The third “No Kings” protest of Donald Trump’s second term lured crowds across Florida, even in areas dominated by Republican voters, including cities with strong military presences like Pensacola and Jacksonville.
Even deep-red Polk County, where Trump won by 21 points in the 2024 presidential election, saw an enthusiastic crowd of at least 2,000 people at Freedom Park in downtown Lakeland.
“We’re in a very red county here in Polk County and it’s really nice to be around like-minded people,” Auburndale resident Stephanie Block said. “People who share the same thoughts, ideologies, have the same scruples, if you will. Care about our fellow man, not just the bottom dollar, and I really don’t like Donald Trump so I’m very happy to be here protesting.”
In Tallahassee, hundreds of protesters flocked to the state Capitol, lining Monroe Street in front of the Capitol Complex. Chants echoed calling to free Palestine, end mass deportations, stop the bombing in Iran, and to criticize both Trump and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis.
“The honks are up this time!” 75-year-old Jim King told the Florida Phoenix, gesturing toward the packed traffic inching along Monroe Street, many adorned with American flags and criticisms of Trump.
The former president of his high school’s teen Republicans club, King said he’d been to all three No Kings Day Protests.
Why? Because of the “lawlessness” in the country under Trump, he said, and the President’s involvement with Jeffrey Epstein.
A small squadron of Tallahassee police said they’d been told to expect roughly 1,000 protesters.
Harshly critical signs depicting Trump littered the crowd. One non-party-affiliated protester, 58-year-old Keith Frechete, proudly bannered an AI poster of Trump kissing Vladimir Putin’s bare behind. The words “Putie and the Blowfish” floated above their heads.
Frechete, a former New Hampshire-ite, said he was inspired to come out to protest the “government falling apart.”
Meanwhile, others with bullhorns led chants ranging from “Donald Trump, let’s be clear, immigrants are welcome here” to “When Iran is under attack, what do we do? Stand up, fight back. When Palestine is under attack what do we do? Stand up, fight back. When trans lives are under attack, what do we do? Stand up, fight back.”
Others listed names of those who’d died in ICE custody, accusing the federal immigration authorities of “slaughter.”
Panhandle protest
In Pensacola, attendees waved signs alongside the four corners of Airport Road and N. 9th Ave., near the airport and Pensacola State College.
According to the event organizer, Margaret Hostetter, at the first No Kings event during the summer of 2025 there were 500 attendees at this location and in October more than 3,000. Several people who’d attended the October event told the Phoenix Saturday that the crowd had grown since then or was about the same size.
Pensacola is the seat of Escambia County, home to 98,000 registered Republicans and 58,205 registered Democrats. The city is in the district formerly represented by Rep. Matt Gaetz in the U.S. House, a conservative with nationwide name recognition. The area hosts military facilities including Naval Air Station Pensacola and Eglin Air Force Base.
In a community partially sustained by the body of water now identified by the Trump administration as the “Gulf of America,” various signs and shirts donned at the event insisted, “Gulf of Mexico.”
Mel Briggs, an 83-year-old Democrat from Pensacola, told the Phoenix, “I don’t want any kings in charge of the U.S. and I think Trump is acting like a king.”
During his three years in the Army during the Vietnam era, Briggs said, he “saw the government do wrong things, bad things, and they’re into it again.”
The Phoenix did not observe any law enforcement present other than an unmanned county sheriff’s portable security camera. Hostetter said her security team reported no disturbances, such as counter-protesters.
“I feel very encouraged and happy and pleased with all of the wonderful participation,” Hostetter said. “But mostly, I am emotionally determined that we have a fight on our hands as a nation and as individuals, all of us, that we cannot let up.”
A man, who identified himself as Jimmy T, said he is new to Florida. “I drove all the way from Seattle, Washington, to Pensacola, Florida, doing DoorDash for the most part,” he told the Phoenix.
“The conditions for people on the street, the conditions for the homeless shelters, the conditions for low-income housing and corruption within the smaller cities has become absolutely rampant,” Jimmy said, based on people he has talked with and his Doordash customers.
Jimmy, a 47-year-old no-party-affiliated voter who chose to remain anonymous citing fear of retaliation MAGA followers, was waving to passersby an American flag that he found abandoned on a Missoula, Montana, street.
Jimmy said he put up the first tent in the Washington state Capitol lawn during the Occupy Wall Street protests in 2010.
