Saturday, Oct. 18 was the second No Kings rally of the year, protesting President Trump and his policies. An estimated seven million people participated in over 2,500 rallies across the globe. In Milwaukee, thousands packed Milwaukee’s Cathedral Square Park, including Tequila Matthew.

“We should not have to worry about walking down our streets as U.S. citizens,” Matthew says. “You should not have to be scared to take your kids to school. You should not be scared to go to church. That’s not what this country was built on.”

Local organizers estimated more than 15,000 people came out in Milwaukee. The crowd included families, veterans, people supporting abortion access, LGBTQ+ rights and immigrant safety.

“We are more powerful in numbers,” says Milwaukee’s Daisey Velazquez. “What the government is doing currently is not OK. I’m a child of immigrants. And stuff that’s happening right now with our immigration is not OK.”

Velazquez is an MPS teacher who has family in Chicago. On the block where her family lives, there have been ICE and DHS raids. While Velazquez says her family members weren’t stopped, the legalized racial profiling has been horrific.

Considering how urgent the danger is for her family, she was skeptical about the No Kings rally before coming out.

“Sometimes a protest just feels like empty words and being very honest,” she says. “However, I do think that it lets the country see, the government see that their actions are not going unnoticed. Seeing their state sanctioned violence is not going unnoticed. Like we’re here and we’re standing up for what we believe in because they are hurting people directly.”

Organizers of the Milwaukee event started the day with an Org Fair, or a chance for people to get familiar with organizations doing work in the area that opposes Trump and his policies. It also invited local leaders to speak at the event.

“I think it’s important to make sure that we’re resisting at every opportunity,” says Angela Lang, executive director of BLOC, Black Leaders Organizing for Communities. “And folks are eager to come together to show that display of power. And so I was really excited to ask to be here today.”

In her speech, Lang urged people to think nationally and act locally, and consider how some of these issues like surveillance or police militarization are already affecting people in Milwaukee.

“I joke around and say everyone has a role in the movement, whether you’re my therapist or you’re the yoga instructor helping us all breathe through it,” says Lang. “So I really always want to see protests like this inspire folks to take more action, whether it’s facial recognition technology or it’s the city budget and how we’re allocating and investing in our communities. All of this is a way for us to get involved.”

President Trump denied claims of being a king but later posted multiple AI-generated videos mocking the event. Meanwhile, the No Kings organizers have a public virtual event scheduled for Tuesday, Oct. 21 night.