‘No Kings’ Allowed in Berkeley as People Rally Against Trump and Everything Else

Protesters crossing the street at University Ave and San Pablo Ave intersection on Mar. 28, 2026 (Photo by Paul Singh)

About 100-150 Protesters gathered in Berkeley this Saturday to protest against the Trump Administration, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, among other issues. Protesters met at West Berkeley at the intersection of University Ave and San Pablo Ave from 11 a.m. to noon. 

People are fed up with President Trump`s interference in other countries such as the war in Iran that killed the late Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the arrest of Venezuelan President Nicholas Maduro, Immigration & Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents being in airports and other policies.

In addition, they brought signs saying “No Kings,” “Remember January 6th No King No Trump,” “Stop Now No War,” and “Welcome Immigrants.” One protester had a sign about how her dog would make a better president than Trump. 

While riding the bus to the protest Alfred Twu was one of many patrons. When interviewing, Twu said that they are protesting for local opportunities and connecting with people politically involved. They have had enough with everything President Donald Trump and his administration has been doing since his inauguration last year. 

“There’s all the illegal actions they’re doing. They’ve cut funding to California for disaster relief,” Twu said. “They’re going after immigrants, going after citizens. They started illegal wars.”

Last month the U.S. launched strikes on Iran that had killed the late Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Even though the people of Iran hated the Ayatollah shop owner of Alpha Furniture of Design, Hans Reinhardt, who immigrated from Germany to the U.S. said it was “the wrong way.”

“That is not the way, they should have supported people who are competent in Iran to overthrow the government,” Reinhardt said. “How all those people who would be in charge for a new government, more democratic government, they’re gonna get killed. They’re gonna be over,” referring to the U.S.’s indiscriminately attacking Iran’s leadership.

Outside his shop, he had a punching bag that had a Trump mask on it for people to punch to vent their frustrations. 

Filmmaker Giovanna Capone had a sign that said “Prosecute our Pedophile President” from Trump`s involvement in the Epstein files. 

“He’s got so many felonies and so much evidence of his guilt, yet he keeps getting away with it,” Capone said.

Protesters marching on the street at the intersection of Shattuck and University Ave. on Mar. 28, 2026 (Photo by Paul Singh)

President Trump has been convicted of 34 felonies in New York related to falsifying business documents to cover up an extramarital affair. 

Another protester Ergot Oniric, came from Oakland to protest in Berkeley. He thinks that it is terrible that ICE is in the airports and that ICE has not been around since the Patriot Act, which was enacted in 2001 after the terrorist attacks on 9/11 for surveillance expansion, “sneak and peak” warrants, information sharing, banking controls, impact on civil liberties and investigation tools.

“It’s ridiculous that a sanctuary city allowed, and the mayor allowed SFPD to assist with ICE,” Oniric said. “That goes against everything what a sanctuary city is. And I think ICE should be abolished.”

Pin the Fail on the Don King on display in West Berkeley on Mar. 28, 2026 (Photo by Paul Singh)

Architect Greg VanMechelen wanted to do something for his birthday last year, so he created a game called Pin the Fail on the Don King based on Pin the Tail on the Donkey. 

It is a lifesize banner of Trump playing golf with a crown on his head and protesters write down fails on a piece of paper and pin it to the banner around his rear end. This is the third protest that VanMechelan brought this game to.

“It kind of looks like the failed diaper that his administration really is,” VanMechelan said. “They’re taking a crap all over us.”

VanMechelan goes into the symbolism behind this image. There are the people on his court jester crown, like Vice President JD Vance, Attorney General Pam Bondi, White House Deputy Chief of Staff for Policy Steven Miller who is behind unpopular ICE tactics, Director of Office of Management and Budget Russell Vought, who is also one of the architects of Project 2025, and FBI Director Kash Patel, and Trump swinging his golf club at the Constitution.  

After Trump`s term, VanMechelen thinks Trump`s tactics will die out because it is part of his “cult of personality,” which is an extreme idealized devotion to a leader through propaganda, spectacles and mass media. His die-hard followers also known as MAGA hold him to a god-like status, despite saying he will not waste tax payers money on foreign wars on the campaign trail, he provoked a war in the Middle East in February. 

“You need that charismatic leader to make this thing work because it’s not based on principles. It’s just based on a cult of personality,” VanMechelen added. 

