Donning robes and crowns fit for royalty, carrying upside-down American flags and even waving mail-in ballots, thousands of demonstrators hit the streets for the latest No Kings day of protest in Arizona.
People and their pets turned out under overcast skies and held up colorful signs against gusty winds to register their frustration with President Donald Trump before the Nov. 3 midterm election.
It was the latest nationwide protest led by No Kings organizers. Some 3,000 demonstrations were projected nationwide. In Arizona, people turned out for a reported 50 events stretching from Prescott Valley to Tucson.
The demonstrations came three days after Trump was in Arizona for a Bullhead City rally on Oct. 14, where he encouraged Republicans to vote
and falsely claimed Arizona’s 2022 election had been stolen.
At No Kings demonstrations in metro Phoenix, protesters said they were fed up with the president and deeply concerned about the future of democracy in the United States.
Here’s what to know about the No Kings protests in Arizona on Oct. 17.
Thousands of people turned out for No Kings
Thousands of people took to the streets for No Kings protests across the state.
Some 1,000 people gathered at Grant Park near downtown Phoenix to decry the Trump administration and the Republican agenda.
Organizers with Chandler Gilbert Indivisible said more than 200 people demonstrated on the Galveston pedestrian bridge. Hundreds more held signs and chanted at a busy intersection near Chandler Fashion Center.
A Sun City protest drew 300 people. In Glendale, 40 more gathered on the overpass bridge near North 59th Avenue and the Loop 101. Others gathered in Mesa, and Indivisible organizers said roughly 350 people protested in Prescott Valley.
The state's 50 events were a decrease from the reported 79 protests that drew Arizona demonstrators in March.
Humans and dogs slammed Trump with signs and costumes
Many protesters waved signs declaring there were no kings in the United States. At multiple demonstrations, people held upside-down American flags to signal their distress.
“I support No Kings,” said John Michael, a business owner who held a "NO KINGS" sign picturing Trump with a crown and a clown nose. “We fought and won in 1776 to separate ourselves from the British.”
Chandler resident Tom Schlott used Trump’s campaign logo to deliver a blunt message. The giant Trump-style flag read “(expletive) TRUMP.”
“I have to show some sort of displeasure with the current administration,” Schlott said. He's a registered independent who votes for Democrats.
Another sign riffed on former President Barack Obama’s well-known “HOPE” posters by depicting Trump with a Hitler-style mustache and the word “NOPE.”
Robes and crowns were popular attire at multiple protests. Another demonstrator wore a red dress and white bonnet inspired by the dystopian TV series “The Handmaid's Tale.”
On Stapley Drive at U.S. 60 in Mesa, a protester wore a Trump mask, tucked a potbelly under an orange prison jumpsuit and carried black bars, alluding to jail time for the commander-in-chief.
Protesters also adorned their dogs with protest signs and shirts. One dog wore a green T-shirt embellished with flowers that read “(Expletive) Trump, end fascism.” Another wore an orange “Dogs against Trump!” sign on its back.
Many protesters already voted
Many of the protesters said they had cast their ballots already. Early voting began Oct. 7 in Arizona.
“I already made my decision,” said Alex Logvin, a campaign finance watchdog who voted early in person. He carried a sign comparing Immigration and Customs Enforcement to the Gestapo.
Protesters near Chandler Fashion Center cheered when a person drove by waving a green mail-in ballot envelope out the car window.
“I voted by mail,” said Liesl Hall of Mesa. The “Star Wars” fan held a “FIGHT THE EMPIRE” sign and said she trusted Arizona's vote-by-mail system.
In downtown Phoenix, protesters used their event to get even more people to cast their votes. After the speeches ended at Grant Park, the crowd marched to the Maricopa County Tabulation and Election Center to drop off their early ballots.
Prescott Valley protesters also marched to a ballot drop box.
Protesters worry about democracy
Demonstrators said they were unnerved by what they see as the president’s effort to undermine democracy. For Chandler resident Denise McDougall, that extended to the local level, where a Trump ally holds a key role overseeing Maricopa County mail-in voting.
McDougall used the county’s ballot tracking service to make sure her early vote was counted. She still had concerns about GOP Recorder Justin Heap.
“I don't trust Heap at all because he is an election denier. But I'm hopeful that because everything went smoothly for me, that it will go smoothly for others,” McDougall said in an interview atop the Galveston Street pedestrian bridge in Chandler.
U.S. Postal Service employees Marty Darcy and Deb Darcy said they planned to bring their mail-in ballots to be signature-verified in person before Election Day.
“We don’t trust mailing it in with what Trump’s done with the Postal Service,” Deb Darcy said. “We both work for the post office, and we’re afraid that Trump will get the head in there and do something with the ballots.”
They held signs that read “SICK OF YOUR (expletive) DIAPER DON” and “NO KINGS CHEET-O PEDO LIAR FELON RAPIST TRAITOR.”
Lisa Friel, a Sierra Vista resident who made the roughly 170-mile trek to Chandler to protest with friends, held a sign that read “Democracy, Some participation required.” She’s planning to vote against swing district Rep. Juan Ciscomani, R-Arizona, on Election Day.“We've gone for so long having a stable democracy, and now things are under attack. So we’ve got to make sure that we use our democratic rights while we have them and make sure that they don't go away,” Friel said.
Phoenix resident Jeff Miller worried that Trump might declare a state of emergency or otherwise intervene if he didn’t like the midterm election results.
“We had elections all through World War I, all through World War II, through Vietnam, through everything,” Miller said. “And now a national emergency? Give me a break — if that’s what he tries to do.”
No Kings sees repeat participants
Plenty of demonstrators who turned out on Oct.17 said they had protested Trump before.
Peggy Melody, 76, said she has been a protester since the anti-Vietnam War demonstrations of the 1960s.
She has participated in the majority of No Kings events and came from Buckeye with her white curly-haired dog Stella to protest in Sun City because “we need to get people and we need a change in our government.”
“Our economy is terrible. We're in a useless war. He's pulling down the East Wing. We have a reflecting pool with no water in it. We have a stupid arch that he's considering. There are so many things that Trump is doing that are just wrong,” Melody said.
Mother and son Amanda Urquiza and Talon Kalcevic, both of Gilbert, shared a similar view. Urquiza, 45, said Kalcevic, 17, has joined her in protesting Trump since early on in his first term, when Kalcevic was in elementary school.
Trump has been a dominant force in American politics for more than half of Kalcevic’s life.
“He’s just been off the rails in my opinion, but now more than ever. To get people like him out of office — I feel like that’s why everybody should vote, not just young people,” Kalcevic said.
Stephanie Murray covers national politics and the Trump administration for The Arizona Republic and azcentral.com. She co-hosts “The Gaggle,” The Republic’s weekly politics podcast. Reach her at stephanie.murray@usatodayco.com, on X and TikTok @stephanie_murr and on Instagram @stephaniemurray.news.
This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: 5 takeaways from No Kings in Arizona that could resonate in November
