‘We’re not going anywhere’: Iowans in cities across the state gather for No Kings rallies

The No Kings rallies held in more than 1,400 cities across the country on Saturday were meant to have a festive atmosphere, as millions gathered nationwide to protest the actions of the Trump administration. Organizers of the Iowa City suggested people wear costumes, as did organizers in some other cities. But the rally in downtown Iowa City started on a somber note, as did many other rallies around the country.

As the rally began, state Sen. Janice Weiner asked the people gathered in the 100 block of Iowa Avenue to observe a moment of silence in response to “a horrendous act of violence occurred earlier today in Minneapolis.”

State Rep. Melissa Hortman, a former speaker of the Minnesota House, and her husband had been shot dead in their home, and a few miles away, state Sen. John Hoffman and his wife were shot and wounded in their home. Details about the shootings were only starting to be made public on Saturday morning, but what was known that the shooter was someone dressed as a police officer, who was apparently targeting Democratic lawmakers, like Hortman and Hoffman. Papers found in the gunman’s SUV — which was marked like a police vehicle — indicated he planned to shoot other Democrats, as well as abortion providers and was possibly going to attack the No Kings rally in Minnesota State Capitol in St. Paul.

Law enforcement officials in Minnesota advised people to stay away from the rally in St. Paul, but thousands attended and speakers declared they would not be intimidated by the murderous acts of political violence that had occurred nearby. 

More information was made public on Saturday. Police identified the shooter in both attacks as Vance Boetler, a 57-year-old former convenience store manager, who owns a private security company that apparently has no clients. Boetler belongs to a fringe Christian nationalist sect and, according to friends, is a committed Trump supporter. At a news conference on Sunday, the director of Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension said the lists of potential targets found in Boetler’s car went beyond Minnesota, and included lawmakers in Iowa, Illinois, Michigan, Nebraska and Wisconsin. Boetler was apprehended on Sunday following the largest manhunt in Minnesota history. 

News of shootings did not appear to stop people from going to their local No Kings rallies. Massive crowds filled streets and parks at rallies around the country. The total number of attendees was estimated at more than 4 million by a group of data journalists who collected crowd estimates. In Iowa, there were No Kings rallies and marches in more than 30 cities. The Des Moines Register reported an estimated crowd size of more than 7,000 for the rally at the Iowa State Capitol. KCRG reported thousands gathered for the rally in downtown Cedar Rapids. Maquoketa had more than 200 people at its rally, and across the Mississippi, 1,000 people attended a Quad Cities rally in Rock Island. In Iowa City, over 2,000 filled the street. 

These numbers stood in stark contrast to the turnout for the military parade staged by the Trump administration held in Washington D.C. on Saturday, ostensibly to mark the 250th anniversary of the creation of U.S. Army, but also to mark President Trump’s 79th birthday. Attendance for the parade — which cost taxpayers an estimated $45 million, and was co-sponsored by such Trump-friendly companies as Coinbase, Oracle and the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) — was far below what had been anticipated, and some who did attend were unimpressed by what they saw. 

“Some in the crowd filed out as the parade continued, the number of onlookers thinning before the president gave his remarks,” the Washington Post reported. “Even bleacher seating for VIP guests, positioned directly across from a riser for news cameras, remained half-empty throughout the program.”

After the moment of silence, the rally in Iowa City began to regain momentum with music and speakers. Many in the crowd were carrying signs, most following the theme “No Kings,” others addressed specific policy issues, such as the Posse Comitatus Act. The act, passed in 1878, prohibits the use of the U.S. military for domestic law enforcement, except in cases of rebellion and insurrection or to enforce federal civil rights law. The act has gained new relevance in recent weeks as President Trump dispatched U.S. Marines to Los Angeles to support his ICE-led deportation raids in the city. 

