Hundreds of Natick residents and visitors turned out on the town common last month in protest. The gathering was a smaller and local manifestation of “No Kings,” a nationwide sentiment of opposition to the Trump administration and its policies.

 Under the drizzle of cloudy skies, umbrellas and raincoats, protesters brandished a multitude of signs, shouted out a slate of slogans. The masses gathered at the Natick Common’s north end, crowding sidewalks at the intersection corners of Routes 27 and 135.

The “No Kings” mantra and movement has been spurred by public sentiment that sees unprecedented overreach by the Trump administration.

To be fair, the White House itself had a hand in motivating the anti-monarchial movement.  A few months earlier, its official social media account reposted an AI-generated image of Mr. Trump donning a crown. “Long live the king,” echoed the President on the site “Truth Social.”

 Earlier, the same week of Saturday’s protests and demonstrations, President Trump mobilized National Guard troops and the U.S. Marines in response to largely peaceful protests in California. Those demonstrations had grown out of opposition to the White House’s haphazard and heavy-handed immigration enforcement tactics.        

“I think it’s very important that everybody show up and voice our opposition,” said Natick resident Cynthia Shapiro. She’d come to the town’s protest with her husband and daughter. Demonstrators crowded sidewalks, the throng stretching from the intersection on Route 135 past the Morse Institute Library.

“This is important,” Shapiro went on, a passing car beeping in support of the protest. Its horn repeated as steady and insistent as morse code. “This is not OK. We need a leader who brings us together and serves the people.”

Shapiro’s daughter Elena Crisp punctuated her mother’s sentiments with single-word statements. “Tryanny. Authoritarianism. Cruelty. ICE raids,” quipped Crisp, also a Natick resident.

“No kings! No crowns!” shouted a nearby protester, trying to jumpstart a group chant within the crowd.

Traversing two crosswalks brought one to the Natick Common, where the bulk of protesters were gathered. Varied tones of car horns could be heard at all points of the busy intersection, motorists pressing on steering wheels in support of protestors’ signs and sentiments.  

“There’s too many things to list,” said Natick resident Julie Gordon, taking shelter from the din and drizzle inside the roof and walls of Natick Common’s bus stop. She was in awe of the crowd size that, despite the weather, had turned out.

“We never thought this many people would show up,” said Gordon, who’d earlier attended a larger “No Kings” event in Boston. “And they’re still coming out for democracy.” She cited her support of First Amendment rights, science, and immigrants as reasons for attending the rally.

“I mean, you just name it.”

Joining us in the refuge of the bus stop, Erica Ball related some personal history to shine a light on her reasons for attending the event. Now 88, she was Natick’s first female member elected to the town’s Select Board in 1975.

Ball told of her luck in escaping the Holocaust as a child during World War II, when her family fled Austria in the late 1930s. She cited the presence of the U.S. Marines on American streets as cause for alarm and action.

“This is against every law we have in the Constitution,” said Ball.  “I need to be here,” she added, gesturing to her fellow rallygoers on the Natick Common. “This is my home.”