<figure class="wp-caption aligncenter" id="attachment_344935" style="width: 830px;"><figcaption class="wp-caption-text" id="caption-attachment-344935">More than 1,500 people gathered at Overstreet Park for a No Kings protest in Juneau on Saturday, Oct. 18, 2025. (Photo by Clarise Larson/KTOO)</figcaption></figure>

More than 1,500 Juneauites joined millions of people nationwide on Saturday to partake in the second iteration of the No Kings protest against President Donald Trump’s policies and actions. 

The protest was lively, full of songs, chants and impassioned speeches even under a cloudy October sky as rain drizzled down over Juneau’s Overstreet Park.

Saturday’s gathering was the latest wave of the nationwide No Kings protest. It’s estimated more than 2,500 events were held across the country in every state this past weekend – including more than a dozen Alaska communities. 

The protests were held to push back against the Trump administration and the president’s behavior since returning to office. Demonstrators feel Trump’s actions resemble that of a monarch. 

<figure class="wp-caption aligncenter" id="attachment_344933" style="width: 830px;"><figcaption class="wp-caption-text" id="caption-attachment-344933">More than 1,500 people gathered at Overstreet Park for a No Kings protest in Juneau on Saturday, Oct. 18, 2025. (Photo by Clarise Larson/KTOO)</figcaption></figure>

“These protests are for them, these protests are for us,” said Gina Chalcroft with Juneau Indivisible helped organize the event.

 Speaking to the crowd, she stressed the need for peaceful and non violent community action against what she called an attack on democracy.

“These protests are about presence and about showing up, and so they will know that we still stand together, no matter how hard they try to divide us,” she said. 

Chalcroft and other speakers at the event criticized the White House and U.S. Justice Department. They decried immigration detentions being carried out by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents, the slashing of the federal workforce and Medicaid and the current government shutdown’s impact on health care coverage.

A handful of people wore costumes, like Teresa Bowen who was dressed like a frog. It’s a new symbol of resistance that started in Portland during recent immigration raids. Bowen said she joined the protest against the increasing polarization of the country. 

“We have maybe different ideals, we might have different beliefs, but at the end of the day, that’s part of democracy,” she said. “Having a melting pot of beliefs and making the country better because of those beliefs.”

<figure class="wp-caption aligncenter" id="attachment_344934" style="width: 830px;"><figcaption class="wp-caption-text" id="caption-attachment-344934">Silas Benson, 3, smiles at Overstreet Park for a No Kings protest in Juneau on Saturday, Oct. 18, 2025. (Photo by Clarise Larson/KTOO)</figcaption></figure>

Ben Durrant similarly donned an inflatable Husky dog suit to match his dog that sat in the crowd nearby chewing a toy hotdog. 

“I just love my husky, and I dressed up like a husky because I figured we’d team up today and come out and protest, he said. 

He said he joined the rally to show support of his children and their future.  

“I’ve got three kids, one’s transgender and one is gay and and the removal of their rights and and total disregard for who they are by like the current administration is just something I can’t sit down and let happen,” he said. 

<figure class="wp-caption aligncenter" id="attachment_344938" style="width: 830px;"><figcaption class="wp-caption-text" id="caption-attachment-344938">Ben Durrant smile with his husky at Overstreet Park for a No Kings protest in Juneau on Saturday, Oct. 18, 2025. (Photo by Clarise Larson/KTOO)</figcaption></figure>

Demonstrators stayed in the rain for more than two hours, singing , listening and chanting with one another. President Trump called the protests “a joke” over the weekend and rejected the accusation that he is acting like a king.