UPDATED: ‘No Kings’ events held throughout Arkansas protesting Trump administration

Thousands of people crossed the Broadway Bridge connecting Little Rock and North Little Rock Saturday as rallies and other events were held in Arkansas as part of the third “No Kings” demonstrations nationwide against the Trump administration.

Protesters sang and waved signs opposing the Iran war, mass deportations and other actions by President Donald Trump’s White House as they walked across the bridge spanning the Arkansas River. The event was among rallies in 19 cities around Arkansas.

“I believe in the cause that these people are standing for today, and [protesting] is such a little thing to do, but at age 86 that’s all I can do,” said Little Rock resident Mary Ruth Brown, who attended her third “No Kings” protest. Brown held a sign reading “Dump Trump” that she said a friend chose for her.

The People’s Protests and Marches of AR hosted the Little Rock rally, which included a “Community Connect Fair” and several speakers on the North Little Rock side of the river. Indivisible LRCA, the League of Women Voters of Arkansas and 50501 Arkansas also hosted the Little Rock event. 

No Kings day rallies roll out across the US, with millions said to attend anti-Trump protests

Scott Holladay, a member of The People’s Protests and Marches of AR’s organizing committee, said no matter what individual issues motivated people to turn out for the protest, the overarching theme of “No Kings” is to push back against Trump “usurping the authority of the equal branches of government.”

“I think before long we’ll reach a tipping point where it will be hard to maintain the authoritarian direction of this country,” Holladay said.

Some of the signs protesters carried said, “Melt ICE,” “Make America Kind Again,” “We the People reject fascism,” and “Eggs are expensive because chickens are in Congress.”

“We the people aren’t challenging the power,” Gail Choate, executive director of the Arkansas Civic Action Network, said through a megaphone before the march. “We the people are the power.”

On the North Little Rock side of the river, canvassers collected signatures for ballot measures that would strengthen Arkansas’ direct democracy laws and require private schools receiving public money to meet the same accreditation requirements as public schools, among other changes.

The demonstrations occurred in a state that Trump easily carried in the 2024 presidential election and where Republicans hold a majority in the state Legislature, every statewide partisan office and every seat in the federal delegation. 

But the events drew dozens of attendees in smaller, Republican-represented municipalities in addition to the Democrat-represented major metropolitan areas of Little Rock and Fayetteville.

Protesters showed up in Heber Springs, Jonesboro, Harrison and Texarkana, according to Facebook posts. Mountain Home’s protest drew a handful of pro-Trump counterprotesters, as it did in June 2025.

In Little Rock, participants included Steve and Debi Manire, who dressed up as Josiah and Mary Bartlett. Josiah Bartlett was a signer of the Declaration of Independence and the fourth governor of New Hampshire.

“When Tom and Ben and the others and I signed the declaration, this was not what we had in mind, what’s going on now,” Manire said, referring to Thomas Jefferson and Benjamin Franklin. “This is what we had in mind.”

Nadia Washburn of Stuttgart drove an hour to protest in Little Rock with her mother, her grandmother and her 8-year-old daughter, Georgie. Washburn said it was her first time protesting. Her biggest concerns about the Trump administration are its impact on disability rights because her daughter has an invisible disability, and the agriculture industry since she comes from a farming family.

“It feels almost unreal when you live in a community that is so red, and then you see everyone come together like this,” Washburn said. “It makes you feel like your feelings are valid.”

Saturday’s No Kings event was the first for Julie and Matt Rozzell of North Little Rock. They and their children carried signs that said “History has its eyes on you” and “Immigrants are not criminals but our president is.”

Julie Rozzell said it was important to teach her children to stand up for people who can’t stand up for themselves.

“Someday when they’re learning about these times and the history that we’re living through right now, if they were to ask, ‘What did you do?’, I want to be able to tell them that we did something: that we voted when we could, that we marched when we could, that we talked to people so we could try to educate ourselves and others,” she said.

An American-born son of El Salvadoran immigrants, Eli Mayen said he’s stayed on the sidelines. But footage of immigration crackdowns across the country and of the killings of two U.S. citizens in Minnesota played into his decision to take up a sign, he said as he walked across the Arkansas River with the other demonstrators. It was his first time protesting.

“I saw videos of elderly people — the ones that we have to protect — being harassed, put in vans by masked thugs and people that were just treating them terribly,” Mayen said. “I just couldn’t stand by while that was happening.”