March 28 served as the third national No Kings protest day. Across the country, millions of Americans took to the streets to rally in their communities and protest the actions of President Donald Trump’s administration.
Throughout New Hampshire, there were over 50 locations that hosted No Kings rallies, including one in downtown Keene which was sponsored by the Keene Rally Coalition.
Mike French, a representative of the organization, described the Keene Rally Coalition as peaceful. “We don’t confront anybody. We get plenty of people yelling ‘FU’ at us from our cars, but I keep count,” French said. “I thank them.”
French added that Congress needs to be flipped from Republican control to Democratic control during the upcoming midterm elections in November. French also said that it would be good to “take politics back in Concord [N.H.],” referring to laws being passed there that were “not favorable to students.”
Additionally, he said that the 2024 presidential election was lost partially because Democrats chose to stay home, so he hoped the March 28 rally would “get people out” and “bring undecided voters our way.”
One participant at the rally, John Gledhill, said he had never been a protester, and this was his first time ever showing up at a protest. Gledhill said he showed up because he wanted to “help save democracy.”
“Every morning I wake up and there’s a new atrocity committed by the president. At some point it’s got to stop, and we need to find a way to stop it,” Gledhill said. “It’s a joke. We can’t pay people at TSA to let us fly on airplanes, but we can pay [Trump’s] own version of the Gestapo to round up people with brown skin? It’s horrific.”
Another participant, Barb Guidotti, said she has “had enough of having an inhumane president” and that she “couldn’t take it anymore.”
Guidotti stated that she recently moved to New Hampshire and told her daughter that “all she wanted to do” for her 89th birthday was attend the No Kings rally.
The first No Kings rally was held on June 14, 2025, and the second took place on Oct. 18, 2025. The Oct. 18 rally received support from over seven million Americans, with over 2,700 events taking place across the country, according to the No Kings website.
The Keene rally featured several other organizations in addition to the Keene Rally Coalition, including Keene Pride.
One representative of Keene Pride’s board said, “It’s amazing to see this crowd. I live across the way, I see the protests they do every week, and they don’t even compare to this. Whether it’s name or organizational power, I don’t know, but it’s bringing people together.”
When asked about an outcome they would like to see happen as a result of the nationwide protests, the representative said it was more about “getting the American people together,” because that was the only way to enable change.
Another representative of the group said, “Maybe [the protests] will convince people to vote differently or change their minds. That’s the direction we need to take.”
In addition to Keene Pride, Monadnock Women for Action group members were present. Women for Action is an ad hoc group of women from the Monadnock region who aim to “amplify calls to defend democracy and partner with like-minded organizations,” according to an informative flyer they handed out at the rally.
Barbara Jatkola, a representative from the group, said they had started out as Monadnock Women for Harris, but have since pivoted to their current title to “save our country, democracy and rights.”
Jatkola said that they were at the rally for multiple reasons. She said, “We want to rein in ICE, but also inspire people to understand that their rights are being taken away. The country is no longer what we thought it was.”
Other participants said that they were there specifically to “see the Trump regime end.” One woman, who requested that her name remain undisclosed, said she was there to stand up for freedom.
In regard to problems she had seen happening across the country, she said, “The way we treat immigrants, the way we treat people with brown skin and the fear that has been instilled across the country since the ICE Gestapo has started looking for people.”
She also said that she felt concerned about her grandchildren’s future–specifically her female grandchildren–because she was worried they may have to grow up in a “backwards country.”
The women said that everybody at the rally seemed to feel anger, frustration and helplessness. She said they didn’t know what else to do except physically show up.
Don and Christy McCormick, two more participants, said they were “thrilled” to see the size of the crowd. Don said that he felt democracy was failing, and people needed to “stand up or lose it.”
“There’s so much historical precedent, and we’ve seen this before. It’s amazing that people continue to be so misinformed as democracy fails. A big part of this is to let people know that if they’re feeling frightened, they’re not alone,” he said.
Christy McCormick added that the Trump administration’s actions had led to more people showing up at protests, including individuals who had previously supported Trump, because they were “starting to see that there’s a big problem.”
Christy McCormick also said that Congress and those who had changed their minds since the 2024 presidential election needed to “speak out and do something.”
Some protests outside of New Hampshire featured celebrity and political figure appearances, including a performance by Bruce Springsteen and a speech by U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders, a Vermont independent, in Minnesota.
During his speech, Sanders condemned the deaths of Renée Good and Alex Pretti, two American citizens who were killed by federal agents in Minnesota. Good was killed on Jan. 7 and Pretti on Jan. 24. Both were fatally shot by federal agents.
On March 31, Indivisible, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and other No Kings organization partners hosted a virtual Mass Community Call event. The event served as an opportunity for activists and leaders to celebrate the protests’ turnout and discuss what the next steps would be.
Those interested in learning about the No Kings movement or looking for ways to organize in their own communities will find further information on the No Kings website.
Samantha Menard can be contacted at