Duval
In Jacksonville, colder temperatures and 20-plus mile per hour wind gusts didn’t dampen enthusiasm for the third area No Kings march.
Thousands of people gathered in front of Friendship Circle, an hour before the rally started. From there, the protesters walked across the John T. Alsop Jr. Bridge and to the Duval County Courthouse. Along the way, car horns honked support.
Duval County has a strong military presence with facilities Naval Air Station Jacksonville, Naval Station Mayport, and Naval Submarine Base Kings Bay. And veterans could be seen throughout the crowd.
Twenty-year Navy veteran “Drew A” described himself as a Minneapolis native who has lived in Jacksonville since first being stationed here. He resigned from the Navy in 2016 after Trump was first elected. “I saw the direction the country was heading and I didn’t like it,” he said. “And then when he got elected again, to watch it again.”
Drew continued: “I did two tours in Iraq. So, I know what it’s like. I know what a legal war looks like. I know how it affects people back home. And I just had to get out and do something.”
There are about 641,000 registered voters in Duval County, according to the Duval County Supervisor of Elections. Democrats hold a slight advantage in the number of active registered voters in the county.
President Donald Trump won Duval County by nearly 1.5% points in 2024, although President Joe Biden defeated Trump by roughly 4 points in 2020.
Navy veteran Steve Guilmette lives in the historic Mandarin neighborhood. Saturday was his third No Kings Rally.
“I think Trump has earned much more frustration and anger from real Americans,” Guilmette, a Vietnam vet, told the Phoenix. “I’m hoping his son will be on the front line instead of these other guys. You know, [Trump son-in-law] Jared Kushner, he should be on the front line.”
Guilmette was carrying an upside down American flag with a black ribbon tied on top.
It’s “an international symbol of distress, an upside down flag,” he said. “And the black ribbon represents the people we’ve lost. And that’s what this is for. The people we’ve lost in Iran and more in Minnesota. And well, especially now, but for everybody who’s been lost in a war, especially pointless wars.”
Imperial Polk
Donald Trump won Polk County by 21 points in the 2024 presidential election, so the gathering of at least 2,000 people at Freedom Park in downtown Lakeland was welcomed by Auburndale resident Stephanie Block.
“We’re in a very red county here in Polk County and it’s really nice to be around like-minded people,” Block said. “People who share the same thoughts, ideologies, have the same scruples, if you will. Care about our fellow man, not just the bottom dollar, and I really don’t like Donald Trump so I’m very happy to be here protesting. “
Tiffany Sullivan was with two family members who all moved to Polk County from Riverside County in Southern California last fall. She acknowledged it has been a “big change” to now live in a much more conservative region of the country, and said she was surprised by how many people were in attendance.
“It gives you hope,” she said.
A 27-year-old Lakeland resident who only wanted to be identified by her first name, Mary, said this was her first time attending a No Kings protest. Mary voted “by default” for Kamala Harris in 2024 but said she wasn’t excited about either of the two major party candidates that year.
“They all feel like puppets to me, so it was more of a ‘I don’t believe what they say’ kind of choice,” she said.
Mary acknowledged that many 20-somethings like herself are extremely disaffected by politics, but added that the conditions the country faces in this second Trump administration demand involvement.
“It’s more critical than ever for young people to register and vote,” she said. “I know a lot of people think that the system’s rigged and that we don’t have any say and that democracy is rigged, but we still have to try.”
Jeff Potter, 76, of Winter Haven, has been a lifelong independent voter. He said he was in attendance because he’s “just tired of what’s going on.”
“Nobody standing up for what they need to stand up for, whether it be Republicans or Democrats,” he said. “We need an overall change to how we respond to the overall lack of response that we get from our elected leaders.”
Potter said he feels extreme disdain for Republicans for falling in line and not speaking out more against their elected leaders. He hopes the overall size of these No King rallies, combined with the upset victories by Democrats in two GOP state legislative strongholds last week, will compel lawmakers to rebel more against the party establishment.
“Maybe we can actually get some members locally in Tallahassee that are going to understand what’s going on,” he said. “They are all oblivious. They go by what their guys says whether it’s DeSantis or Trump. They need to wake up, and hopefully this is going to make them wake up.”
Mitch Perry, Christine Sexton, Jay Waagmeester, and Liv Caputo contributed to this report.
Florida Phoenix is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Florida Phoenix maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Michael Moline for questions: info@floridaphoenix.com.This article appears in Mar. 26 – Apr. 1.