Mixing Treefort and Trump, Boise’s national ‘No Kings’ protest urges local action

As nationwide protests urged local action Saturday, Boise’s branch of the progressive No Kings rally brought thousands of people — and a taste of Treefort — to the Idaho Capitol.

While signs on lawns lashed out against President Donald Trump and his policies, speakers on the Capitol steps asked protesters to focus on politics closer to home — including in the building behind them.

“We need to start talking to our neighbors,” Democratic gubernatorial candidate Terri Pickens told the 5,000-plus people gathered before her. “We need to talk to all our neighbors — even the ones that we think might disagree with us, because we all share the same core Idaho values. Have the hard conversations. Have the good conversations. Show each other that we are more alike than different, and start demanding better from the people in this building, and in D.C. “

Boise’s third No Kings rally was one of 3,300 across the U.S. and 20 in Idaho, where protesters gathered in cities as large as the capital and as small as Arco, in East Idaho’s Butte County — population 872.

The March 28 event drew off Boise’s marquee music festival, borrowing people, energy and acts from Treefort. The rally opened with an hour of music from Playdead, Daniel Hamrick and Cure for Paranoia.

“We can protest and have a good time, all at the same time,” said Cameron McCloud, frontman of the Texas hip-hop group Cure for Paranoia. “We live in a country where people who are scared to express themselves are telling other people how to express themselves.”

Thousands who brought signs seemed to agree. “Grab em by the midterms,” some read. “Hail to the thief.” “He was ‘Pretti,’ she was ‘Good.’ ” “Iran from Jeffery Epstein.” “No Faux-King way.” One sign simply said the author had too many grievances to fit on one posterboard.

“It’s death by a thousand cuts,” Garden City resident Darcy Hartz said. “Every day it’s something else.”

Born in Mountain Home, Hartz returned to Idaho in retirement to help her ailing mother. In Saturday’s rally, she saw flashes of her past: a 16-year-old handing out leaflets to protest the Vietnam War.

“I really don’t want to do this,” she said. “But I am. Here we are again.”

Nearby, John Bertram felt a similar resonance. In 1969, against the backdrop of the Vietnam War, he took a government job. That job sent him to Boise, where he has lived since. Now, before him, signs condemned a new war in Iran.

“A lot of people put a lot of effort into being here today,” he said, reading the posters. “I’m really pleased to see it.”

Bertram had encountered people from around the state — “an Idaho crowd,” he said, “not just a Boise crowd.”

“I’m loving it,” he said. “It makes me feel so good to see so many people standing up for our country. It’s not going in the right direction right now, but we all have hope.”

Speakers call for Democratic challengers

While Saturday’s signs took wide aim, the messages coming from the event’s speakers were decidedly local. They railed against Idaho’s abortion ban and education funding, its transgender bathroom bill and legislative push to pull the Pride flag from Boise’s City Hall. And they called for candidates — people willing to challenge the state’s Republican supermajority at the polls.

Democratic gubernatorial candidate Maxine Durand asked for more than signs, slogans and money. The first-time candidate asked for more people to join her on the ticket.

“We don’t win unless we occupy this building right here,” she said. “One day, we will win. But we need to have a plan for when that happens.”

In a state that went 2-to-1 for Trump in 2024, winning means changing minds. On Saturday, a plane overhead trailed a banner that read, “Idaho (hearts) Trump,” with a red Valentine’s Day heart in the middle. Men in khaki stood with scopes on rooftops nearby, and questions among newer protesters circulated. Were they ICE? Something else? (It was Boise police, several officers told the Idaho Statesman, a routine aspect of event security.)

But below all that, a drum circle chanted and sang. “In hope, in prayer, we find ourselves here,” they chanted. “In hope, in prayer, we find ourselves right here.” And Luke Mayville, founder of the progressive group Reclaim Idaho, looked out “at one of biggest rallies in the history of the state.”

“Even in this era, when the federal government and so many federal agencies have become instruments of authoritarianism and war, here at the local level, in Idaho, state by state, we can reclaim our democracy,” he said.

As the rally wound down, speakers readied to move westward to rallies in Caldwell and Nampa — cities a few miles away but steeped in a very different set of politics than Boise. Idahoans, sometimes, don’t even seem to speak the same language, organizer Joe Turmes said. For all they differ, though, he hopes they can learn a common tongue.

“If you’re in Ada County, learn to speak the language of Canyon County, of Boise County, of Bonneville County,” he said. “Because they are our neighbors, and they’re hurt as much by this as you are.”

This story was originally published March 28, 2026 at 5:01 PM.