From a man dressed in an inflatable squirrel costume shouting “Trump is nuts!” to a handmade sign that read “Proud anti-fascist,” organizers estimated more than 1,000 people marched and chanted through downtown Valparaiso Saturday for a “No Kings” protest.
The No Kings protest in Valparaiso was part of roughly 2,500 similar demonstrations against the Trump administration planned across the country and globe.
Participants, many of whom took part in a similar, smaller protest in June, said the larger crowd and higher energy could be attributed to the growing displeasure over the actions of President Donald Trump in the ensuing months, including an immigration crackdown, tariffs and climbing prices, and attacks on Trump’s perceived enemies.
“Increasing concerns about our democracy and what’s at stake transcend political affiliation, and I think we’re at a juncture I haven’t seen in my lifetime,” said Valparaiso attorney Don Evans, who attended the protest with his wife, Kathy.
He participated in the June No Kings protest in Michigan City but said Saturday’s event had more urgency.
“The undermining of key institutions of democracy has progressed and is very disturbing,” he said, noting the gutting of healthcare, the shutdown of the U.S. Agency for International Development’s assistance around the globe, and Trump’s use of the Attorney General’s Office against his perceived enemies.
Attempts by the Trump administration to equate demonstrations with terrorism, Evans said, are “particularly disturbing, and incongruent with our Constitution’s founding principles.”
The large crowd could be attributed to the growing number of people since June’s protest who oppose the Trump administration’s actions, Deb McLeod, one of the protest’s organizers, said.
“We have more Republicans, we have more veterans, we have more conservatives. We have more people who realize we have no due process,” she said. “We are so much stronger now than we were then.”
The protests in the Chicago area were expected to draw significant crowds as pushback against the president’s recent immigration crackdown in the Chicago area, “Operation Midway Blitz,” which includes Lake County in Indiana, and a bid to federalize National Guard troops.
Northwest Indiana has seen a surge of immigration arrests in recent weeks as part of that action, pushing the leaders of local communities, including Hammond, Gary and East Chicago, to publicly declare that immigration authorities are not welcome to use city property as staging areas.
Protesters in Valparaiso started in front of City Hall on Lincolnway with call and response chants of “Show me what democracy looks like” and “This is what democracy looks like.” Many people carried No Kings signs provided by organizers.
With a contingent of Valparaiso Police officers and Porter County Sheriff’s Department deputies on hand, the large crowd followed police instructions to cross streets only in the crosswalk when they had the light to do so.
The protesters headed east to the front of the Porter County Courthouse, where the bulk of the crowd congregated, and then looped around the courthouse square and back to City Hall.
Many passing drivers honked in support of the protest, generating cheers and whoops, though at least one driver shouted “Go, Trump!” and another waved Trump and Confederate flags from his pickup truck.
A handful of people also gathered in support of Trump, including Ted Coules, who wore a black T-shirt that said “Support ICE” and walked through the crowd, recording his interactions with protesters.
Coules, who grew up in Valparaiso, said he was not with a particular group and was not affiliated with another man wearing a black T-shirt with the message “Wokeness breeds weakness,” though they had similar microphone setups and appeared to be doing the same thing.
“I just wanted to come out here today and have a conversation and determine the veracity of their conclusions based on what’s going on in the world,” Coules said.
Inflatable costumes of all sorts, from dinosaurs to lobsters, also dotted the crowd. One woman, who lives in Valparaiso but declined to give her name, wore a Tyrannosaurus rex costume. Though she’s been to other protests, this was her first one as a dinosaur.
Protesters in Portland, Oregon, who have been sporting similar outfits, inspired her costume because the getups “make violence (against protesters) look ridiculous, and it is.”
She is concerned about the economy and tariffs, Trump’s ongoing executive orders, and the militarization of immigration authorities. “Our country was founded on immigration. This is a Gestapo tactic,” she said.
Even the Orville Redenbacher statue, sitting on a park bench in Central Park Plaza, seemed to take part, with a sign that said “Resisting kings since 1776” hanging off of his leg.
Alan Spaeth and his husband Eddie passed out yellow No Kings flags with rainbow markings. The two live in Chicago, where Alan owns a small business, and have a place in Beverly Shores but decided their presence would have more impact in Valparaiso than it would at Chicago’s No Kings protest.
“I grew up in rural Michigan and this is where people need to speak up,” Alan Spaeth said of smaller communities.
Pat DaVaney of Liberty Township said Saturday’s protest was the biggest rally in Valparaiso since she started attending them earlier this year.
“I think it’s everything he’s taking away from people,” she said of Trump. “He’s gone after the economy, he’s gone after immigrants. He’s gone rogue. Every day you think he’s reached his limit and he comes up with something else, and now it’s no vaccines for kids.”
alavalley@chicagotribune.com
