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From Palo Alto to Sunnyvale, tens of thousands showed up along a 7 mile stretch of El Camino Real on Saturday afternoon to protest President Donald Trump on the same day he staged a military parade in Washington D.C.
The “No Kings” demonstration, reportedly held across more than 2,000 cities, was part of a national-day-of-action on June 14 that called for people to reject what it described as the authoritarianism and corruption of Trump. The day also coincided with Trump’s 79th birthday and Flag Day, a holiday that celebrates the adoption of the American flag.
Waving handmade signs and American flags, protesters expressed their opposition to Trump with messages like, “Save democracy,” “No Kings!” and “Hate won’t make America great.”
Protesters line up along El Camino Real in Mountain View near the Castro Street intersection. Photo by Anna Hoch-Kenney. 
Chris, left, and Sophia Antoun, right, carry a “Trump for Prison” banner along El Camino Real. Photo by Anna Hoch-Kenney. 
A retro car waving the California flag drives past protesters at the intersection of El Camino Real and Castro Street. Photo by Anna Hoch-Kenney.
The “7x7k” No Kings event was aiming for 7,000 people to line the sidewalks of El Camino Real from Arastradero Road in Palo Alto, continuing through Los Altos and Mountain View, to Remington Drive in Sunnyvale.
But it blew past this number with protesters standing nearly shoulder-to-shoulder for most of the 7-mile stretch on El Camino Real.
The turnout was likely closer to 20,000 to 22,000 people, according to Sally Lieber, an event organizer and longtime community activist.
One popular segment, from Castro Street to Grant Street on El Camino Real in Mountain View, reportedly had about 2,000 hand-counted people, according to a safety volunteer.
A Mountain View police officer, parked in a vehicle on Hope Street, remarked that he had not seen a demonstration of this size before in the area.
Celly, left, 8-year-old Dante, center, and Heidy, right, wave signs along El Camino Real. Photo by Anna Hoch-Kenney. 
Protesters line up along El Camino Real in Palo Alto. Photo by Anna Hoch-Kenney. 
A bicyclist waves an American flag while passing protesters. Photo by Anna Hoch-Kenney. 
Protesters line up along El Camino Real in Palo Alto. Photo by Anna Hoch-Kenney.
The demonstration drew regulars who have been attending protests in the Bay Area since Trump took office in January. But it also attracted a lot of newcomers, according to IdaRose Sylvester, an event organizer and co-founder of Together We Will Palo Alto Mountain View, a political action network.
“They said they were scared but came anyway and now have hope and do not feel so alone,” Sylvester said.
Richard Hagan, a Palo Alto resident and Vietnam veteran, said it was easy to attend the event since it was being held right outside his home and was accessible, given his mobility issues using a wheelchair.
“Trump wants to be a monarch but that’s not how democracy works,” Hagan said. “That isn’t why we have equal branches of government,” he added, explaining his reasons for participating in the rally.
Liesel Czymontek, a Mountain View resident and college student, said that she and her family showed up on a whim about 30 minutes before the event started. “I’m not the most educated about a lot of the issues,” Czymontek said. “But I’m Japanese American and there has been a history of incarceration, like what is happening with other groups today… It’s important we speak out.”
The message resonated with the aim of the rally, which was for people to have the opportunity to come out and make themselves visible, Lieber said.
The demonstration also remained peaceful, even against the backdrop of the use of military force in other parts of the country to quell protests, like in Los Angeles.
Sylvester pointed out that Saturday’s rally differed from demonstrations held earlier in the year, like the People’s March and Hands Off demonstrations.
“Back then, our focus was fighting for specific issues, women’s rights, immigrant rights, health care. This time, we’ve generally focused more on daylighting the attacks on democracy at a very core level,” Sylvester said in an email.
“Now we have the government bringing in the National Guard and our military to use our nation’s defenses against its very own people. The gravitas of the moment, the seriousness of what we are fighting for, and what we are potentially facing when doing so, is at an entirely different level,” she said.
