Minnesota to host ‘No Kings’ flagship rally, headlining Springsteen amid tensions over ICE and war

Minnesota to host ‘No Kings’ flagship rally, headlining Springsteen amid tensions over ICE and war 1 of 5 | Bruce Springsteen performs at a campaign rally supporting Democratic presidential nominee Vice President Kamala Harris, Oct. 28, 2024, in Philadelphia. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke, File) 2 of 5 | Demonstrators march down Benjamin Franklin Parkway during the “No Kings” protest, June 14, 2025, in Philadelphia. (AP Photo/Yuki Iwamura, File) 3 of 5 | A message promoting an upcoming “No Kings” protest is projected on the National Gallery of Art, with the U.S. Capitol seen in the background, Monday, March 23, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson) 4 of 5 | Dee Cahill of Margate, Fla., holds a “No Kings” sign as she participates in a pro-democracy, anti-Trump protest outside Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach, Fla., as part of the “Good Trouble Lives On” national day of action, July 17, 2025. (AP Photo/Rebecca Blackwell, File) 5 of 5 | Thousands of protesters fill Times Square during a “No Kings” protest in New York, Oct. 18, 2025. (AP Photo/Olga Fedorova, File) 1 of 5 Bruce Springsteen performs at a campaign rally supporting Democratic presidential nominee Vice President Kamala Harris, Oct. 28, 2024, in Philadelphia. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke, File) Add AP News on Google Add AP News as your preferred source to see more of our stories on Google. 2 of 5 Demonstrators march down Benjamin Franklin Parkway during the “No Kings” protest, June 14, 2025, in Philadelphia. (AP Photo/Yuki Iwamura, File) Add AP News on Google Add AP News as your preferred source to see more of our stories on Google. 3 of 5 A message promoting an upcoming “No Kings” protest is projected on the National Gallery of Art, with the U.S. Capitol seen in the background, Monday, March 23, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson) Add AP News on Google Add AP News as your preferred source to see more of our stories on Google. 4 of 5 Dee Cahill of Margate, Fla., holds a “No Kings” sign as she participates in a pro-democracy, anti-Trump protest outside Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach, Fla., as part of the “Good Trouble Lives On” national day of action, July 17, 2025. (AP Photo/Rebecca Blackwell, File) Add AP News on Google Add AP News as your preferred source to see more of our stories on Google. 5 of 5 Thousands of protesters fill Times Square during a “No Kings” protest in New York, Oct. 18, 2025. (AP Photo/Olga Fedorova, File) Add AP News on Google Add AP News as your preferred source to see more of our stories on Google. Updated [hour]:[minute] [AMPM] [timezone], [monthFull] [day], [year] ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) — Minnesota will be the flagship of the “No Kings” protest movement Saturday when Bruce Springsteen performs “Streets of Minneapolis” in a state where emotions are still raw over President Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown and the deaths of two residents shot by federal officers.More than 3,100 events are being organized in communities large and small across all 50 states, with more than 9 million people expected to participate. A growing number of them will be in suburbs, which are increasingly on the front lines of resistance against Trump.Organizers have designated the Minnesota rally, at the State Capitol in St. Paul, as Saturday’s flagship event. They’ve told a state oversight agency that 100,000 people could converge on the Capitol complex, where last June’s event drew an estimated 80,000 people.The movement is spreading around the world, said Ezra Levin, a cofounder of Indivisible, the activist group spearheading the events. Rallies are also planned in more than a dozen other countries, he said in an interview, including Canada, Germany, France, the United Kingdom, France, Spain, Portugal, Switzerland, Italy, Greece, the Netherlands, Ireland, Sweden, Mexico and Australia. In counties with constitutional monarchies, he said, they call the protests “No Tyrants.” Besides Springsteen, the St. Paul rally will also feature singer Joan Baez and actor Jane Fonda, who’ve been noted for their activism since the Vietnam War era, and Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont, a hero of the progressive movement, along with a long list of other national and local activists, labor leaders and elected officials. Levin said the national organizers chose Minnesota because it was subject to “some of the most horrific, sadistic behavior you can imagine” from the Trump administration. “At the same time, in the Twin Cities earlier this year, we saw some of the most inspiring, neighborly, brave organizing that we’ve seen anywhere in the country, and it serves as an inspiration to all of us,” Levin added. This will be the third round of “No Kings” protests, which often have a street festival vibe. They’re organized by a broad coalition of groups opposed to what they call authoritarianism under Trump, and his attempts to consolidate and expand his power. Organizers say more than 5 million people took to the streets at more than 2,100 events last June, followed by more than 7 million people at more than 2,700 events last October. Organizers announced Saturday’s protests in January, shortly after the killings in Minneapolis of Renee Good and Alex Pretti. Plans had already been in the works, but their deaths during the surge of around 3,000 federal officers into Minnesota provided a new focus. Opposition to the war in Iran, which the U.S. and Israel launched with airstrikes on Feb. 28, is expected to draw even more people to the protests, Levin said.Trump reacted to previous “No Kings” rallies by insisting “I’m not a king” and saying attendees were “not representative of the people of our country.”