Oct 19, 2025 By Garrett Neese 4 min read

Uniontown and Washington were among the communities across the country to stage “No Kings’ rallies Saturday.

George C. Marshall Memorial Plaza was the staging area for the rally in Uniontown, where protesters – some dressed in costume – gathered to share their views about the current administration.

The Democratic Women of Fayette County, which organized the event, estimated attendance at 400 people.

In Washington, signs lined both sides of Main Street in Washington — and at times the cars driving down it — during a heavily attended protest.

An estimated 800 people came out for the event in Washington, one of about 2,500 “No Kings” rallies held across the country to push back against what organizers see as an increasingly authoritarian administration.

Republicans had painted the rallies in sinister terms in the days leading up to them, with Speaker of the House Mike Johnson lambasting what he called “Hate America” rallies.

Sharon Laffey, a Buffalo Township resident who organized the Washington protest, figured that pressure would have done one of two things: make people more afraid to come out, or make them even more determined to protest.

She got the latter. Saturday’s turnout was about double that of the first “No Kings” protest in June.

“It’s motivating more people,” Laffey said. “We’re not scared, we’re not cowering, we’re not backing down.”

Protesters took aim at Trump with signs like “No Crown for a Clown,” “Save Our Democracy” and “Rejecting Kings Since 1776.”

Asked what Trump actions stood out to them, most people Saturday wondered where to begin – part of what Laffey referred to as a “firehose effect” of boundary-pushing acts.

But eventually, they did.

For Devan Vachon of Peters Township, it was the ongoing sweeps by Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE), which have led to mistaken arrests and detainments of U.S. citizens.

“People fearing for their lives because of the color of their skin, it’s really disheartening,” she said. “Citizens are being detained, and who knows where they’re going? Beyond that, the checks and balances aren’t there.”

Mariann Robertson of Washington wore an inflatable cat costume with a sign saying, “Cats Are King, Not Presidents.” She’s alarmed by his signals that he will eliminate the Department of Education. And she’s troubled by what she views as corruption, such as accepting a luxury plane valued at $400 million as a gift from Qatar, a country he later pledged to defend in a security guarantee.

“I can’t give my postal inspector more than $20 as a gift, but Trump can get a million-dollar plane?” she said.

Audrey Holsclaw of Canonsburg said while Trump had benefitted the rich, he had hurt the working class: whether through $1 trillion in health care spending cuts under the “One Big Beautiful Bill,” or cuts to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) that could eliminate or reduce aid to more than 22 million people.

Along with many protesters Saturday, she called for the full release of the Jeffrey Epstein files, which they believe would reveal incriminating evidence against Trump. She was also alarmed by the recent extrajudicial strikes against boats off the coast of Venezuela, which the Trump administration has claimed were trafficking drugs.

Her sign reminded people that Pittsburgh steel “has other applications,” showing Trump behind bars.

“The government is meant to serve the people, not the other way around,” she said. “So if you’re not going to do what we ask, you won’t get to represent us. He should go to jail.”

Vachon saw Saturday’s protests as a good way to build fellowship.

“It’s just having people who believe in the same things as me, and having that sense of community to be able to talk about things and to process what’s going on,” she said.

Seeing Saturday’s crowd gave Laffey hope. She saw the “outlandish” rhetoric from Republican officials as a sign that it was having the opposite effect on them.

“I think it just shows that they’re afraid, and they know that this authoritarian regime cannot last,” she said. “It’s gonna fall at some point, and they’re afraid of us, so that’s a good thing.”