Vacant Mountain View building condemned after 3 people, small fire found insideJanuary 16, 2026 5:15 pm
The irony is that none of these idiots would be even able to protest if we actually had a king. Lmao 🤣
Imagine being the idiot to criticize other people for protesting.
Ah, the annual Bay Area Bourgeois Uprising—where the same folks who stayed silent as Obama and Biden deported more migrants per month than Trump suddenly decide it’s time for compassion. How brave! How timely!
Trump’s cruelty is real, but so is the hypocrisy of the selectively outraged protesters who are trying to regain the moral high ground they abandoned years ago. Trump’s ICE raids and this vapid, performative “resistance” are two sides of the same blood-soaked coin, designed to give participants the feeling that they’re on the side of virtue—despite decades of empirical evidence to the contrary—as the true racists drag us into a disastrous war with Iran.
This isn’t activism; it’s LARPing. If they really cared about migrants, they’d be protesting their own leaders too. If they cared about corruption, cruelty, and human rights, they would not be so indifferent to the suffering of the starving, traumatized children of Gaza.
If they cared about democracy, they would be listening to their fellow Americans to try to understand why the Democratic brand has become toxic to so many. Democracy is a dialogue. Democracy is a negotiation. Democracy requires understanding and respect. Democracy requires give and take.
For these Bourgeois protesters, democracy is performative nonsense to give the smug a false sense of moral superiority. Oh! What a goodly outside falsehood hath!
@ Leon — I don’t understand your point. Many of us who organized yesterday’s protests criticized and continue to oppose some of the policies and action of Democratic Party leaders. But Trump represents a new level of threat to our Constitution and a wide range of American institutions. Trump’s “flooding the zone,” attacking immigrants, national parks, reproductive rights, universities, etc., has generated an enormous coalition of resistance. It would be foolhardy to ignore Trump just because we don’t agree with everyone in that united front on every issue before us. I feel strongly that the U.S. should stop arming Israel, but I feel compelled to work with people who believe otherwise if we are to preserve the rule of law and the democratic process.
@Lenny, I apologize for my earlier snarky tone—it was impulsive and unfair. I’ve voted for you in every election and share your concerns about threats to our Constitution. Our fundamental difference is this: you view Trump as the problem, while I see him as merely the most visible symptom of our systemic decay.
The crisis we face runs deeper than any one man. It’s the complete erosion of public trust in all our institutions—governmental and otherwise.
In retrospect, we should have seen it coming: A left-of-center party beholden to Wall Street private equity managers, Silicon Valley venture capitalists, and the ethnic-cleansing lobby was never going to be viable in the long term.
If you want to defeat Trump, as I do, we need to rebuild trust. That is difficult to do when we say we are “compelled” to work with people who have trampled on both U.S.** domestic law (for example, the Leahy Law), international humanitarian law,** and the Geneva Conventions “to preserve the rule of law and the democratic process.” It’s just not a credible thing to say.
I suspect if you travel to Gaza and dig deep under the rubble where a hospital once stood, past the lifeless corpses of young children who died slow, lonely, miserable deaths, you may, if you’re lucky, find the last remnants of the Democratic Party’s credibility.
Leon, you are fortunate to be able to write and voice opinions critical of your government without suffering harassment, detention, or worse. Regardless of your disagreements with policy (and I have them also), the Democrats are not trying to destroy democracy, eliminate the balance of power between branches of our government, and weaken the rule of law within our country. I am not a Democrat, and I have many issues with them. But I vote for them, because to vote otherwise — or fail to vote — is supporting the ongoing disassembly of our country’s freedoms.
@ Leon — I agree that Trump is a visible emblem of a system that needs to be changed. But – particularly in his alliances with billionaires – he has awakened more people to underlying issues such as our incredibly inequitable distribution of income and wealth. Still, based on history, I believe that now is the time for a broad coalition – what the Left used to call a united front – in which progressives make strategic alliances but continue to organize a growing movement against Trump.
