Thousands gather across Colorado for ‘No Kings’ protest against Trump administration
More than a dozen rallies called people to speak out against a host of issues from immigration enforcement to attacks on free speech, LGBTQ rights
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In one of the largest demonstrations since the social justice protests of 2020 following the death of George Floyd, thousands of protesters gathered at sites across Colorado Saturday to speak out against the Trump administration and its policies.
At more than a dozen places across the state, people raised signs, chanted and marched.
This story was produced as part of the Colorado Capitol News Alliance. It first appeared on June 14, 2025 at cpr.org.
Rallies were planned Saturday from Grand Junction to Colorado Springs, Denver to Durango and many other places between.
In Grand Junction Saturday morning, hundreds gathered peacefully, snarling traffic.
In Colorado Springs, a speaker urged the large crowd to remain peaceful and stay out of the street.
In Parker, people held signs up and lined roads as cars drove past.
In Genesee, people stood on a bridge over I-70 and held signs up for cars passing to see.
In Denver, police shut down Lincoln Street at the Lincoln Veterans Memorial Park near the Colorado State Capitol, so protesters could spill out into the street.
Marchers also walked on roads around downtown Denver: on Speer Boulevard and Colfax Avenue, among others.
Adam Young came to Denver from Golden Saturday to march. He was dressed as Uncle Sam as he held an upside down American flag marching on 17th Street in downtown Denver.
“This is America. You can’t treat America this way,” Young said of Trump’s policies.
The so-called “No Kings” rallies are designed as a catch-all for people to protest a wide range of policies from the Trump administration, from immigration enforcement actions to attacks on free speech and LGBTQ rights.
The Denver demonstration featured booths along Veterans park, urging people to get involved both in their communities and politically.
The protest was a center for intersectionality in political activism. While the main peg of the protest was against Trump, many people were protesting ICE, celebrating pride month, protesting for Palestinians and standing in solidarity with the protestors in Los Angeles.
The demonstrations are part of a national call for protests against the Trump administration. About 2,000 cities are holding protests on President Donald Trump’s birthday, the same day as he is holding a military parade in Washington, D.C.
Jerry Hawthorne, an 82-year-old retired Colorado Department of Corrections worker lasted more than two hours in broiling heat to wave an “Impeach Trump Again” sign alongside about 2,000 other like-minded smiling and chanting “No Kings” protesters in Grand Junction.
“I’m really happy about this. This is beautiful,” he said as he aimed his sign up and down the crowd strung out for half a mile along a busy 1-70 entrance in Grand Junction.
Hawthorne said he had never even thought of joining a protest until Trump took office. The protest on Saturday was his third.
Hawthorne, who worked in the maximum security unit in Cañon City for part of his career, made it a point to tell a reporter several times that “I have seen some evil people in my life, but none as evil as Trump.”
Colorado Mesa University computer science professor Warren MacEvoy showed up to protest in just his skivvies and a faux crown he had fashioned out of a party-sized Cheetos puffs bag with Cheetos ringing his sweating head. He carried a bobbing “Happy Birthday” balloon that he said “is just for Donald,” referring to the president who celebrated his 79th birthday on Saturday.
“A lot of people are talking past each other. We need more discourse,” he said.
Raquel Scianna, a volunteer with Indivisible, the grassroots Grand Junction group that organized the protest, said protesters started showing up at 9 a.m. for an event advertised to begin at 10. Most had staggered away by shortly after noon to seek shade under scrawny young trees in Canyonview Park.
A counterprotest calling itself “No Crowns, Just Clowns” had used social media in the past few days to recruit Trump supporters to parade their vehicles in front of the the protesters, but only a handful of loud trucks with flapping Trump flags showed up.
There were no incidents between the Trump supporters and the crowd doing a call-and-response chant, “This is what Democracy looks like.”
Many homemade signs included expletives aimed at Trump. A few that didn’t included, “Imagine being afraid of diversity, but not dictatorship,” and “Eggs are so expensive because Congress is full of chickens.”
There was a minimal presence of uniformed police officers in Grand Junction. They were directing traffic or parked under shade trees watching the line of protesters.
In reliably Republican Montrose, where organizers had directed demonstrators from Telluride, Ouray and Ridgway, around 2,100 people lined Townsend Avenue waving signs and shouting.
A counterprotest formed in the shape of a train of 20-25 trucks driving slowly along Townsend Avenue, some waving Trump flags and some wearing cardboard crowns from a Burger King restaurant.
Earlier this week, protesters demonstrated at the State Capitol to protest immigration enforcement actions. Those protests were largely peaceful with a handful of arrests in Denver after police used pepper balls and smoke canisters to disperse protesters near Broadway and I-25. Denver Police reported early Wednesday that there were 17 arrests out of those protests.
As of early Saturday afternoon, no clashing between demonstrators and police were observed or reported at protests across the state.
Saturday’s Denver demonstration was put on by Colorado 50501 Chapter, Party for Social Liberalism, Women’s Strike and Raise Her Voice, Solidarity Warriors, Denver Indivisible Action, Show Up for Good and Notes of Dissent.
The Denver march began at 12:19 p.m. down Lincoln, starting out in front of the state’s Capitol. It quickly spilled out onto adjoining streets across downtown.
In Parker Saturday morning, Debbie Burke said she was protesting because voting was not enough.
“We’ve got to get our voices out there as loud as we can, in the biggest numbers we can find to show people that the Trump administration is not representing the country as a whole,” Burke said.
“I think the country is too divided and needs to be put together,” said Larry Dobkin in Parker. “Politicians are too tied up in whether they’re Republican or Democrat and not so much interested in doing the job for the people.”
Editor’s note: This story is based on eyewitness accounts from reporters unless stated and attributed.
CPR’s Kiara DeMare, Tony Gorman, Haylee May, Stina Sieg, Allison Sherry, Hart Van Denburg and KRCC’s Andrea Chalfin contributed to this report, as did Nancy Lofholm, William Woody and Sue McMillin from The Colorado Sun.
