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People arrived early for the "No Kings" rally at Reid Park Saturday.

By 10:30 a.m. — about 30 minutes before the rally was set to start — well over a thousand people were already gathered. That soon doubled, and kept growing during the day. 

Protesters made signs and wore costumes for Saturday's 'No Kings' rally iat Tucson's Reid Park.

A line of people stretched about 200 to 300 yards up South Country Club Road from East 22nd Street.

Along the 22nd Street pathway on the southern edge of the park, people carried an assortment of signs all the way past South Randolph Way.

A mixture of music and honking horns could be heard from cars passing along 22nd Street.

A passenger of one car, which had protest signs taped to its doors, tossed handfuls of Tootsie Rolls and other small candies to people lined up on the sidewalk.

Bill Buckles, who came to the Reid Park protest with his Trump piñata wearing a "Dunce" hat, the “only crown he's ever deserved,” said he won't be letting anyone beat it open.

“We don't know what's inside it, but we know it's vile, whatever it is,” Buckles said. “We don't want to expose the entire community to his vile sh--.”

Bill Buckles brought a Trump piñata decorated with a pointy "dunce" hat to Saturday's 'No Kings' rally at Reid Park.

Buckles said it isn't a singular issue that brought him to the Reid Park protest Saturday, or the five protests he's been to since President Donald Trump was elected for a second time, “it's everything he does.”

“I don't like any of his policies. He tried to steal an election five years ago now, how could anybody vote for him again? I'm perturbed by that. I'm disturbed by it. I'm angry about it. I'm fed up. And so (I’ll take) any opportunity to come out and let people know that I'm not happy.”

He said he hopes the "No Kings" rallies will compel members of Congress to listen, as Buckles said they are getting harder and harder for them to ignore. Buckles said he hopes protests like those Saturday will get people to oust Republicans in November's midterm elections, specifically mentioning Rep. Juan Ciscomani. 

Protesters line East 22nd Street between South  Country Club Road and North Alvernon Way for Saturday's 'No Kings' rally in Tucson.

“I hope that that people like Juan Ciscomani go, ‘oh, maybe, maybe I should take a different tact,’” he said. “I don't think he’s going to, personally, so (Joanna) Mendoza is going to be the next Congressperson for that district.”

Melonie Nicols said she's gone to multiple No Kings protests and other rallies since Trump was elected and will keep going. 

“The administration is horrible, and we're in a war that we should not be in, and there's no plan. We're rounding up our community members and putting them in camps. And it's horrifying that it's happening, that it's allowed to happen, that the Trump family is making money off of the degradation," Nicols said.

Part of being at a protest like Reid Park's, she said, "is to be around other people who are pissed off and to not feel like you're alone in the world. It feels good to be around other people who also feel the same thing and are fighting for the same things.”

Nicols said her hope is that Trump will eventually be impeached. But for now, she hopes Saturday's protests and the community activists attending will inform the general public about what they can do to fight back.

“What really needs to happen is like a full on, actual strike. If there was a general strike, that is what would get attention. And I don't know that that is going to happen, but that is what needs to happen. The hard part is that there's a lot of people who can't do that. If you're working two or three jobs ... you need to provide for yourself, provide for your family. Honestly, it's rich people who need to ----ing cough up," Nicols said. 

Becky McReynolds stands along East 22nd Street with other protesters as drivers honk their horns and drive by the “No Kings” rally on March 28, 2026. 

Fatimah Al-Osaini said this is the latest of several protests she’s attended since Trump got elected. She keeps coming back to find a sense of community, despite the pain and fear she said she encounters every day, due to the Trump administration's immigration enforcement, in her work as a school counselor at Lauffer Middle School.

“I’m so worried about the kids right now. They’re being targeted in so many ways. I’m so worried about the ramifications, their mental health for the rest of their lives. As adults we have to stand up and do something about it … my kids are worried. They’re worried about their friends being taken,” Al-Osaini said, fighting through tears. “Community (keeps me going to protests). We know that's what they want. They want us to be isolated, they want us to be pissed off, inside, and demoralized to the point that we don't do anything. And I refuse to let that happen."

Al-Osaini said she hopes politicians in Washington see how upset their constituents are and realize hey need to step up “and start doing something, too. It’s about time they got a backbone, I don’t know what they’re waiting for."

U.S. Rep. Adelita Grijalva said she got off a plane an hour before she spoke at Saturday's protest, heading straight to Reid Park “because what we are doing today is fighting fascism. We’re fighting an authoritarian regime.”

