Were No Kings Protests the Largest US Protest Ever?

LOS ANGELES, June 19, 2025

“No Kings” Protests: A Historic turnout?

The recent “No Kings” protests may have been some of the largest single-day demonstrations in U.S. history, sparking debate over their impact.

• Estimates suggest the “No Kings” protests,held on June 14,2025,drew between 4 and 6 million participants.
• This potential turnout could exceed the record set by the 2017 Women’s March.
• The protests coincided with Donald Trump‘s birthday and a military parade.

Were the “No Kings” protests among the largest ever in the United States? A recent estimate suggests that the demonstrations held on June 14, 2025, may have drawn a crowd of between 4 and 6 million people. This turnout could place the “No Kings” protests in the upper echelon of single-day events in American history.

A No Kings rally in Los Angeles on on 14 June 2025. Photograph: Étienne Laurent/AFP/Getty images

Data journalist G.Elliott Morris, who runs the substack Strength in Numbers, calculated the turnout between 4 million and 6 million, which would be 1.2-1.8% of the U.S. population. This could surpass the 2017 Women’s March, which drew between 3.3 million and 5.6 million participants.

To estimate nationwide numbers, Morris and his team gathered data from various locations, using tallies from local newspapers where available. When those weren’t accessible, they relied on estimates from organizers and attendees. He then approximated the attendance in unreported protests by using the median attendance from locations where data existed. Morris emphasized that his count remains unofficial.

Ezra Levin, the co-founder of Indivisible, the progressive non-profit that organized the event, estimated 5 million people globally took to the streets.

If 1.8% of the US adult population showed up to protest, it sends a signal to other people that you can stand up, too

Omar Wasow

Not everyone agrees on the scale. Jeremy Pressman of the Crowd Counting Consortium told USA Today that an official tally would take time. Steven Cheung, Trump’s director of communications, called the protests “a complete and utter failure with miniscule attendance.” The protests occurred on Donald Trump’s birthday, which coincided with a military parade.

Omar Wasow, an assistant professor at UC Berkeley, stated the demonstration was “without question, among the largest single-day protests in history.”

Map of the USA, showing blue dots of all locations protests took place

Historical Context and Protest Dynamics

Wasow likened protest movements to a standing ovation in a theater. “We see a cascade effect: if one person stands after the curtain drops, then more follow,” he said.”If 1.8% of the US adult population showed up to protest on Saturday, those are the people who stood up to clap first. It sends a signal to all these other people that you can stand up, too.”

The 1963 March on Washington, where Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. delivered his “I have a dream” speech,drew up to half a million people.The first Earth Day protests in 1970, saw 20 million participants, sparking the Environmental Protection Act. “At the time this was about 10% of the US population, possibly the largest we will ever realistically see – unless the political environment deteriorates significantly, prompting more backlash,” Morris said.

Martin Luther King Jr on 28 August 1963 in Washington DC. Photograph: AFP/Getty Images

The Hands Across America fundraiser in 1986 involved an estimated 5 million people forming a human chain to fight hunger and homelessness. More than a million people participated in the 2006 “A Day Without Immigrants” boycott against stricter immigration laws. Protests against the murder of George Floyd in the summer of 2020 saw between 15 and 26 million participants during June, though daily numbers varied.

Gloria J Browne-Marshall, a professor at John Jay College of Criminal Justice, noted the difficulty in comparing crowd sizes across various protests, notably those spanning multiple days and locations. “Ther are different processes that have been used over the years, from eyeballing things to actually counting the number of people per square mile,” she said.

The 3.5% Rule and Future demonstrations

The “No Kings” protests spurred discussion around the 3.5% rule, a concept put forth by political scientists Erica Chenoweth and Maria Stephan. Their study of 323 revolutionary campaigns from 1900 to 2006 found that nonviolent movements with at least 3.5% support often succeed in triggering change. The massive turnout at No Kings could be seen as a notable turning point.

Though, Morris noted caveats to this rule, originally published in their 2011 book, “Why Civil Resistance Works.” “The 3.5% rule is descriptive, not prescriptive – and has been revised significantly as being originally published to allow for exceptions,” Morris wrote. “Chenoweth now is clear that hitting 3.5% does not guarantee success,especially in political regimes where change is harder,and that movements can accomplish their goals with much smaller mobilization,through things like media coverage and alliances with elites.”

Organizers and attendees are planning another round of protests on July 17, the fifth anniversary of the death of John Lewis, the civil rights leader and congressman.

Ezra Levin acknowledged the limitations of protests. “We’re not going to win if a lot of people show up at a protest one day,” he said.”We need people actually taking democracy seriously, and that’s not going to be done through a top-down action. It has to be done from the bottom-up.When pro-democracy movements succeed, it’s because of a broad-based, ideological, diverse, geographically-dispersed, grassroots organizing – not just mobilizing.”

This article was amended on 19 June 2025 to clarify that G Elliott Morris used the median, not the medium, to approximate nationwide protest numbers.

And 26 million participants during June, though daily numbers varied.

Gloria J Browne-Marshall, a professor at John Jay College of Criminal justice, noted the difficulty in comparing crowd sizes across various protests, notably those spanning multiple days and locations. “Ther are different processes that have been used over the years, from eyeballing things to actually counting the number of peopel per square mile,” she said.

The 3.5% Rule and Future demonstrations

The “No Kings” protests spurred discussion around the 3.5% rule, a concept put forth by political scientists Erica Chenoweth and maria Stephan. Their study of 323 revolutionary campaigns from 1900 to 2006 found that nonviolent movements with at least 3.5% support often succeed in triggering change.The massive turnout at No Kings could be seen as a notable turning point.

though, Morris noted caveats to this rule, originally published in their 2011 book, “why Civil Resistance Works.” “The 3.5% rule is descriptive, not prescriptive – and has been revised considerably as being originally published to allow for exceptions,” Morris wrote. “Chenoweth now is clear that hitting 3.5% does not guarantee success,especially in political regimes where change is harder,and that movements can accomplish their goals with much smaller mobilization,through things like media coverage and alliances with elites.”

Organizers and attendees are planning another round of protests on July 17, the fifth anniversary of the death of john Lewis, the civil rights leader and congressman.

Ezra Levin acknowledged the limitations of protests. “We’re not going to win if a lot of people show up at a protest one day,” he said.”We need people actually taking democracy seriously, and that’s not going to be done through a top-down action. It has to be done from the bottom-up.When pro-democracy movements succeed, it’s because of a broad-based, ideological, diverse, geographically-dispersed, grassroots organizing – not just mobilizing.”

This article was amended on 19 June 2025 to clarify that G Elliott Morris used the median, not the medium, to approximate nationwide protest numbers.