TRUMP POSES “EXISTENTIAL THREAT”, ACTOR DE NIRO SAYS
In Minnesota, a flashpoint in Trump’s crackdown on unlawful immigration, an enormous rally was held outdoors the state capitol in Saint Paul. Many held aloft posters bearing pictures of Renee Good and Alex Pretti, US residents fatally shot by federal immigration officers in Minneapolis this 12 months.
Minnesota Governor Tim Walz, the Democratic vice presidential nominee in 2024, advised the group that their resistance to Trump and his insurance policies makes them “the guts and soul” of all the pieces good in regards to the US.
“They name us radicals,” Walz mentioned. “You are rattling proper we have been radicalised – radicalised by compassion, radicalised by decency, radicalised by due course of, radicalised by democracy, and radicalised to do all we will to oppose authoritarianism.”
US Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont, a Trump critic who sought the Democratic presidential nomination in 2016 and 2020, additionally addressed the occasion in Minnesota. Musician Bruce Springsteen carried out his track “Streets of Minneapolis” – a ballad criticising Trump’s immigration crackdown and lamenting the deaths of Good and Pretti.
“We won’t permit this nation to descend into authoritarianism or oligarchy in America,” mentioned Sanders, an impartial. “We, the individuals, will rule.”
The Nationwide Republican Congressional Committee criticised Democratic politicians and candidates for supporting the rallies.
“These Hate America Rallies are the place the far-left’s most violent, deranged fantasies get a microphone and Home Democrats get their marching orders,” committee spokesperson Mike Marinella mentioned in an announcement.
In New York, a crowd that police estimated at tens of 1000’s stretched greater than 10 blocks in midtown Manhattan. Actor Robert De Niro, one of many organisers, mentioned that no president earlier than Trump has posed “such an existential risk to our freedoms and safety.”
Holly Bemiss, 54, mentioned she and different New York rally attendees have been appearing in the identical spirit as her ancestors who fought within the American Revolution.
“We fought in opposition to having kings and we fought for freedom,” she mentioned. “We’re simply doing it once more.”
On the Nationwide Mall in Washington, the group chanted pro-democracy slogans and held anti-Trump indicators. Outdoors a high-rise assisted-living centre in Chevy Chase, Maryland, a gaggle of aged individuals in wheelchairs held indicators encouraging passing vehicles to “Resist tyranny”, “Honk in order for you democracy” and “Dump Trump”.
Hundreds attended a Dallas occasion that had clashes between No Kings demonstrators and counterprotest teams, together with one led by Enrique Tarrio, the previous chief of the far-right organisation the Proud Boys.
Minor scuffles erupted when counterprotesters blocked streets. Dallas police ultimately made a number of arrests.
Trump’s insurance policies have galvanised the opposition, Dallas protester Chris Brendel mentioned.
“One factor I will give Trump credit score for is mobilising the dissenters,” Brendel mentioned. “I am unable to stand by and be silent anymore merely due to my boys and their mates and the longer term.”