Dr. Ali Hanson, a physician and neuroscientist, told the crowd it’s important not to allow the extreme actions of the Trump administration to become a “new normal.” Doing so will not only entrench what many federal courts have so far found to be illegal power-grabs by the administration, but will also allow the president and his allies to go even further in eroding democratic norms and laws protecting civil rights. 

“At what point do we draw the line?” Hanson asked. “We should ask these questions to the Board of Regents of Iowa, first of all, and a lot of other people. When are we going to stand up and actually fight the fuck back?”

Marie Krebs of the Great Plains Action Society, an advocacy and rights group led by Indigenous America, cautioned people against repeat the trope “this is not America” when talking about Trump’s actions. 

“I want you to know that for some of us, this is America,” she told the crowd. “This is the America that we have known for hundreds of years.”

Krebs said what people seeing unfolding across the country grows natural out of America’s history of slavery, genocide against Indigenous people, Jim Crow and anti-LGBTQ laws. 

“Unfortunately what’s happening today is as American as apple pie.”

But all that is only possible because the “wealthy know how to play us,” Krebs said. “If we’re divided, we’re weak. They have control.”

“If you want this to stop, really stop, it has to stop for everyone,” Krebs continued, “it has to stop in our hearts, in our minds, our spirits. When things go better for you, look around, make sure you didn’t leave others behind. That is fixing the root of what you are witnessing today.”

“Stop for everyone” includes more than just Americans, as Rima Afifi of Iowans for Palestine explained when she spoke. Afii began by discussion the genocidal killings of Palestinians in Gaza that have occurred since the Oct. 7, 2023 attack on Israel by Hamas. 

“Over 55,000 people have been killed by Israel,” she said. “Of these deaths, over 15,600 are children.”

Because such large numbers can often obscure the true impact of events, Afifi tried to make the number of children killed vivid with a comparison familiar to Iowa Citians. 

“The Iowa City school district serves about 14,800 children. That scale of dead children means that all of our schools would be empty. The halls of Lincoln Elementary School would be lifeless, North Central Middle School would be silent, West High School wouldn’t have a single student.”

For anyone wonder why a Palestinian was speaking at the No Kings rally, Afifi explained, “Palestine is intertwined with Indigenous liberation, with Black liberation, with queer and trans liberation, with the fight for reproductive, disability and environmental justice. It’s connected with access to housing and food and jobs. As one activist stated, and I quote, ‘To ignore Palestinian freedom is to ignore the roots of shared oppression.’ To claim justice in one place, while denying it in another, is not justice at all.’” 

Johnson County Supervisor Mandi Remington focused on everyday impact of the Trump administration’s cuts to the social safety net. 

“Far too many of us know what it’s like to do mental math at the grocery store trying to figure out how we’re going to put food on the table and keep the lights on. Snap and Medicaid helped save my life and my children’s,” Remington said. “They provided me the stability I needed to build a career and eventually enter public service. Now those programs are under threat, while working families struggle to afford the basics, and we’re being forced to pay for a $45 million parade to flatter the ego of a narcissistic billionaire who already thinks he’s a king.”

Remington said the country had reached “a tipping point.”

“They’re hoping that we’re either going to give up or turn on each other. And that isn’t governance. These attacks are part of a much broader agenda that seeks to control who we can be, what we can say and what we can do with our own bodies, and we’ve seen it before. These patterns — dehumanizing entire groups, banning books, rolling back rights, glorifying the military while defunding public programs — are not new. They are textbook authoritarian tactics that don’t end well, unless we stop it as quickly as we can.” 

“That’s why we’re not going to go anywhere.” 

It was already hot and humid when the rally began in Iowa City at 11 a.m., and the temperature increased as more than a dozen speakers addressed the crowd. The speeches had to be stopped on three occasions, because it was necessary to call for medics to treat a member of the crowd who collapsed. By the time a march through downtown kicked off at the end of the rally, many had left. Still, hundreds marched, appearing resolute and joyful, as did marchers in other cities around Iowa. That’s something that could not be said of the images of the crowd attending Trump’s military parade.