered for a protest. And the war in Iran was on the minds of many.

Saul Robles from Stratford was in the crowd. He’s a conservative and against the war. He says he used to like the president.

“We should be first. ... Safer borders. No wars. He spoke of no wars,” he said. “And look at him. He's spending a billion dollars a day in war right now.”

Eddy Martinez

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Connecticut Public

Rodrigo Torres addressed the crowd, calling the war a distraction from domestic issues, including the Epstein files.

“We've seen the most blatant cover-up in American history,” he said. “And they even start an illegal war just to attempt to distract the American people from the despicable crimes we all saw.”

Protests nationwide

National “No Kings” organizers say they were planning their largest demonstrations yet to oppose what they describe as authoritarianism under Trump.

National organizers said in a statement that rights are “being taken away at home,” while Trump wages an “illegal war abroad” where American service members have died and untrained ICE agents have been sent to airports “to instill fear among travelers.” Meanwhile, organizers point to the partial government shutdown as a “TSA worker funding crisis of his administration’s own making.”

“Americans are fed up with this constant chaos,” the statement said. “And they’re ready to stand in solidarity against the Trump administration’s overreach and heinous acts against working families and immigrants."

Republican reaction

The White House dismissed the rallies. Spokesperson Abigail Jackson described the protests as the product of “leftist funding networks” with little public support.

Jackson said in a statement that the “only people who care about these Trump Derangement Therapy Sessions are the reporters who are paid to cover them.”

The National Republican Congressional Committee was also sharply critical.

“These Hate America Rallies are where the far-left’s most violent, deranged fantasies get a microphone,” said Maureen O’Toole, an NRCC spokesperson.

Tyler Russell

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Connecticut Public

The Associated Press contributed to this report.