A third nationwide protest known as “No Kings” brought 8 million people to the streets across the country on March 28, and roughly 8,000 to the New Haven Green.

The No Kings protests are meant to build a movement and stage nonviolent marches and rallies against the Trump administration. The first two protests occurred last year in June and October. The flagship rally took place outside the Minnesota State Capitol in St. Paul with other notable rallies in New York City, Washington D.C. and Los Angeles, among others. In Connecticut, 50 rallies and events occurred statewide including in, besides New Haven, Hartford, Danbury and Bridgeport. At New Haven Green, the march began after 3 p.m., according to Shane Lennon, a member of Greater Westville Indivisible, which organized the event. Nan Becker, the founder and leader of Greater Westville Indivisible said, the rally that was organized “was a full-on partnership with the ACLU and Connecticut For All, New Haven Federation of Teachers, and New Haven Rising, and we are Greater Westville, and we all got together because we care about what is going on in this country and want to make sure that we get our community connected, feeling together and not alone, and focused on that we have voices and we can use them.”

More than 30 organizations tabled around the Green throughout the event with booths and pamphlets for people to take. Andrew Rice, a Democratic candidate who is running against long-time Rep. Rosa DeLauro to represent Connecticut’s 3rd District, tabled and took part in the later march around downtown New Haven.

“Today is a great showing for our democracy,” Rice said. “Right now, we are going through an authoritarian fascist takeover of our government and the fact that there are thousands of people out here is showing that people still believe in democracy and are still willing to fight for it.”

Another candidate for office present at the event was Democratic state representative Josh Elliott, who is running in the Democratic primary for governor against incumbent Ned Lamont.
“These are my people; these are people who see what’s happening in our country,” Elliott said. “ They’re frustrated, they’re actually motivated to come out and be public, organized, say what they want to say.”

Elliott said he attended eight rallies throughout the day.

During the rally, the main speaker was Leslie Blatteau, New Haven Federation of Teachers president. She said, “We demand that elected officials stop sending billions on imperial wars and imagine the communities we can build, and that’s what we’re here for, to clarify our vision, to feel part of something bigger…”

She introduced the mayor of New Haven, Justin Elicker, who encouraged the crowd to continue fighting back and discussed what the city has done against the current administration.

“When Donald Trump tried to attack us on our climate change money, we sued,” said Elicker. “ When Donald Trump tried to attack us because we are a sanctuary city, we sued. When Donald Trump tried to co-up us into his anti-DEI, we sued. When Donald Trump tried to take away SNAP benefits from our community, we sued. Four lawsuits and counting, New Haven stands up and we are the only city in the state of Connecticut that has any lawsuit against this administration.”

Elicker also encouraged participants to leave the sidelines and take more action through various initiatives.

Connecticut Attorney General William Tong also spoke at the rally, and began with repeating the scream, “NO KINGS.”

“There are so many scary things, but I am not engrained. We are not afraid to stand up to this unstable wannabe dictator and tell him, NO! NOT IN AMERICA!” he said. “I have sued this president 50 times since last January, and I’m not going to stop. I’m going to keep going, he’s going to flood the zone, but I’m going to flood it right back.”

After the rally, a march was organized around downtown New Haven starting and ending back at the Green. Some streets were closed off to traffic to ensure the safety of participants. Most signs addressed issues such as authoritarianism, ICE, climate change, the Epstein files and foreign wars. Some participants were also seen in inflatable costumes such as frogs, piranhas and unicorns.

The Rev. Scott Marks of New Haven Rising, one of the rally speakers and march leaders, said after the march, “Today, there needs to be a great coming together, and sometimes people look at parties, they look at colors, or look at genders, or all these different kinds of things. But this is a moment in time, where we all need to come together.”

“Today was about no kings, no wealth, no leader, no billionaire should be dictating to the people. It’s time for the people to rise up,” Marks said.

In response, the Trump administration took to social media and downplayed the protests, and referred to them as “Trump Derangement Therapy Sessions.”