Thousands of No Kings protests against President Donald Trump’s policies were held across the country Saturday, including several in the Rochester region.
About 100 people lined the sidewalk next to Home Depot in Gates on Buffalo Road. Matt McNulty of Rochester, who attended with friends, commented on the rally while women sang and played tambourines in the background.
“ I see a lot of people with similar energy that are just not willing to let go of their country,” he said.
McNulty, who said he jousts with Trump's supporters on social media, said the president should be impeached and removed from office.
But he also said our nation needs bigger change than that.
"The Democrats are ineffective, and the Republicans are lawless,” McNulty said. “We need to get the right kind of people back in Congress who are willing to talk to each other and find a way that works for everyone.”
At another rally in southeast Rochester, just about every parking spot between Mount Hope Avenue and South Clinton Avenue, from the Ford Street Bridge to Genesee Gateway Park, was filled as hundreds packed the park along the Genesee River.
Everyone had a sign, flag, or both. Across the fence, lining the park tennis court was a massive sign that said: “Everything was an Epstein Distraction.”
Several people were dressed as chickens, representing a popular meme of “TACO Trump,” aka “Trump Always Chickens Out.” Rochester performance artists Tory Gregory and Janet Lipp dressed up as Trump and Planet Earth.
Gregory, as Trump, hit Lipp's Earth with a plastic baseball bat.
“ Trump is beating the world,” Gregory said. “He's hurting it. I didn't vote for him. I don't want this to be happening at all.
Neither did Martha Schickler. The former fifth-grade teacher attended the same rally with friends. Written on their signs: "Defend the Constitution," and "No sign is big enough to list all the reasons I'm here."
Schickler held back tears as she explained why she protests: " It's incredibly distressing that every single day we have some new thing to be righteously outraged about."
She said that billionaires are in charge, checks and balances are failing, and ordinary people aren't being heard.
A White House spokesperson dismissed the nationwide protests, telling NPR that they're "Trump Derangement Therapy Sessions."
