A demonstrator stands alongside U.S. Route 50 in Easton during a No Kings protest there, one of several on the Eastern Shore on Saturday. (Photo by Christine Condon/ Maryland Matters)
In Queen Anne's County, where 62% of voters went for President Donald Trump in last year's election, some of the people who showed up for the No Kings rally said they were pleasantly surprised by Saturday's turnout.
Several hundred people turned up, many waving hand-drawn signs by the roadside in Centreville's small historic downtown, while others gathered in the courtyard, where a musician performed at a piano, and organizers opened the mic for testimonials.
"The honks and waves way outnumber the middle fingers," said Tom Gallagher, 74, of the public response to No Kings in Centreville. The Anne Arundel County resident crossed the Bay Bridge to attend the rally here.
Back across the Bay in Baltimore -- where 12.8% of voters backed Trump in 2024 -- the challenge was not getting people to turn out, but managing No Kings on the same day as the 25th annual Baltimore Running Festival, when an estimated 10,000 runners were expected to take over downtown to compete in everytingn from a 5K to a full marathon.
Most coped by combining the two events, with runners wearing No Kings gear and No Kings attendees lining the race route with signs playing off the combination of the two events, like the one that said, "You're running better than the government."
Jackie Bustos took advantage of the scheduling of the events to accomplish personal goal of completing a half marathon while also protesting Trump policies on immigration and other issues.
"I felt supported," said Bustos, who ran with a No Kings sign on her back. "Throughout the city, there were tons of signs that were supporting the cause. So I was running, but there were also people saying 'no fascism, no kings.'"
The Baltimore and Centreville rallies were just two of more than 60 events scheduled in Maryland Saturday, from Ocean City to LaVale and from Northeast to Lexington Park and scores of points in between.
They were in big cities like Baltimore and small towns like Centreville. They were in deep blue counties like Montgomery, which had more than a dozen events scheduled, to deep red counties like Carroll, where one event was scheduled for the County Government Building in Westminster for those willing to brave it.
Nationwide, more than 2,700 events were planned, in all 50 states, Puerto Rico, Guam and the District of Columbia, where as many as 100,000 were expected to turn out. Events were being held overseas as well, in Australia and across Europe - although events in the United Kingdom were tactfully labeled "No Tyrants" events.
Some estimates said turnout for the weekend's events could be in the millions.
The latest rallies are a followup to No Kings events in June that were held to counter President Donald Trump's massive military parade in Washington to celebrate the 250th anniversary of the Army - and, some say not coincidentally, Trump's 79th birthday.
There were about 2,000 events in June. Organizers said they scheduled this weekend's events because Trump "has doubled down" since the first rallies, ramping up immigration raids and deploying troops to Democratic cities and urging the Justice Department to prosecute his enemies.
A main theme of the events, besides no kings, is peaceful protest. Rallygoers are told to leave weapons at home and are trained in de-escalation techniques. And in Maryland, at least, it seemed to be working, only minimal conflicts reported.
Standing in the courtyard in front of the Queen Anne's County historic courthouse in Centreville, a bulletin board asked locals: "What was your tipping point?"
No more context was needed.
"The day he was elected -- the first time," read one sticky note. "Musk + DOGE," read another. "The Apprentice," one attendee wrote.
"We wanted to know, what was that moment that you felt like you needed to come?" said Elaine McNeil, chair of the Queen Anne's Democratic Central Committee, which organized Saturday's event. "Because that's the feedback that we need to get other people to that tipping point to start standing up."
Gallagher, the Anne Arundel County resident who traveled to Centreville for the rally, said he has been disturbed by the administration's decision to attack ships off the coast of Venezuela, killing several people.
"Even if he's correct that they're drug dealers, that's still a legal matter, not a military matter," said Gallagher, a retired Navy veteran. "You're being judge, jury and executioner for people out on boats in the water. It's beyond the pale."
No Kings protests dotted Maryland's rural and conservative Eastern Shore, running up U.S. Route 50 from Ocean City and Salisbury to Cambridge and Easton, where protesters lined the busy highway beside a Wawa convenience store, attracting a smattering of honks as cars drove past. A single counter-protester stood in the grass behind them, yelling "We love President Trump." But he was handily outnumbered, as the assembled group chanted: ""Love, not hate, makes America great."
