Americans of all ages took to the streets in large numbers on Saturday to voice their opposition to Donald Trump in a day of national mobilization portrayed by the right as a movement of "hate of America."

From New York to Los Angeles, including small towns in the central United States, approximately 7 million people participated in more than 2,700 rallies, according to organizers.

This coalition of associations, united under the slogan "No Kings," had already held a very well-attended demonstration in mid-June, with, according to them, around 5 million demonstrators, a figure impossible to verify. It was nevertheless the largest protest movement observed in the country since the Republican returned to power.

In large processions or by the dozens along the roadsides, protesters mobilized this weekend in a jovial atmosphere to denounce what they call the "authoritarian seizure of power" by Donald Trump and his associates.

"They are destroying democracy," said Isaac Harder, a high school student interviewed by AFP in Washington, where an estimated 8,000 to 10,000 people demonstrated.

"This is not America, this is fascism," he adds.

"We are in the midst of a crisis in the face of the cruelty of this regime, its authoritarianism," said Collen Hoffman, a retiree who came to demonstrate in New York, where more than 100,000 people marched "peacefully," according to local police.

- Costumes -

In Texas and Florida, conservative strongholds, demonstrations were also held.

"Fight ignorance, not migrants," read a placard in Houston, Texas, where nearly a quarter of the population is made up of immigrants, according to data from a specialist think tank.

Faced with the Republican camp, which accused them of promoting "hatred of America" and went so far as to equate them with terrorists, the demonstrators responded with humor.

Some of them paraded dressed in incongruous penguin, lobster or even hippopotamus costumes, while others proudly waved the American flag.

Across the country, various placards depicting Donald Trump dressed as Stalin, the Queen of England, or the Sun King were seen in the processions, where chants calling on the Republican to leave power echoed.

In response, the US president posted a series of AI-generated videos on his Truth Social platform, depicting him as a king.

In one of them, he appears wearing a crown and piloting a fighter jet that drops what appears to be excrement on anti-Trump protesters.

- "Cult of personality" -

Since returning to power in January, Donald Trump has upset the balance of American democracy by encroaching on the powers of Congress and the states and threatening his opponents with legal reprisals, actions that were strongly denounced on Saturday.

"How could this have happened?" Jennifer Bryant, a lawyer we met in Houston, Texas, told AFP. "Things are moving so fast, they're destroying our institutions, firing civil servants, and seizing public funds."

This new day of mobilization also comes amid the federal government's budgetary paralysis and as Donald Trump has deployed troops to several Democratic strongholds, according to him, to combat illegal immigration and crime.

In protest, several rallies were held in cities where he sent the National Guard, such as Chicago and Los Angeles.

In downtown Los Angeles, police fired tear gas late Saturday night to disperse a crowd that included "No Kings" protesters, the Los Angeles Times reported.

"After thousands of people gathered to peacefully express their First Amendment rights earlier in the day, nearly 100 agitators marched to Aliso and Alameda," where they used industrial-sized lasers and flashing lights, the LAPD's Central Division said on X.

Several left-wing figures, such as Bernie Sanders and the leader of the Democratic senators, Chuck Schumer, were present in the marches.

"We have a president who wants more and more power in his hands and in the hands of his oligarch cronies," Sanders said near the Capitol in Washington.