By Angeles Ponpa
PEORIA, Ill. (25 News) – Organizers say more than 8,000 people showed up Saturday afternoon for the third “No Kings” protest and rally on Peoria’s War Memorial Drive.
Across the country, large crowds attended rallies aimed against the Trump administration.
In Peoria, crowds gathered near Peoria Stadium to protest alongside family, friends and other community members.
Texan Chelsea Picton, who is visiting family in Tazewell County, attended Saturday’s rally. She told 25 News that one of her main motivations of being there was to protect her right to make decisions about her own body.
“I am a daughter. I like having bodily autonomy, and I want my nieces and my sister all to have bodily autonomy,” Picton said.
Organizers described the rally as a fight against Trump’s dictatorship.
“Our protest today is against those in Washington who wish to destroy our Constitution,” said Theresa Kuhlmann, leader with the Peoria 50501.
“We also object to the overreach of the executive branch of our federal government and the dysfunctional politicians on Capitol Hill,” she said.
A second-generation Peoria woman from Lebanon, Mery Tucker, who attended the protest says she still has distant family in Lebanon and that the wars in the Middle East hit close to home.
“I feel it’s a very unjust war,” Tucker said.
“I feel Lebanon is caught in the crossfires. Lebanon is an easy picking for the superpowers and for Israel, and I hate to see what has happened to the Palestinians in Gaza happen to Lebanon and it’s a very real threat to Lebanon,” she continued.
Other attendees cited concerns including the high cost of living, the war in Iran, and a government they are currently not proud to have represent them.
Educator Dianne Pointer, who has lived in Peoria for more than 50 years, said her focus is the war in Iran and the high cost of living, adding that many people need support right now.
“We’re really involved in our church food pantry and right now billions of dollars are going to a war that none of us want to be involved in,” Pointer said.
“Of course, we don’t agree with what they’re doing in Iran, but we should not be involved in this, putting lives at risk, and putting our country in risk financially and people at risk,” Pointer continued.
The White House and Republicans are dismissing the “No Kings” rallies as partisan protests.
White House spokesperson Abigail Jackson said the rallies were backed by “leftist funding networks” with little real public support.
The “only people who care about these Trump Derangement therapy sessions are the reporters who are paid to cover them”, Jackson said Thursday.
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