Beverly Fox, 75, an Easton resident who is disabled, uses a motorized wheelchair to get around. On Saturday, the back of her wheelchairt sported an image of Trump wearing a crown with the message "No Kings."
"That man has got to go," said Fox, who worries about Trump's attacks on health insurance for vulnerable Americans. "Every day I think I can't get shocked any more."
In Easton's Talbot County, Trump's victory was far narrower than elsewhere on the Eastern Shore, winning 11,125 votes to 11,119 for Vice President Kamala Harris.
For many attendees on Saturday, it felt difficult to choose just one reason they were drawn to decorate handmade signs and wave them by the roadside.
"I don't even know where to start," said Ashley Cromwell, a Queenstown resident who came to Centreville with a "We the People" sign.
"Since Trump first -- in 2015 -- came on the scene this way, I've been against what he stands for, and the hatred and the anger and the division and the way that he wants to take power for himself," Cromwell said.
Even if it was sometimes hard to articulate, attendees on Saturday were united by a passion to speak up against Trump.
Diana Leonard, a Queen Anne's resident, said she began attending anti-Trump protests for the first time in March.
"I'm out here for the people that can't be out here," said Diana Leonard, a Queen Anne's resident. "Because there are people that are either disabled or they're afraid, or they've been fighting forever."
But, like many at the rallies, she was keeping it light. Leonard wore an inflatable otter costume Saturday and carried a sign that said, "You otter join us!" adding that she was gunning for a "positive, unifying" message.
Positive energy was very much the mood in Baltimore, where the marathon route was lined with people who alternated between those holding anti-Trump protest signs or posterboards offering encouragement from enthusiastic friends and families. Or both.
"That's one of the things I love about Baltimore," Bustos said. "It's really nice to be in Baltimore and see that there's this energy for the runners and also supporting a very big political cause."
Brenden Caffey, 30, said that he and his wife had been in other running festivals before, but having a message this time brought a new energy to the challenge. He painted his shirt Friday night with "NO KINGS" in preparation for the run.
"It was nice ... I think it was kind of cool that it was able to be combined a little bit," Caffey said.
Protesters on the sides of the tracks shouted words of encouragement while their signs disparaged the Trump administration. People like Lior Levy, 28, who stood on the sidelines with a sign declaring "Baltimore says 'No Kings.'" She said that merging the rally with the marathon provided "a lot of visibility" for the political demonstration.
"Us being here for the runners, it drives them. And them having the signs rallies us -- and it's a good back and forth," Levy said.
Chris Ryder, 65, a former U.S. Agency for International Development employee who retired during the first Trump administration, said the recent federal layoffs are just one of the many reasons to come out to the marathon and protest along the track.
"We came out because we think we all need to raise our voices against so much of what's going on with this administration," he said.
Laurie Rome, 63, said that while the Baltimore No Kings rally was a little more spread out than other protests, it was still important to show up, "no matter the format."
"It's kind of nice to have it sort of pervasive along the route. Not just people clustered in one place," she said. "There are people everywhere who think that the current level of unkindness, instability and hatred is not okay."
Protesters lining the roads -- and the marathon routes -- seemed to be popular venues. In Prince George's County, sporadic clumps of protesters lined U.S. Route 1 from the Washington, D.C., line to the University of Maryland, College Park, and beyond.
On the Eastern Shore, Denise Perdue of Graysonville stood on the side of the road and talked about her "tipping point" while waving a sign. For Perdue, it was Nov. 5, 2024, when Trump was elected a second time.
"I didn't think that there was so much hate in the United States as there is, and so much bigotry," she said, adding that she felt that the electorate scorned Harris, the Democratic nominee, because she is a woman of color.
As Perdue held a sign inviting passersby to "Honk for Humanity," one driver in a pickup truck flew past: "Sore losers!" he yelled.
Perdue was quick to respond: "Jesus loves you!" she shouted back. It was the same response she'd used all day for the occasional heckler passing through.
"Because, what are you going to say to that?" she joked.