Santa Fe's 'No Kings' rally biggest protest yet of second Trump term

Saturday also happened to be Trump’s birthday, and the day he presided over a military parade in Washington he said was meant to commemorate the 250th anniversary of the U.S. Army. It also came less than a week after the president had deployed National Guard troops and Marines to suppress protests in Los Angeles sparked by immigration raids.

While exact numbers are hard to come by, turnout appears to have exceeded organizers’ expectation of 2,000 to 3,000 attendees by at least a couple thousand. Rallygoers started at the Roundhouse, then marched to the Plaza and demonstrated there before returning to the state Capitol.

Doing the president’s signature dance, with copper-tinted face paint running with sweat — and a dunce cap atop a blond wig — was a man who identified himself only as “Donald Trump.”

“The people love me,” said the man, who danced as he led a procession of protesters into downtown Santa Fe — many of them chanting and carrying signs in opposition to the Republican president.

When asked about those critical signs, he said “reading is overrated” in the president’s signature Queens accent.

“I am mayor of Chile Town,” he added.

Others, too, came not as themselves but as political symbols — including Lady Liberty and Marie Antoinette, who sat under a tent in front of the Roundhouse holding a piece of cake beside a faux guillotine.

There was a wide mix of perspectives represented — all gathered under the common belief that the president has overstepped. Many of the marchers carried American flags and held signs criticizing Trump or professing support for democracy. There was a contingent of pro-Palestinian demonstrators.

A few held signs saying “If Kamala had won we’d be at brunch right now,” a slogan that first cropped up following Trump’s first victory over Hillary Clinton in 2016. Others carried signs marked with symbols of anarchism or the communist hammer and sickle.

Police report no issues

Alonzo Aragón, 50, and Felicia Aragón, 45, came from Albuquerque — where a companion protest was being held — because they thought the protest at the Capitol would be more significant. It’s the first protest they have ever attended, they said.

“New Mexico hasn’t had a king since 1822,” said Alonzo, who can track his lineage back more than 20 generations in the state.

Daniel Craig, 61, a Santa Fean and Gulf War veteran, took to the stage outside the Roundhouse to call Trump’s patriotism into question, citing among other things his avoidance of the draft during the Vietnam War. Craig said in an interview he took an oath to defend the U.S. from “all enemies, foreign and domestic,” but that he now sees the president as a domestic enemy.

“No offense to the men and women who chose not to go to Vietnam. But the type of draft dodger that he is, is pathetic,” Craig said. “For those who sacrificed, it’s an affront.”

Hot weather led to two people being sent to the hospital with heat-related emergencies, said Santa Fe Fire Department Chief Brian Moya, who added it was “very peaceful” otherwise.

“ If it was a calm day — not 92 degrees — we wouldn’t even have had those calls,” he said.

State and city police stood watch on the side streets near the Roundhouse, although officers appeared to be complaining about the heat more than they worried about violence from a crowd of largely older people.

“We didn’t have any major issues,” said Santa Fe police Capt. Lawrence Barnett. “For the most part, everyone was respectful of each other. They were respectful of the traffic code. They went and spoke their mind, as they’re allowed to do.”

While the protest’s planned march did spill onto downtown streets — against the plan of sticking to sidewalks that organizers had communicated to police — Barnett said it was a byproduct of the crowd size and “it was only for a short period of time.”

“It didn’t look like they caused any significant issues to the traffic flow in the downtown,” he said.

He added that from what he was told, the organizers’ own monitors reminded demonstrators to keep to the sidewalk, and that “for the most part, they did their best.”

“ It was quite wonderful” said Catherine Bing, vice chair of Indivisible Santa Fe, one of the organizing groups, who added she and fellow organizers were “delighted with the turnout and the speakers.”

The event also raised money for local food banks that, organizers said, could be hurt by the funding cuts the Trump administration is proposing. Bing noted this was a success, raising a lot for food banks such as Bienvenidos Outreach and The Food Depot.

‘Trying to save democracy’

After a hot march downtown, Santa Feans Dan and Judy Muenzberg took a break, sitting on a downtown side street.

“We’re just trying to save democracy. Trying to save the country we grew up with,” said Judy Muenzberg, 78.

For husband Dan Muenzberg, 71, the problem is a “complete disregard for the United States Constitution,” adding he fears Los Angeles “is going to be Trump’s Reichstag building.”

The situation in Los Angeles was a particular point of concern among many who marched Saturday.

Mary Jane Parks, vice chair of the Democratic Party of Santa Fe County, lived in Los Angeles during the 1992 riots that happened after four white police officers were acquitted after beating Black motorist Rodney King. She said it was “unnecessary” for Trump to deploy the military in response to the city’s recent “peaceful protest in support of immigrants.” The Los Angeles Police Department and county sheriff were “very capable of handling” the protests without military intervention, she said.

Parks later took to the stage to rally Democrats, independents and Republicans: “We need everybody in this fight for democracy,” she said.

 “The president who has probably the greatest power in the world is still wanting more,” she said. “But where does his power come from? It comes from us, and we need to take our country back.”

‘Understand each other’

U.S. Rep. Teresa Leger Fernández also took to the podium, saying Trump has skewed the Founding Fathers’ intent to remove the power of kings.

“The checks and balances are broken,” she said. “Congress is rubber-stamping everything he does, no matter how outrageous.”

In a later interview, Leger Fernández condemned the forcible removal last week of California Sen. Alex Padilla from a news conference U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem held in Los Angeles.

“This is what they do to a U.S. senator with the cameras rolling,” she said. “Imagine what they’re doing to the children — to all of those people that are being rounded up by masked ICE agents.”

Leger Fernández said it’s not just overreach on immigration, adding the tax bill Republicans are pushing would mean “the largest cut to health care ever.”

“It’s an overreach on how they are favoring the rich and how it’s going to hurt middle class and working families,” she said. She said Democrats need to win the 2026 midterm elections “so we can start holding the president accountable.”

One of the final speakers — one of a slate of attendees who signed up to share an open mic — ended the day with a message of unity.

“We need to learn to understand each other,” Lucas Tiede, 20, said to the crowd.

 “The theme has been: Free Palestine, anti-ICE, pro-climate action — so many things — but what really needs to be highlighted is unity,” said Tiede, a New Mexico State University student from Chimayó.

“We all know people who disagree with us politically and we need to not shut them out, although it is very easy for our peace of mind to do so,” he said. “The reality is they exist. We need to learn to understand each other so that we can actually make progress.”