The posted start time of 1 p.m. didn’t stop a few hundred from gathering early at B.A. Clark Park for Spokane’s third No Kings protest against the Trump administration and its policies.
By 1:30 p.m., the crowd grew to several thousand.
In downtown Spokane, around 300 protestors gathered at a separate demonstration with the same stated cause.
More than 5,000 Inland Northwest residents gathered at the north Spokane park, while a few hundred gathered near Riverfront Park’s rotary fountain, for the third iteration of the nationwide No Kings protest movement against President Donald Trump on Saturday.
A rotating lineup of speakers, including local activists and civil rights advocates Jennyfer Mesa, founder of Latinos en Spokane, and NAACP President Lisa Gardner, addressed the large B.A. Clark Park crowd from a stage stationed in the park’s northeast corner. On either side, community organizations, political candidates and food vendors set up booths for face time with attendees.
Mesa, who said she was representing the ACLU of Washington as a board member and Casa Latina, the Seattle organization she recently took the executive director role at, spoke to the impact of immigration policies enacted by the Trump administration, as well as before he took office.
Mesa decried the apparent disregard of a vital part of the American workforce, before highlighting the impacts of Trump’s immigration crackdown on Spokane. She said immigrants are being targeted, at work and in their homes, and pointed to the detainment of 11-year-old Karla Tiul Baltazar, as an example. She said the Spokane community should keep fighting for change.
They disappear,” Mesa said. “I’ve heard horror stories for the past year, every single day, of people being deported.”
Gardner, joined by gubernatorial outreach representative Luc Jasmin III and NAACP Spokane Executive Director Melissa Mace, urged the importance of attendees making their voice heard at the voting booth and protecting voting rights, as the Trump administration seeks to enact controversial election reforms.
“Because right now, it’s critical,” Gardner said. “We can’t sit on the sidelines. It is critical that we move, that we’re doing actions.”
Emphasizing her point, Gardner asked the crowd to visit the many booths in the park to see how they can get involved with an organization that best suits them.
The rally often resembled a community fair, given the food trucks, tabling areas and music echoing throughout the park from its northwest corner before, after and in between speakers. The smell of marijuana smoke would occasionally drift by. Folks visited with friends, sprawled out in the grass and waited in long lines to grab a hot dog.
On the east end of the park, where demonstrators waved signs as they lined both sides of Division Street, a cacophony of car horns rang out.
On the parks’ northeast corner, Jennifer Britton dutifully collected food donations to be distributed to local organizations and food banks like 2nd Harvest. She started the practice after attending the second No Kings protest , when a government shutdown threatened federal food benefit programs . She’s led the food drive every Saturday since, alongside a group of protestors who’ve staked out Division for the same duration.
“I was walking around and I said ‘We need a food drive; we need to feed our neighbors,’” Britton said.
Britton said she’s met “wonderful” people over the weeks. It brings her joy to see the compassion of her neighbors, she said, and it helps fill her time as a mostly retired former nurse at Providence Sacred Heart Medical Center.
Married couple Carrie and Bret Clifton, of Spokane Valley, echoed Britton’s sentiment. They’ve attended all three No Kings protests, and Saturday’s was among the largest, they said.
The protests draw a wide range of local residents, in age, class, lived experiences and political stripes. Participating has helped them feel a greater sense of community, and brought some comfort when the policies and events they disagree with feel out of their control, said Carrie Clifton.
“Every single time it just gives me so much hope,” Carrie Clifton said. “It’s so easy to watch the news at home and feel hopeless and powerless and alone.”
“It makes me feel so proud to be American, which I haven’t felt in a while, just knowing there are other people who care like we do,” she added.
With their signs, demonstrators took aim at a wide range of issues: Trump’s criminal history, the Epstein files, voting rights, immigration policies, the conflict in Iran and a perceived lack of congressional intervention. Some took aim at specific elected leaders, like Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives Mike Johnson, U.S. Rep. Michael Baumgartner of Spokane and the president himself, who remained the major focal point.
Signs on porta potties in the park urged attendees to “Flush Baumgartner” and that “It’s Time to Dump” the congressman.
Bret Clifton carried a sign with a quote attributed to Benjamin Franklin that read ‘Rebellion to tyrants is obedience to God.’ He said it spoke to his Christian faith, respect for the founding fathers and desire for elected leaders to uphold the Constitution.
“That is my world view and belief,” Bret Clifton said. “And it’s not the one that seems to be co-opted by that side, by MAGA.”
Getting involved, or attending the protests, should not be an intimidating act, Carrie Clifton said. She hopes to see the demonstrations continue to grow with each iteration.
“It’s just joyful and positive,” she said. I’ve always liked that about coming.”
“It is a protest, and it is a rally, but I always feel like we are more Americans coming together for a common cause,” Bret Clifton added.