Day in photos: The “No Kings” rally in San Francisco Saturday was a raucous, celebratory and creative sign-making romp, with a righteous edge
by Jason Winshell and Michael Stoll October 20, 2025 (sfpublicpress.org)
Tens of thousands of people marched in San Francisco Saturday for the second national “No Kings” protest, making it one of the largest — and most artistic — in recent years to focus collective scorn on the Trump Administration.
The scene blended activism and spectacle.
Marchers carried signs reading “Hands Off Our Democracy,” “No Troops in Our Streets,” “Vaccines Save Lives” and in a South Park reference, “Trump Is F—ing Satan.” Someone inflated a cartoonish crown labeled “King Me Not.” At the Civic Center stage, folk icon Joan Baez led the crowd in singing “Gracias a la Vida,” while Angela Davis roused the crowd to political engagement.
Youth in tie-dye marched alongside union contingents from National Nurses United, bearing placards: “Democracy Is Not for Sale.” Several sign featured images of Donald Trump with Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell to underscore the public groundswell for accountability.
The demonstration began at the Embarcadero around 2 p.m., proceeding down Market Street and winding up at a soundstage set up outside City Hall.
It was San Francisco at its most righteous and lighthearted: Costumed (and some naked) marchers, dogs in strollers, cardboard crowns and inflatable dinosaurs. A handful of city police officers sat near side streets, looking down at their phones while scrolling newsfeeds about the rally they were supposedly monitoring. The crowd, organizers say, remained peaceful.
But the protest also had a sharper edge: Earlier in the week, President Donald Trump reaffirmed his intention to deploy federal troops or the National Guard to San Francisco, asserting he had “unquestioned power” to do so under the Insurrection Act. City and state officials scoffed: California Attorney General Rob Bonta warned the move would be unlawful without an actual insurrection, and San Francisco Mayor Daniel Lurie said guard troops would not solve the city’s drug- and homelessness-related problems.
The “No Kings” movement is drawing big numbers and bigger political stakes. Organizers said the rally drew between 101,000 and 144,000 people, noting that was the count they had submitted to the Crowd Counting Consortium at Harvard. It was one of thousands of coordinated gatherings across the country.
According to data journalist G. Elliott Morris and the independent newsroom The Xylom, national turnout is estimated at about 5 million, with an upper bound near 6.5 million — making this one of the largest single-day protest events in U.S. history.
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San Francisco’s protest melded serious political organizing (many trying to raise the public profile of state Proposition 50, the voting district map reform to counteract Texas Republicans’ mid-cycle redistricting) with local culture (clown outfits, drum circles, irreverent signs with X-rated images), echoing the city’s history of spirited dissent. Despite talk of authoritarian putsches and troop deployments, the actual enforcement presence on the streets was minimal, belying the federal rhetoric.
Photos by Jason Winshell / San Francisco Public Press
Below: The crowd assembles for a march down Market Street. Credit: Dan Dunn Aerial Photography for Indivisible SF.
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Jason Winshell
Jason Winshell is a photojournalist and investigative reporter. The current focus of his reporting is AI and technology policy. His prior four-decade career as software engineer informs his reporting. In 2010, his photography was nominated by the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art’s SECA award, which recognizes the work of emerging artists in the Bay Area. His photo essay book, “Street,” documents every day life in San Francisco through 45 color photographs shot on the city’s streets.More by Jason Winshell
Michael Stoll
Michael Stoll is senior editor and co-founder of the San Francisco Public Press. Formerly executive director, he has also been a reporter and freelance writer for local and national outlets, including the San Francisco Examiner and the Philadelphia Inquirer. He has taught journalism at two Bay Area universities, and researched media ethics at Stanford.More by Michael Stoll
