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Thousands Rally at ‘No Kings Day’ Protest in Pasadena

Part of thousands of nationwide demonstrations against what organizers call a "slide toward authoritarian rule"

By EDDIE RIVERA
Published on Sunday, October 19, 2025 | 5:38 am
 

Beneath a clear and hot October sky, several thousand people gathered Saturday on the steps of Pasadena City Hall for “No Kings Day,” one of more than 2,500 similar demonstrations across the United States to protest what organizers called a slide toward authoritarian rule.

The event, organized by Indivisible San Gabriel Valley, drew a diverse crowd—families with strollers, retirees in sunhats, and students waving homemade placards that read “No King but the People” and “Democracy Is Not a Spectator Sport,” along with a good-sized number of “F— Trump” signs.

The peaceful demonstration featured live music from the local band the NextDoors, and speeches from a roster of civic and political leaders, including Representative Judy Chu, State Senator Sasha Renée Pérez, Pasadena Mayor Victor Gordo, City Councilmember Rick Cole, and Sara Sadhwani, a Pomona College political science professor and former member of California’s Citizens Redistricting Commission.

“This is a continuation of what we as a country are doing to resist this authoritarian, fascist regime,” Chu told the crowd, urging participants to see the event as “practice—building our muscles of protest and resistance.”

She called for peaceful but determined civic action, saying, “Power does not give up without a fight. Our anger will motivate us, but it’s community that will keep us together.”

Organizers said the “No Kings” movement was designed to underscore democratic participation in the face of what they described as escalating threats to equality, healthcare, and voting rights.

Indivisible SGV’s Patrick Briggs, a local activist and emcee for the rally, opened by inviting attendees to look at one another and ask, “Why are you here today?” He answered his own question: “Because we love one another. We love our neighbors as ourselves. We are about community—and this is how Americans behave when they’re being good citizens.”

Standing before a sea of flags and hand-painted signs, Pasadena Mayor Victor Gordo shared his own story as an immigrant who arrived from Mexico at age four.

“I know what it’s like to struggle,” he said. “And I know what it’s like to watch your parents work every day so you can have an education.” Gordo compared the crowd’s mobilization to labor organizing: “Bad managers make the best organizers. Our country is being mismanaged today. So here we are—organizing.”

The day’s speakers invoked both patriotic and moral themes.

Reverend Dr. Dottie Escobedo-Frank, a Methodist bishop, offered a blessing for “peace, justice, and fierce resolve,” while warning of “the violence of a regime that snatches peaceful, hardworking people up without due process.”

State Senator Sasha Renée Pérez framed the protest as a defense of democracy against an “unprecedented transfer of wealth” and efforts to “rig this election.”

“The administration wants us to believe that we are powerless,” she said, “but we know that we have the power—millions of us.”

Sara Sadhwani, addressing the crowd late in the program, drew on her experience overseeing California’s redistricting process.

“No president is king,” she said. “We used a community-based approach to draw fair lines—but none of it matters if elections are being rigged elsewhere.” She urged the audience to support Proposition 50, a statewide measure she described as “temporary and extraordinary—an act to defend fair elections.”

Many protesters wore inflatable costumes or carried whimsical props—a nod, organizers said, to “joyful resistance.”

After speeches concluded, the crowd marched from City Hall and lined both sides of Colorado Boulevard from  Old Pasadena to Los Robles Avenue.

Anti-Trump chants echoed against storefronts as the vast majority if  passing drivers honked their horns in support.

For some, the demonstration symbolized a broader awakening.

“These protests aren’t just happening in big cities,” Chu noted. “They’re in small towns and even in Trump-leaning districts. This will be the largest protest day the U.S. has ever had.”

The City Hall rally closed with the singing “America the Beautiful,” led by councilmember Rick Cole, who emphasized that the protestors were there, because “We love America.”

The crowd sang, “and crown thy good, with brotherhood,” as an affirmation of what speakers called the day’s central message: resistance not out of anger, but out of love for the country itself.

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