Tens of thousands of people gathered in Portland on Saturday as part of the “No Kings” demonstrations taking place across the country to protest President Donald Trump’s aggressive exercise of executive power.
Protests took place in more than 50 cities across Oregon. The one that started at Portland’s Tom McCall Waterfront Park was the largest, and Portland officials monitoring it said it drew at least 40,000 people.
It began with speeches and continued with a roughly 2-mile march through downtown and the Hawthorne and Morrison bridges.
Thousands of people, including people playing drums and other percussion instruments, started at the Oregon Convention Center and crossed the lower deck of the steel bridge before noon to the waterfront gathering, while another group crossed the Hawthorne Bridge and a third came from Pioneer Courthouse Square.
Portland police warned around 11:20 a.m. that traffic would be disrupted in all of these areas “for a while.”
Around 12:20 p.m., police announced the closure of the Morrison Bridge. Around 1 p.m., they closed the Hawthorne Bridge.
Several thousand people, many in inflatable costumes, were gathered at Tom McCall Waterfront Park at midday.
Several Portland city councilors took the stage before the march to condemn the federal government’s actions and encourage Portlanders to continue peacefully protesting. “We need defenders like you to play the outside game,” said Angelita Morillo, whose district includes Southeast Portland. “What we are seeing right now is unprecedented in terms of horrors, but it is also unprecedented in terms of unity.”
Dressed in matching banana suits, members of the Unpresidented Brass Band — one of whose musicians was arrested Sunday by federal agents outside the ICE building in South Portland — were among the protesters on the waterfront. The band’s director, Miles Thompson, 43, said they were meeting with the Portland Frog Brigade.
“We’ll be frogs and bananas, and I’m over the moon. It’s awesome,” he said.
Mary Bycroft, who says she has lived in Portland for more than 40 years, attended Saturday’s protest because of what she described as a rights violation by the federal government.
“Honestly, I am shocked and frightened by what is happening to our country,” she said of Trump’s efforts to gut federal programs and pursue legal action against his political enemies.
Bycroft said the White House’s recent efforts to deploy federal troops to Portland relied on a false narrative about the city, which she described as “incredible, uplifting and beautiful.”
“Honestly, it’s ridiculous that anyone would believe the lies that it’s hell,” Bycroft said. “It’s a wonderful city. I love living here.”
Sisters Bérénice and Perla Arias, aged 17 and 14, were dressed as SpongeBob and Patrick Star. “We’re protesting for the future. We’re the next generation. We got the inflatables to keep Portland weird and make Trump look like a fool,” Berenice Arias said.
The crowd began marching down Southwest Pine Street around 1 p.m.
A group of about a dozen counterprotesters at the front of the march chanting various pro-Trump slogans was met by a crowd chanting “Don’t take the bait” in response.
River Montijo of the Portland Raging Grannies, who has participated in many recent protests, said she was pleased with the turnout but worried that some people were staying home because of negative national media coverage of Portland. “Portland knows how to do these things with love and joy. We’re not going to let them lead us into hate,” she said.
Drag queen Saint Syndrome, also known as the Piano Queen, performed on the seafront before joining the march by getting into a convertible dressed as Lady Justice. “I hope to give Portland a lot of exposure. I know all eyes are on us and I would like the world to see that we are having fun and happily standing up to authoritarianism,” she said.
By about 2:15 p.m., the front of the march was crossing the Morrison Bridge and beginning to return to the water’s edge, but many people will remain on the Hawthorne Bridge en route to the east side of the road.
Around 3:30 p.m., police said the end of the march had reached Southeast Grand Avenue and was reopening the Hawthorne Bridge to traffic.
The protests are taking place against the backdrop of a government shutdown now in its 18th day that has not only shuttered federal programs and services but also tested the balance of power as an aggressive executive takes on Congress and the courts in a way that organizers say constitutes a slide toward American authoritarianism.
Protesters gathered in places like Times Square in New York, the historic Boston Commons, Grant Park in Chicago, Washington, DC, and hundreds of small public spaces. Some of them showed up in inflatable frog costumes, which became a sign of resistance in Portland.
“They say they consider me a king. I’m not a king,” Trump said in a Fox News interview that aired Friday morning, before leaving for a $1 million MAGA Inc. super PAC fundraiser at Mar-a-Lago on Friday. Demonstrations were expected next Saturday.
Oregonian/OregonLive reporter Julia Silverman and the Associated Press contributed to this report.
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