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Organized by Lake County Indivisibles, Clermont’s No Kings rally — held at city hall and along Highway 50 from 10 a.m. to noon — drew more than 1,000 demonstrators, protesting the Trump administration’s swerve toward authoritarianism, immigration policies, raids and killings by Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers, the Epstein files, high prices, self-enrichment and now the Iran War. For some, the list of wrongs by the administration was so exhaustive, when asked what brought them out to the rally, they simply said, "everything."

Demonstrators — a multiracial, multigenerational mix that ranged from preschoolers to octogenarians — spread from 6th Street to 12th Street along Highway 50, waving signs as drivers honked their horns in agreement as they passed by.

A single truck, flying two large pro-Trump flags, circled the rally several times in a counter protest.

Clermont’s rally, its largest to date, was one of 114 held Saturday in Florida, from Apalachicola to Zephyrhills, according to No Kings partner organizer 50501. More than 3,300 rallies were held across the country, including one, CNN reported, in Kotzebue, an Alaskan city within the Arctic Circle. The No Kings “flagship” rally was held at the Minnesota State House, and there were two virtual host-led, ADA-compliant rallies held Saturday afternoon, according to the NoKings.org site.

“ I think every time people come out and voice their opinions, it sends a big message to government, and we need to send that message right now and often,” said Cynthia of Clermont, who did not want to share her last name.

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“This is a Republican county. To see this kind of turnout is just … it warms my heart,” said one protester who came from Groveland. He held a sign that read, IN 82 YEARS NEVER HAD A SERIOUS REASON TO PROTEST. I DO NOW — THIS SH*T’S SERIOUS.

“The thing that got me started was when ICE started killing our citizens in Minnesota,” he said. Since then, he’s attended No Kings rallies in Mississippi and Arkansas. Clermont’s rally is his third. “Just everything Trump is doing is wrong. He lies about everything. I just don’t understand how we got to this point,” he said.

“Many of us never had a reason to protest until now,” said Fran Paci, 71, who came to the rally from the Four Corners area. She was walking past when the Groveland protesters’ sign caught her attention.

“What a shit show it is. It’s terrible,” she said, referring to the Trump administration. “It’s terrifying, the similarities between the beginnings of Nazism and, you know, banning books and starting to make somebody depersonalized, whether they’re brown people or they’re Jewish people. … Then it’s easy to just get rid of them. … I have an adult disabled son. I’m already thinking, If this keeps going on, where are we going to escape so he’s not put in a containment center that they’re building all over the country?”

For Boone, 6, of Groveland, the No Kings rally was his first protest. He was there with his brother River, 3, and their dad Brandon, 42. Boone held up a sign his dad said he made himself that read, Trump is stinky.

“ I’m trying to teach them about democracy and protesting if you don't like something,” said Brandon, who declined to give their last name. “We've talked about peaceful protests, and I wanted to show them an example of a peaceful protest. We’re standing against Donald Trump and his entire administration, and we want people to fix it. We want to let everyone know how we feel, and hopefully they get on the bandwagon and join us.”

Emma was also attending her first rally with her mom Sasha Nardo, a teacher. The eight-year-old held a cardboard sign she'd written herself that said, I got off Roblox for this.

“I usually go by myself,” said Nardo. “But she said, Mom, I want to go with you, and I said Let’s do it.”

Emma said she was at the rally to “express my feelings about Trump and what he’s been doing for a while, a couple years,” adding that she “feels horrible, actually.”  

Nardo said that as a parent and a teacher, she was “concerned about where the country was headed and that it was time to change the people in power.”

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Robin, wearing a button that said Just F**king Vote, is another worried mom, from Winter Garden. “Married to a Republican,” she said, before last year, she had never been to a protest rally. She had a list of reasons she was out protesting Saturday: Trump’s lies, his 34 felony convictions, his adjudication as a sexual abuser.

But one reason outweighed them all.

“My son is 18 years old, and I don’t want him to have to go to war,” she said. “That’s what got me started in all this because of my son being 18 and I didn’t want him to go to war.”

Jim Ritter, 77, of Scranton, PA, who winters with his wife Liane in Davenport, knows something about that. A Vietnam veteran, who’s attended all three No Kings rallies, he described the Iran War as “stupid, like all wars. It’s going to get a lot of people killed for no reason at all. 59,000 people killed in Vietnam for nothing. Absolutely nothing.”

But even with anger motivating the turnout, there is also optimism with the results.

“What is amazing to me is in this red State of Florida and this red county, Lake County, how many Democrats and independents there are that are so supportive,” said Sharon, 62, of Clermont, who said she was out on a Saturday morning because she wanted to “protect democracy.”

“With every protest that I come to, there’s more and more people here. So it just gives me hope because I feel like I don't have a lot of control over what is happening. And this gives me control and makes me feel good that people driving by honk and agree.”