The crowd stretched from Sample Gates past First Christian Church on Kirkwood Avenue on Saturday as several thousand people chanted, marched and held signs in protest of the Trump administration.
Bloomington’s No Kings protest began at 1 p.m. at the Monroe County Courthouse and ended shortly after 3 p.m. with a march down Kirkwood Avenue. The protest was one of nearly 3,000 events planned across the United States. Similar events were held in June and October.
The protests were organized by the Bloomington chapter of 50501, a national grassroots group organized to protest the actions of President Donald Trump’s administration.
At the courthouse, representatives manned booths from organizations including Indivisible of South Central Indiana, Medicare for All Indiana, the Bloomington chapter of the League of Women Voters, MADVoters and Mobility Aids Lending Library.
Representatives from local organizations including Exodus Refugee Immigration gave speeches, and musician Carrie Newcomer played guitar and sang songs to the crowd from a stage next to the courthouse.
As protesters walked along the sidewalk around the courthouse, they waved signs referencing U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the Epstein files, the war in Iran and the Trump administration. Some protesters came dressed in costumes, carried American flags or brought musical instruments.
Demonstrators hold signs for passing cars during the “No Kings” protest held in front of the Monroe County Courthouse on March 28, 2026, in Bloomington. Passing cars often honked in support of the demonstration.
Organizers say early estimates indicate about 3,000 people attended the protest. Paul Smedberg, a volunteer with the Bloomington chapter of 50501 who helped organize the protest, said the crowds at this protest looked like the “largest yet.”
Smedberg said he joined 50501 after attending the first No Kings protest in June. Amid the arrests of both non-citizens and U.S. citizens by ICE, Smedberg said he worries for the safety of his Latino family members. He was also motivated to become active by the cutting of federal research funding, how the Trump administration handled the aftermath of the U.S. capture of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro and the war with Iran.
“There aren't many areas that this administration is touching on that doesn't seem totally un-American,” Smedberg said.
On the courthouse plaza shortly before 2 p.m., a large green inflatable frog walked slowly towards the sidewalk, using the long wooden pole on his sign as a walking stick.
“Ribbit ribbit,” the frog chanted, as protesters stopped to take pictures with him.
This was just one of the many chants that the frog, who declined to be named, likes to deploy.
“Ribbit ribbit, get your frog on, uh, frog army coming through. Once you go frog, you don’t go back,” the frog told the Indiana Daily Student. “I think that’s my repertoire right there. I just say it over and over again.”
The protester said he first donned the frog costume for October’s No Kings protest, after anti-ICE demonstrators in Oregon made headlines for wearing inflatable costumes in confrontations with federal agents. He saw it as a way for protesters to appear non-threatening yet slightly mocking toward agents from ICE and the Department of Homeland Security.
“Basically, a way of saying, you know, we're really not afraid of you,” he said.
Demonstrators sit on the lawn surrounding the Monroe County Courthouse on March 28, 2026, for a “No Kings” protest in Bloomington. The protest lasted about two hours.
Farther down the plaza, Zach Reed and Dylan Taylor stood in Revolutionary War uniforms at the top of a grassy hill.
As protesters marched by, Reed and Taylor serenaded them by playing Revolutionary War-era songs like “Yankee Doodle” on plastic recorders.
Taylor said they came in costume to symbolize the country’s first fight against monarchy.
“America was found on the principles of being anti-monarch,” Taylor said. “I find somebody taking advantage of the system that we've created to be against that type of authoritarianism, getting away with what has happened within the House, the Congress and the executive branch, to be absolutely deplorable.”
Other protesters held up signs with puns, slogans or caricatures of Trump and members of his cabinet.
“Are we great yet?” one sign read, referencing the campaign slogan Make America Great Again.
Others read “I really miss constitutional checks + balances,” and “Stop Fascism Now.”
The protest ended with a march down Kirkwood, with protesters turning left at Sample Gates and looping back around to the courthouse, where organizers began to pack up tables.
They chanted “This is what democracy looks like!” and “No hate, no fear, immigrants are welcome here!” as they marched.
Protesters march down Kirkwood Avenue on March 28, 2026, for a “No Kings” protest in Bloomington. The protest began at 1 p.m. Saturday at the Monroe County Courthouse.
