Millions of Americans participated in what organizers called the largest single-day protest against President Donald Trump’s second administration, with demonstrations taking place in more than 2,000 cities and towns across all 50 states on June 14. The “No Kings” protests, which coincided with Trump’s 79th birthday and a military parade in Washington, D.C., drew an estimated 13 million participants nationwide, according to organizer 50501, an American grassroots political organization founded to protest the policies and actions of the second Donald Trump administration.
The protests marked a significant escalation in opposition to the Trump administration, with organizers estimating that approximately 3% of the American population participated in defending constitutional rights and democratic principles.
The protests extended far beyond major metropolitan areas, with significant participation in smaller communities demonstrating the breadth of opposition to Trump’s policies. Thousands of demonstrators gathered outside the Champaign County Courthouse in Urbana. The crowd was so substantial that demonstrators spilled across to the opposite side of the street, into intersections at Vine Street and Broadway Avenue, and into the courthouse parking lot. Participants carried diverse signs and waved various flags, including pride, Ukrainian, Palestinian, Mexican, and numerous American flags, some flown upside down as a symbol of distress.
The scale of the “No Kings” protests significantly exceeded early resistance efforts during Trump’s first presidency. According to the Crowd Counting Consortium, there have been over 15,000 political protests since Trump’s second inauguration in January 2025, compared to barely over 5,000 protests during the same period in 2017.
The June 14 demonstrations built upon earlier protests during Trump’s second term, including the “Hands Off” protests on April 5, 2025, which drew an estimated 3-5 million participants nationwide across 1,400 locations. Conservative estimates suggested that 3.5 million people participated in those earlier protests, already accounting for 1% of the U.S. population.
As the Trump administration continues to implement legislation and executive orders that reverse protections for veterans, immigrants, and marginalized communities, advocacy organizations are strategically working toward mobilizing 3.5% of the American population in sustained protests.
The 3.5% theory is an important idea about how regular people can create change through peaceful protests. Two researchers, Erica Chenoweth from Harvard and Maria Stephan, studied hundreds of protest movements throughout history to understand what makes them successful.
These researchers looked at 323 different protest movements that happened between 1900 and 2006. Their research revealed that no nonviolent campaign that achieved active participation from at least 3.5% of the population during a peak event had failed to accomplish its objectives of overthrowing governments, driving out occupying forces, or securing territorial independence.
To put this in perspective, 3.5% of America’s population today would be about 12 million people.
The idea isn’t always correct, though. Recently, protesters in the country of Bahrain got more than 6% of their population to join protests against their king, but they still didn’t succeed in removing him from power. This shows the 3.5% idea isn’t perfect.
Critics argue that treating the 3.5% rule as prescriptive reduces movement-building to a numbers game and treats protest turnout as the key to everything.
Despite Saturday’s massive and historic scale of protests, they remained largely peaceful across the country.
