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Warsaw saw people lined up along Detroit and Center streets Saturday as part of the “No Kings” protests that were held nationwide.
The theme “No Kings” was chosen by organizers to decry President Donald Trump’s military display on his birthday, mass immigration arrests and other policies.
The “No Kings” national organizers said in a press release that as of 2 p.m. Eastern Saturday, protesters had rallied at more than 1,500 sites across the country, with 600 more events scheduled through the rest of the day.
Warsaw was one of the locations that hosted a protest with people lining the streets of Detroit, Center and some on Main.
Wendy S., who refused to provide her last name, said she was protesting Saturday against the entire Trump administration, citing cruelty and inhumanity. She cited “specifically what is going with ICE right now,” protections of women’s rights, children’s benefits being taken away from school systems, the abolishment of the Environmental Protection Agency and stripping of funds from the United States Agency for International Development.
“There’s too much for us to do as citizens who believe in the rights and protections of America that it would be wrong for me not to, for myself and for my children,” she said.
Wendy said it was the first protest she’s attended. She hopes rallies like Saturday’s “breaks that barrier of people recognizing what’s going on in our country and that they start paying attention so things change. I think we’ve got a lot of work to do until 2026, so I’m hoping we can keep chipping away at that wall.”
Tim Boone said he is a disabled Vietnam veteran and doesn’t like what the Republican Party is doing to the country and turning it into a fascist operation, citing immigration, “masked thugs going out and making arrests with no legal authority and no due process for people who are arrested whether they’re senators or somebody who has other than white skin whatever the case may be.”
“I want people to wake up and realize that they’re taking away everything that these people are voting for,” he said.
Boone said 80,000 people have already been fired out of the Veterans Administration, “that doesn’t help.” Half of the time, the computer systems are down because there isn’t staff to keep the system up and running.
“And a lot of veterans are getting shafted in this process and they don’t care,” Boone said.
He hopes people wake up and realize everybody needs to be Americans together. He said the rally wasn’t for one party as if “you look around, you may find that there’s some people out here that are Republicans, but they’re a little fed up with the craziness and illegality of the things that are going on.”
Katelyn, who also refused to provide her last name, said she was protesting Saturday because she believed $45 million could do a lot of good other than holding a parade, as well as “when one branch of the government tries to usurp the other branches of the government, we no longer have the republic we were founded on.”
Saturday was her first protest and she decided to attend the protest because, “I feel we’re in a really pivotal turning point in our government and in the country we live in.”
She hopes people realize what Trump is saying about protestors hating the country isn’t true.
Jeff Wright said there’s a lot of issues, but his main issue is Trump hasn’t been held accountable for anything he’s done. He hopes Republicans in a position of power will wake up and resist what Trump is trying to do. He said every person at the protests are votes.
Dodeo Wright said some politicians aren’t holding town halls any more because they get yelled at and “they’re afraid. They don’t have answers and they know they’re wrong.”
Dodeo said Tump has done so many things that are criminal, unethical at least.
“Due process means something. Habeas corpus means something. (Secretary of Homeland Security) Kristi Noem doesn’t know what it means, but it does mean that you get due process as a citizen of this country or if you’re in the process of becoming a citizen and you’re in the works, you have a right to be here. You don’t get to get swept up in these DEI raids and taken to El Salvador just because (Trump) wants numbers to boost his base.”
Dodeo hopes people see through the protests that they’re not alone.
“There’s a lot of people who are upset about what’s going on,” he said. He added if the “Big Beautiful Bill” passes, it’ll give Trump the right of a king and “he hasn’t been accountable for anything yet.”
Ryan Mear said, “We don’t want a king. We don’t need someone who has absolute rule.”
Mear said he’s from Plymouth and went to a protest there for the “Hands Off!” protests when “Elon Musk starting screwing everything up with DOGE.” There wasn’t a protest scheduled in Plymouth for Saturday, so he decided to attend Warsaw’s.
“We’ve already seen, but when we get together in numbers, Taco Trump will change his mind because he’s afraid of actual repercussions. He’s all ready changed his stance on immigration ... and so all we can do is keep gathering as peaceful as we can and let people know this is what we want,” he said.
