Thousands lined both sides of Monroe Street outside the Florida Capitol in Tallahassee, one of hundreds of “No Kings” demonstrations held around the country June 14 to protest President Donald Trump.
More than 75 protests are planned across Florida, which is part of more than 2,000 protests across the country.
Organizers say the protests are a “nationwide day of defiance” against the Trump administration. It’s on Flag Day, which is Trump’s birthday and coincides with a military parade in Washington, D.C., celebrating the U.S. Army’s 250th birthday.
The “No Kings” name derives in part from a February 2025 Truth Social post in which Trump referred to himself as a king.
The scene along the sidewalk was nothing less than raucous, with vehicles honking horns, demonstrators hooting and hollering, some banging pots and others shouting as they waved signs and banners.
A sample of signs seen said: “Refuse tyrants!” “We didn’t fight kings to obey cowards,” “Keep the immigrants, deport Trump,” “No Crown for Orange Clown!” “Tearing families apart will never make America great.”
Much of the local opposition was animated by ICE raids in Tallahassee May 29, with federal immigration agents detaining more than 100 people at the construction site of a student housing complex in Tallahassee.
Some workers have already been removed to their countries of origin. Friends and family members of others who were handcuffed or zip-tied and led onto buses recently said they were still awaiting to hear from them.
But others, mostly older looking folks, held signs saying, “Don’t Mess with my Medicare” and “Hands off my Social Security!”
Tallahassee Democrat reporters were on scene throughout the protest. Here’s what they saw and heard:
Protester green, but not with envy
Anna Marie Shealy, a 36-year-old Tallahassee native, stood in front of the old Capitol in a Statue of Liberty costume – complete with green full-body makeup to resemble the oxidized green patina of the statue’s copper skin.
“We’re pushing immigrants out of our country, which goes against the foundations of our country,” Shealy said. She held a sign referring to the poem made famous by the statue, “The New Colossus,” written by Emma Lazarus in 1883:
“Give me your tired, your poor, / Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, / The wretched refuse of your teeming shore. / Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed to me, / I lift my lamp beside the golden door!”
“I just don’t want America to forget where we come from, the legacy of our country,” Shealy added.
Mexican flags abound throughout protest
Brizeida Patiño, 19, skipped down a sidewalk holding aloft a Mexican flag, yelling “Viva la raza!” – a Spanish phrase often translated as “long live the people.”
She was one of many who carried Mexican flags, including some who were flying them from the open beds of pickup truck driving around the Capitol Complex.
“I’m just here to support my people here in the U.S. and in Mexico,” Patiño said. “These ICE raids are too much. Our own president doesn’t want us here.”
She was born in California; she said her parents were born in Mexico but live here. When asked if she was concerned for them, she smiled and said, “They’re safe.”
Political party heads react to demonstration
Ryan Ray, who leads the Leon County Democratic Party, attended the protest.
“It was incredibly heartening to see so many across Tallahassee united to oppose Trump and preserve America’s Constitution,” he said. “Our town is coming together in a major way in the face of Far Right extremism in high office.”
On the other hand, Republican Party of Florida chair Evan Power, who lives in Tallahassee, said “this is why Democrats have lost Florida.”
“They don’t understand that Floridians want safety, not chaos. We want a secure border, law and order, and leaders who respect this country — not those who rally mobs,” he said. “We’re now a Red state for a reason,” Power added. “Republicans outnumber Democrats by 1.3 million (here) because voters are done with this nonsense.”
Security up front, and high above
At one point, a handful of people were gazing up at the sky, pointing. They weren’t looking at rain clouds, though it sprinkled closer to noon, but rather at drones.
Two surveillance drones were hovering above the protest near the old Capitol. “There were four up there earlier,” one woman said.
Also, what appeared to be uniformed officers also could be seen on the roof of the 22-story Capitol and atop the Leon County Courthouse across the street.
Uniformed Capitol Police walked the grounds and sidewalks, and Florida Highway Patrol cruisers patrolled the nearby streets.
Veteran protests with his granddaughter
Bart Frost, a 77-year-old disabled Vietnam veteran, sat on his walker on the side of Monroe Street with a sign that said: “Stand up! Fight back! Hands off! Social Security, Veterans, Medicare.”
“I’m real upset with what the king’s trying to do,” Frost said, referring to Trump. “I’m a disabled vet. He’s taken stuff from the vets, he’s taken stuff from Social Security, he’s cutting back Medicare. These are all bad things for our country.”
Standing next to him was his granddaughter, 19-year-old Avery Mason. She didn’t think so many people would show up to protest on Saturday.
“You wouldn’t expect it from such a small town, so it’s beautiful to see what one community can do,” Mason said.
She was there to support her grandpa, who she said has been through “a lot more than other people have.”
The two are close, he’s taught her so many life lessons, she said. Saturday’s lesson was about fighting for what you believe in.
“You have to be the change that you want to see, you have to start, you have to have initiative,” she said.
A counter protester, a migrant worker’s views
It was Josh Iben’s first protest.
A supporter of President Donald Trump, Iben stood on the corner with a Trump flag and a megaphone. He supports Trump’s mass deportation mandate and disagrees with those who say undocumented immigrants work the jobs that American citizens don’t want.
“You can pay an illegal immigrant $9 an hour to do the same thing that you’re going to have to pay a legal citizen to do for what, $12, $15 an hour,” he said.
Selena Perez, a migrant worker who travels around the country, disagrees: “We can’t take a job that hasn’t been filled,” she said.
Perez, currently in north Florida to pick tomatoes, said Americans don’t want to work on farms like she and her family do. “We are hard workers. So of course, we’re taking jobs that no one else is willing to do,” she said.
Perez and her family, American citizens originally from South Florida, came to the protest to represent other farm workers and the generations of those who worked the fields before them.
“I feel inspired by the amount of people who showed up today,” Perez said. “I’m still angry, though, because there could be more, there needs to be more, because this is an issue that’s affecting all of us.”
This story also contains previously published material. Jim Rosica is a member of the USA TODAY Network – Florida Capital Bureau. Reach him at jrosica@tallahassee.com and follow him on Twitter/X: @JimRosicaFL.
This article originally appeared on Tallahassee Democrat: ‘Refuse tyrants!’ Thousands rally in Tallahassee for ‘No Kings’ protest
Reporting by Jim Rosica, Ana Goñi-Lessan and Mishalynn Brown, USA TODAY NETWORK – Florida / Tallahassee Democrat
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