Frustrated with Both Parties, is it Time to Change the Voting System of America?

However, not everyone blames Republicans and Trump for issues in the country as Democrats are also to the blame. Orson Rossetto, an engineer, thinks it’s the voting system that creates these problems. 

“The voting system f***** it up in a way that like all opposition parties have to be Democrats, including all of the like centrist parties,” Rossetto said. “So there’s not a lot of room to be anything better, but that’s the thing that should change really. Like voting, voting needs to change.”

There are two viable alternatives to change the way Americans vote. 

There is ranked choice voting (RCV), which is “allowing voters to rank candidates in order of preference,” according to FairVote, a nonpartisan organization working for better elections for all. 

There are two states that have RCV, which are Alaska and Maine, and four cities: New York City, San Francisco, Minneapolis, and Cambridge, according to Ranked Choice Voting Resource Center, a division of the Election Administration Resource Center, a nonpartisan and nonprofit organization.  

The other viable choice is getting rid of the Electoral College and replacing it with the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact (NPVIC), which is when a state looks at who won the popular vote nationwide and assigns their Electoral College votes to that candidate. 

This requires at least 270 Electoral College votes, the majority, to be operational. As of 2024, 17 states plus D.C. have joined the compact for a total of 209 electoral votes only needing 61 more, according to GovFacts. 

The most recent upset with the Electoral College was the 2016 election when Trump won his first election against former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, despite her winning the popular vote by almost 2.9 million votes, according to GovFacts, a company that promotes civic engagement, strengthens democratic participation and enhances public understanding. 

Protester Esther Johannsdatter is protesting for peace and justice, which was driven by systemic corruption, harm inflicted on both humans and the environment, describing her activism as a “calling.” She thinks both the Democrats are to blame since they have mostly been interested in fundraising and catering to their own people rather than pursuing good. 

“I’m not saying that they’re as bad as anything that has happened, but they certainly blocked popular politicians like Bernie Sanders who might have actually carried an actual defeat of Trump,” said Johannsdatter, referring to the 2016 presidential election that Sanders ran for but the Democratic National Convention leadership who chose Clinton instead. 

Johannsdatter thinks Trump should be impeached. 

“The fact that the courts and the Congress are enabling this insane destruction,” Johannsdatter said. “Who can predict whether they would actually do what they ought to do or not?”

Three popular ideas Sanders campaigned on were universal healthcare, which is a state-administrated healthcare system that would eliminate private insurance, income equality, such as raising the federal minimum wage to $15 an hour, and education by implementing tuition-free public colleges, universities and universal preschool.  

In addition, Johannsdatter thinks that ICE does not reflect American values since they broke laws, committed violence on lawful residents and American citizens. 

“[E]verybody has a right to a life and due process and to be free from harm and aggression by armed, violent people,” Johannsdatter said.

A Divide Among Americans

When it comes to the American people, there is a big divide when it comes to political views, wealth disparities and other issues. 

Protester Twu thinks it is because of President Trump`s approval ratings, which are really low as two-thirds of the country think he`s not doing things the right way. Polling from Mar. 20 to 23 by Reuters/Ipsos  shows that his approval ratings were 36% while there were 62% of respondents disapproving of him. 

“At this point, the vast majority of the country disapproves of what the President is doing,” Twu said. “But there still seems to be a small number that are still on the President’s side.”

Protester Barbara Henninger said that white supremacy had caused a divide in the country as white people have noticed that there are more non-white people living in towns and cities. 

“They’re [Caucasians] afraid that the people that they abused all these years are going to turn around and do the same thing to them,” Henninger said. “So it’s like an existential crisis.”

Protester Capone said that the wealth gap is massive since the wealthy have more money that they don`t need with a less likely chance to spend. 

“We need to tax the wealthy and create a more fair system,” said Capone. 

A dance party at the Downtown Berkeley BART station on Mar. 28 (Photo by Paul Singh)

About around 1 p.m. about 1,000 to 2,000 protesters gathered around UC Berkeley at the Martin Luther King Jr. Student Union and marched all the way to MLK Plaza. Before the march began, there was a drum performance where protesters gathered around and danced.

The feeling was serious and fun at the same time. There was a dance at the Downtown Berkeley BART Station that started at 1-3 p.m. to conclude the event.