America is tired of war, lies, cruelty and Trump: No Kings rally sent a message | Opinion
Vehicle horns blared, protest signs waved, chants rang out and people opposed to policies, tactics and the overall demeanor of President Donald Trump’s administration, poured into Mill Creek Park on Kansas City’s Country Club Plaza on Saturday afternoon.
This was the scene at what’s been called the No Kings Rally 3.0, the third iteration of the mass nationwide set of protests under its moniker. It was one of many taking place across the Kansas City metro area and in cities across the country this weekend.
People gathered peacefully to be heard and the overall message — as one man told me — was that in America “we are supposed to have the people’s government and not the government’s people. We are here because we want to take our government back.”
Rally organizers — a collection of progressive, civil rights, social justice and labor organizations, including the group Indivisible — called it a movement against authoritarianism, overly aggressive U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, racial discrimination and bigotry against LGBTQ and other Trump administration policies. Basically, as many of the signs carried at the rally said, they want Trump out of office and they don’t want to wait another three years to see that happen.
Trump, his administration and his followers have repeatedly accused participants in the No Kings rallies of being “paid agitators” or “crisis actors.” But there were thousands who filled the park and lined the streets surrounding it. Even if possibly true, that some people were paid by someone to attend Saturday’s rally, no one was paying that many people.
The president has criticized protesters as being “divisive” and “anti-American.” But that description in no way matches the people I saw at the rally. Many waved American flags or wore the stars and stripes on a T-shirt, a ball cap or both. Several draped their shoulders in a flag and one man told me the reason he joined the rally is because he loves his country and he wants to be able to tell his grandchildren that when its democracy was threatened he stood up to say no.
“This is what democracy looks like,” was a repeated chant among protesters referring to the huge turnout for the rally.
Missouri Rep. Pattie Mansur, a Democrat from Kansas City, said “these kinds of gatherings are extremely uplifting for me, and motivating. It tells me that people really care about democracy, and they are really willing to come out now and fight for that.”
I got that same feeling from the people I spoke to. While many of them were not so willing to share their name, everyone I asked about the rally was ready to talk about how frustrated and fed up they are with so many aspects of the current administration. Nearly every one of them said they think our leaders are not in their positions for the right reason — to make a better nation.
Ava Neal, of Kansas City, carried a sign denouncing the mass deportation of immigrants from the United States. Immigration, and the January killings of Alex Pretti and Renee Nicole Macklin Good by ICE agents in Minneapolis, seemed to be top issues of protest at the rally.
Neal said she is disturbed by many of Trump’s policies, but, “I live in an area that has a large immigrant population, and I believe that immigrants are the backbone of America and we need them.”
“I feel support that I am not the only one here. Everyone is here for the same cause.” said Grace Armstrong of Kansas City.
Her friend, Sara Valenciano, who was attending her third No Kings rally, chimed in. “It helps in a Republican state like this, where the GOP has a trifecta, that, surprise, there are other people who feel the same way that you do, who care about people. I just hope the administration is paying attention.”
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So do I, and if the right-leaning Republican Trump supporters are not, they should start paying attention, because, according to several political polls, the number of people unhappy with the direction they are leading this country is increasing. A March 20 CBS Poll shows Trump with a 65% disapproval rate.
Rally goers said they will keep taking to the streets for as long as they need to, which is until democracy is in safer hands. But they also expressed optimism that in the long run their presence will matter, and that if Trump and his followers are listening and not creating false narratives for themselves about what is really happening in the streets across this country, things will change.
This story was originally published March 28, 2026 at 8:03 PM.