This Nationwide protest has a lot of validity. It’s gaslighting to say it’s not needed because the ability to do it proves it’s a no-key situation. The whole point is to speak out before it’s too late and we do have a king. Think of the way Trump claims the Mandate when he didn’t even get half of the popular vote. He got less than a percent more than the Democrats. Great. He won. But enough people voted for third parties the heat actually got less than half of the country. He’s gaslighting us when he claims he had a good impressive win.
There are a ton of Cubans who voted for him that wish they hadn’t. There are a ton of Palestinians who voted for him to wish they hadn’t. He’s such a jerk that people allow for that and gradually accept him. But they shouldn’t.
When 20,000 people from all walks of life show up on El Camino on a Saturday afternoon, one has to consider that perhaps they have some messages worth considering. No need to call them names or classify them because they represent 20,000 opinions. We hear it was the largest organized protest ever in Mountain View, and that says something. We are just at the beginning, and I am confident there will be more. Instead of name calling or categorizing, I suggest you next time get out of your rats nest and leave bias at home. Go observe the protesting folks with an open mind. You will find they come from all walks of life.
I went with my husband and was out there for a bit. While the constant honking was more than I expected, it was good fun for all and my neighbors.
Fun seeing council members new and old join in the fun.
Lenny, Steve,
I completely agree with both of you that the threat to our democracy posed by Trump and his allies is real and warrants our urgent attention, but I’ll say it again:
A functioning democratic system cannot be overthrown single-handedly by a not-very-smart grifter. If Trump is able to end the rule of law in the U.S., then maybe we need to spend a little less time hyperventilating about what a jerk he is and try to understand why our democratic institutions could be brought down so easily.
Why does a system that has withstood the test of time appear so vulnerable today? I believe it’s because there has been a society-wide collapse in trust in all our public institutions. We urgently need to rebuild that trust before it is too late.
The impressive turnout for Saturday’s carnival should not distract us from the reality that, despite all the insanity of the last few months, 58.3% of the U.S. electorate still views the Democratic Party unfavorably. It would be a good idea to try to understand why. There is an ever-widening chasm between what the Democratic Party leadership is saying and what the majority of the electorate is hearing. Let me give an example to show what I mean:
When Lenny says, “I feel strongly that the U.S. should stop arming Israel, but I feel compelled to work with people who believe otherwise if we are to preserve the rule of law and the democratic process,” outside the liberal bubble, people hear: “Even though I know that the U.S. is obligated by both U.S. domestic law and international human rights laws to stop providing the weaponry, intelligence, logistics support, and international diplomatic cover for the horrific and inhuman bloodbath in Israel-Palestine, I choose to form an alliance with apologists for bloodthirsty war criminals like Netanyahu, Ben-Gvir, and Smotrich, instead of partnering with the many active anti-Zionist Jews like JVP and reaching out to the Muslim Americans who increasingly feel marginalized. I will justify doing so by claiming that this will somehow preserve the rule of law and the democratic process.”
How many Americans voted to install al-Qaeda affiliates in Syria’s government, as the Biden administration did? How many Americans voted for the potentially disastrous war with Iran that the openly fascist Israeli government is trying to drag us into? How many Americans voted to work with Netanyahu as he colluded with Qatar to fund Hamas to undermine the democratically elected Palestinian Authority—and now is trying to promote ISIS-affiliated gangs to counter Hamas? The American electorate is consistently shut out of all decision-making, kept in the dark and lied to, so how can we pretend that we got to where we are by a lawful democratic process? And when we do say that, we should not be too surprised that the majority of Americans do not believe us.
We need to start seeing ourselves as our fellow Americans see us. For 40% of America, the carnival-like atmosphere along El Camino on Saturday was fun and cathartic, but for the remaining 60%, it was vapid nonsense that only served to distract from the corruption of both major parties.
Having the moral courage to admit we have a problem is the necessary first step to recovery. An alliance with apologists for war crimes is never “strategic”. It is opportunistic, morally indefensible, and will fail over the long term.