“All of you that are here today understand what's at stake in this country," said the congresswoman, a Tucson Democrat. "In this country, we are worried about our neighbor. We are worried about our rights. We are worried about our ability to continue to build our democracy, because our vote and the right to vote are being attacked.”

U.S. Rep. Adelita Grijalva, left, speaks to a man dressed as Benjamin Franklin, representing the alleged $50,000 bribe given to Tom Homan, “border czar” in the Trump administration by FBI agents during a “No Kings” rally at Reid Park on March 28, 2026.

Grijalva touched on several issues that brought people out Saturday, as evident by the variety of signs in the crowd and that lined 22nd Street, but focused mainly on immigration enforcement and the ongoing fight in Congress over Homeland Security and ICE funding.

She spoke of “La Abuela,” Julia Benitez, the 79-year-old Cuban grandmother with dementia who was released from ICE custody following an Arizona Daily Star investigation last month. Grijalva said while Abuela was eventually able to return to Florida to live with family, “it breaks my heart to think about how many thousands of other people are in that same situation."

"And it begs the question, how many others like them are going to remain behind bars, silenced by an uncaring system? Abuelas should be home with their families. Babies should be home with their moms. Parents should not be dying in detention because of a toothache.

"At the same time that all of this is happening around us, families are struggling to put food on the table, pay for health care, fill their gas tanks, get their prescriptions,” Grijalva said. “More than 60% of families in this country are living paycheck to paycheck, and yet there is always money for endless war, but never enough money for the urgent needs of everyday people. … Working people deserve relief. They deserve health care they can afford, and a government that invests in people, not in endless conflicts and killing innocent, poor people all over the world.”

Grijalva said her vision, one that she “goes to sleep dreaming about,” is one where “working people have real power, where families can afford to live with dignity, where our rights are protected and where the government is actually accountable to the people it serves.”

“Every time we raise our voices, every time we stand together, every time we push back against a system that too often prioritizes people over power, we win, and us being organized is the most important thing we can do right now,” she said. “We are going to fight for each other, and I am with you every step of the way.”

The rally at Reid is part of the fourth nationwide "No Kings" protest against President Trump and his policies during his second term in office.

National organizers say more than 3,100 events were registered in all 50 states and several other countries, with more than 9 million people expected.

Joan Peterson decorated her cap with buttons for Saturday's 'No Kings' rally at Tucson's Reid Park.

There were about 79 rallies planned across Arizona.

Indivisible Tucson Action Alliance's protest began at 9 a.m. on six corners along North Oracle Road, with a plan to stretch demonstrators from Wetmore Road north to First Avenue in Oro Valley.

The Reid Park gathering organized by Mobilize Tucson, Tucson Safety Team and other groups is at the DeMeester Outdoor Performance Center until 3 p.m.

Among the signs at the Reid Park rally: “Radicalized By Human Decency;” “You Can't Bomb Your Way Out Of The Epstein Files;” and “Not Paid Just Pissed.”

GOP official calls events 'Hate America Rallies'

The White House dismissed the rallies. Spokesperson Abigail Jackson described the protests as the product of “leftist funding networks” with little real public support, the Associated Press reported.

Jackson said in a statement that the “only people who care about these Trump Derangement Therapy Sessions are the reporters who are paid to cover them.”

The National Republican Congressional Committee was also sharply critical.

“These Hate America Rallies are where the far-left’s most violent, deranged fantasies get a microphone," said Maureen O'Toole, spokesperson for the NRCC.

A woman dressed as the Statue of Liberty takes part in the "No Kings" protest Saturday in Paris, France. Among the No Kings events in Tucson today are a gathering at Reid Park and a series of corner protests along North Oracle Road, organizers say.

Rallies held across the U.S. and in Europe

Rallies were planned in more than a dozen other countries, from Europe to Latin America to Australia, said Ezra Levin, a co-executive director of Indivisible, a group spearheading the events. Countries with constitutional monarchies call the protests “No Tyrants,” he said.

For those unable to attend in person, another activist group, Stand Up For Science, is hosting a “virtual and accessible” event online.

On Saturday morning in Paris, several hundred people, mostly Americans living in France, along with French labor unions and human rights organizations, gathered at the Bastille, according to AP.

“I protest all of Trump’s illegal, immoral, reckless, and feckless, endless wars,” Ada Shen, the Paris No Kings organizer, told the AP.

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