No Kings Rally in Newark Protests Trump Policies

Lawrence Hamm brought several hundred protesters to the base of the Lincoln Statue in Newark Saturday afternoon, leading a coalition of more than 40 organizations in what organizers called the No Kings Rally.

Hamm, chairman of the People’s Organization for Progress, laid out the gathering’s purpose plainly. “To protest the racist, fascist, and unjust policies at home and abroad of President Trump, his administration, the Republican controlled Congress, and the ultra conservative U.S. Supreme Court,” he told the crowd.

The rally, co-sponsored by POP and the Martin Luther King People’s Convention for Justice and Resistance Planning Committee, drew speakers including Newark Mayor Ras Baraka, Amol Sinha of the American Civil Liberties Union of New Jersey, Deborah Smith-Gregory of the Newark NAACP, and Charles Hall of Local 108 Retail Wholesale Department Store Union.

Hamm read a list of demands that stretched from federal immigration policy to the courts. “We are marching against Trump’s attempts to become a dictator, his criminality, his administration’s flagrant violations of the law and the constitution, his blatant, breathtaking and boundless corruption, and his efforts to repress and crush dissent,” he said.

The group’s demands included an immediate end to what Hamm called an illegal war in Iran, abolishing ICE, releasing the Epstein files, removing federal troops and National Guard from cities, impeaching Trump and members of his administration, and removing Supreme Court Justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito from the bench. The coalition also called for an end to Trump’s tariffs, citing rising costs for working families, and pushed for a higher federal minimum wage.

Hamm also directed pointed criticism at the White House’s posture toward the 2026 midterm elections, calling on Trump to stop interfering with the electoral process.

The endorsing organizations numbered at least 42 and cut across labor, civil rights, faith, and civic sectors. Major labor unions signed on, including the New Jersey Education Association, 32BJ SEIU, the Painters Union IUPAT DC21, District 1199J/AFSCME, and the Union of Rutgers Administrators. The Newark NAACP and New Brunswick Area Branch NAACP both backed the march, along with the New Jersey Institute for Social Justice, the ACLU of New Jersey, and New Jersey Communities for Accountable Policing.

Grassroots and community groups rounded out the list, including Make The Road New Jersey, Our Revolution New Jersey, Veterans For Peace Chapter 021, New Jersey Peace Action, Muslim League of Voters of New Jersey, Refuse Fascism NJ Chapter, Women Who Never Give Up Inc., and dozens of local Democratic clubs and civic associations from across the state.

The geographic reach of the endorsers told part of the story. Groups from Teaneck, Leonia, Piscataway, Paterson, Cherry Hill, Merchantville, and South Jersey all put their names on the march, suggesting the coalition’s organizing stretched well beyond Essex County.

The rally drew on a tradition POP has maintained in Newark for decades. Hamm has organized protests in the city going back to the 1980s, and he has consistently used the Lincoln Statue plaza as a focal point for demonstrations on federal policy. Mayor Baraka’s presence gave the event a notable institutional stamp, with City Hall effectively standing shoulder to shoulder with activist organizations pushing positions well to the left of the current congressional mainstream.

Newark has been a flashpoint in the ongoing tensions over immigration enforcement, with the city operating under a sanctuary policy that puts it in direct conflict with the Trump administration’s deportation priorities. That friction has deepened the local appetite for exactly this kind of visible pushback.

The rally comes as New Jersey’s political class is already beginning to orient toward November’s midterms. Candidates up and down the ballot are watching how progressive energy in cities like Newark translates into turnout. For the labor unions and advocacy groups that signed onto Saturday’s march, the message was that they intend to stay loud between now and Election Day.

Hamm made clear POP is not finished. The coalition signaled further actions are being planned as the midterm campaign season builds.