Mass "No Kings" protests against the Trump administration were held across the United States on Saturday, with dozens of protests in cities in Michigan.
In Ann Arbor, a more than two-mile long stretch of thousands of residents lined Stadium Boulevard — the main road that football fans use to get to the game.
Hundreds of fans in vehicles honked their horns to show solidarity with the chanting, sign-wielding, and occasional costume-wearing protesters, as cars slowly made their way to a Wolverines home game against the Washington Huskies.
Sarah Snyder said she attended the protest because "it's a dire time for our nation."
She said the Trump administration has weaponized the justice system against perceived enemies, caused devastating harm to public health with mass firings of federal health care workers and researchers, and swept up citizens along with immigrants in sometimes violent ICE immigration raids.
"I am protesting this administration and the danger it is inflicting upon people here and around the world. And we need to stand up and stand together," she said.
Ken Benetau said all that and more is on his list. He said he thinks Republicans' denouncements of the peaceful protests is an attempted distraction from their failure to release the Epstein files.
"And the fact that they're using our military against the people of the United States," he added, "that just sucks."
Using the military as a tool to try to intimidate civilians is the most upsetting of many Trump actions he disagrees with, said Vietnam veteran Matthew Bertoni.
"It makes me sick to my stomach."
Counter protesters in Bay City
About a hundred No Kings rallies took place across the state of Michigan on Saturday.
Most went off with little opposition.
But in Bay City, about a dozen counter protesters tried to disrupt about 1,200 No Kings demonstrators in the city’s riverfront park.
The counter protesters voiced support for President Donald Trump and against many of the issues those at the No Kings rally support.
While the two sides had multiple verbal exchanges, there were no significant physical confrontations.
Jayden Scott is with the group, the American Crusade. He accuses the No Kings movement of promoting division.
“Not one moment and not one action is going to heal the divide that’s going on in America,” said Scott of their counter protest, “This gave a lot of the people back home the visual of what it means to stand up against the tide.”
Kenzie Colton is with Bay City Resistance, one of the organizers of Saturday’s No Kings rally.
She admitted the counter protesters were a disruption, but the interactions were peaceful.
“Both groups were expressing themselves which we both have the right to do,” said Colton. “We definitely noticed them and that’s what we’re here for, to be noticed too.”
Colton said the effort now is to mobilize more Michiganders to oppose the Trump administration and support putting several proposed changes to Michigan’s state Constitution on the ballot.
Meanwhile, Republican leaders made baseless claims about the millions of people attending the events, saying they hate America, support Hamas, are a "terrorist" wing of the Democratic party, and were paid by billionaire George Soros.