It is time for all of us to get on the right side of history.
What did they accomplish? To prove that they can insult our popularly elected president and get away with it? Congratulations, I hope they can focus now in doing good works and educating well their children to do better at school!
Carmen, in case you missed it, he did not even get half of the votes cast in America. So a majority of Americans voted for someone else. So no, he was not popular with the majority of Americans.
Whatever you think of the Israeli government and who committed what crimes in Gaza, there’s no reason for this to be a top-drawer political issue in the US. Total annual military aid to Israel is about equal to two weeks’ national expenditure on cigarettes, or three days’ worth of gasoline costs. At least Democrats didn’t cut critical funding for AIDS prevention in Africa, which saved many, many lives.
Ivg, you are correct—we are talking about U.S. democracy and the rule of law. What I’ve been trying to say is this: While I dislike Trump as much as the next guy, if we want to preserve democratic rule, we should not focus solely on one sad old man who will soon wander off to the gilded golf course in the sky. Instead, we should try to figure out why, despite his many obvious failings and absurd policy gyrations, he still has a higher favorability rating (and a lower unfavorability rating) than the Democratic Party.
We need to find the intellectual honesty and moral courage to ask ourselves where we went wrong. The Harris campaign spent a billion dollars in three months and still lost to somebody most Americans neither like nor trust. We could just say all Trump voters are stupid and move on—but that would make us stupid.
Lenny believes we should form a “united front” in “strategic” alliance with all anti-Trump constituents. While that has merit, I have my reservations. Alliances are two-way streets: both parties want something, and historically, progressives have given up much more than they’ve received in return. From Bill Clinton’s “triangulation” to Obama’s attempts at a “grand bargain” and Harris’s pandering to Bush-Cheney neocons, our “united front” keeps pulling us rightward, embracing whatever faction the Republicans have discarded, and in the process, the gap between who we are and who we think we are has widened into a chasm. This ever-rightward shift has been extraordinarily successful at garnering campaign donations but far less successful at maintaining the trust of the American electorate. There is a widening gulf between what voters want and what our donors are paying us to do. That—not Trump’s unpleasant personality—is the root of our current corruption, and that corruption is why the majority of Americans hold us in disdain.
This isn’t just about the cost of financing our proxies to kill brown children in a faraway land versus the cost of two weeks’ worth of cigarettes. It’s about trust and the Democratic Party’s credibility. Over the past two decades, we did spend considerably more fighting al-Qaeda than we did on cigarettes—so it’s strange that the Biden administration would assist them in taking power in Syria without any public conversation about why. That’s typically not how democracies work.
The war crimes currently underway in Gaza may not be a “top-drawer” political issue to you, but the imminent U.S.-Iran war should be. Despite all the assistance the U.S. taxpayer has provided the IDF over the past two years, they have so far failed to defeat Hamas—so why attack Iran now? Netanyahu and his cabinet of militant-Zionist extremists know they have the power to start a war that neither Iran nor the U.S. wants, and there is nothing the U.S. “democratic process” will do to stop them.
In a democracy, decisions about war and peace are made by a government of the people, not by the tail that wags the dog.
The reason Trump is able to brush aside our democratic system so easily is because there was very little of it left when he entered office.
If you want to save American democracy, you’ll need to restore it first. To do that, you’ll need to break the stranglehold Wall Street, Silicon Valley, and militant-Zionism have on our system of government. Despite what Lenny may believe, we will never defeat one form of fascism by allying ourselves with another.
That’s one theory. A simpler explanation is that Democrats lost credibility because they tried to cover up the fact that their candidate (Biden) was a senile old man whose signature legislation hadn’t accomplished anything. (The latter isn’t Biden’s personal fault, but it is the party’s fault. _Abundance_ explains how it happened.)
All the sniping at Harris for tacking to the right misses the fact that she always polled much better than Biden had that summer. But she was still too closely associated with him to escape the suction vortex.