Saturday morning’s protest saw a big turnout, with attendees marching up and down Grand Avenue in Glenwood Springs for ‘No Kings Day’ to express anger and frustration with Trump administration policies. The event was planned as part of a nationwide day of protest to coincide with the president’s birthday and the U.S. Army’s 250th anniversary military parade in Washington, D.C.
Organizers estimate about 4,000 people gathered in Sayre Park with signs reading, “Remember, only you can prevent fascism,” “I love due process” and “The only monarchs we want are butterflies,” likening the Trump administration to an autocracy.
The peaceful demonstration was organized by Mountain Action Indivisible, a volunteer-run group operating between Aspen and Parachute “dedicated to justice, equality and democracy,” according to its website.
Colorado State House District 57 Rep. Elizabeth Velasco, a Democrat, attended the rally and marched alongside her constituents.
She had a message for local governments and elected officials who may fear retaliation or funding cuts for speaking out against the Trump administration: Colorado’s policies have already made the state a target.
“We have the strongest shield laws for [the] trans community,” Velasco told Aspen Public Radio in an interview at the protest. “We also continue to show up for abortion access. We have strong environmental protections, strong protections for immigrants.”
She added that blue states are not the only ones losing funding.
“Even red states — we are seeing FEMA disappear,” Velasco said. “We're seeing our budgets for emergency response being cut by almost 40%. … We're also seeing DOGE just decimate our infrastructure.”
Velasco echoed many of these ideas while addressing the crowd later that morning.
Voices from the protest
Protesters showed up to support a variety of causes, including public lands protections, LBGTQ+ rights, and federal benefits like Medicare and Medicaid.
Karen Hamick, who lives in the Parachute and Battlement Mesa area, carried a sign with an American flag that read, “I love the USA, but as the founders intended it to be.”
As a former nursing professor at Colorado Mountain College, she feels President Trump’s proposed cuts to health care, including federal funding for vaccines and Medicaid, are dangerous.
“I'm very, very concerned about the safety of individuals across America,” Hamick said. “People don't realize that Medicaid helps the nursing homes, helps long-term care, and helps adults that are special needs.”
Many also carried signs and participated in chants expressing discontent over increased immigration enforcement under the Trump administration.
Kenia Contreras Perez marched along Grand Avenue holding a Mexican flag, which she said her father brought with him when he first arrived in the U.S.
Both her parents recently became citizens, and she remembers the constant fear of losing her mother.
“It feels good to not have that weight on me anymore,” Contreras Perez said. “Her status was still up in the air when I was a full-grown adult and still being afraid of, ‘Are they going to take my mother today, tomorrow, [or] next week?’”
Carbondale resident Izi knows what it’s like to live in fear of the impacts of federal policies, specifically those targeting transgender and nonbinary people. She did not share her full name due to concerns of increased discrimination.
Saturday was Izi’s first time attending a protest with her family, and she wore a trans Pride flag and carried a sign that read, “Protect trans youth, not your ego.”
“As a member of the trans community, I'm here in protest against my rights being taken away, because I don't want that to happen,” Izi said.
Some protestors also carried signs in support of protecting public lands, amid staff and budget cuts at the U.S. Forest Service, an attempt to roll back national monument protections, and a renewed proposal to sell some federal lands, including in Colorado.
“When I look at the cuts and at the protections being lifted, those are precious lands, and once they're changed, there's no changing them back,” said Carbondale resident Alison Osius.
She continued, “And when it comes to the Forest Service here, we've got a big fire season coming up — I'm afraid — and fewer people on the ground.”
Snowmass resident Jim “Gus” Gustafson, who served in the Vietnam War, also attended the protest with his wife and friends.
As a veteran, he said it’s disturbing to see President Trump use the military to further his agenda, both with Saturday’s parade in Washington, D.C. and the deployment of troops to demonstrations against immigration enforcement in Los Angeles.
“I’ve been in military parades before and they are a misuse of the facilities and assets that we have,” Gustafson said. “It’s also a misuse of both the National Guard and the Marines in Los Angeles — the military should be an apolitical organization that's needed for certain situations, but this is not one of them.”
Attendees at similar demonstrations across the country largely expressed concern over the Trump administration’s actions expanding presidential power and threatening democracy.
President Trump likened himself to a king earlier this year, but according to The New York Times, he told a crowd of Republican lawmakers and supporters at the White House last week that he doesn’t, “feel like a king” and has to, “go through hell to get stuff approved.”
