Thousands Rally Across Maryland in Nationwide No Kings Protests

Gary Waugh, 71, carried his father's folded flag into Patterson Park on a hot, smoggy Saturday afternoon, standing among more than 1,000 people who had gathered to say the same thing: No Kings.

Waugh brought the 13-folded flag, still in its frame, because it belonged to William, his father and a World War II veteran who he said would have been "disgusted" by the Trump administration. "I figured he would have wanted to come down and see what we were doing today," Waugh said.

The Patterson Park rally was one of more than 40 events held across Maryland on June 15 as part of a nationwide wave of anti-Trump demonstrations. More than 2,000 No Kings rallies took place across the United States that day, timed to coincide with a military parade presided over by President Trump. Scenes of protest spread to Hunt Valley Towne Centre in Baltimore County as well, with Maryland events spanning city halls, parks, and highway overpasses.

Signs, chants, and speeches in Baltimore targeted several Trump administration policies. For multiple attendees, ICE enforcement activity in Maryland and elsewhere was the most pressing concern on the ground.

An unnamed woman in costume put the rally's central argument in personal terms. "I love our people, and I want America to be a place that is welcoming, which is something that we literally wrote our Declaration [of Independence] about," she said. "I support our military. I do not support the hatred that we have become." On the flag she carried: "I don't love what our flag has come to represent... I feel like we're kind of trying to reclaim it.