Saturday, March 28, was like a summer’s day. Four police vans parked neatly in front of the Ministry of Finance gave the only clue that a demonstration was about to begin.
A sea of placards held aloft bobbed in the air screaming slogans: ‘Violence Creates Hate – Hate Creates Retaliation’ argued one; ‘Defend Democracy – No Kings in America’ shouted another.
The demonstration, which drew around 900 Americans, had been organised weeks before by the group ‘Americans in Portugal United in Protest’ (‘For a Sane Pro-Democratic America’) and they shared the space at Lisbon’s Praça do Comércio with a music group from Cape Verde and some university fado singers.
A stage draped in black, as if an afternoon of mourning had been declared for the death of American democracy, had been erected in front of the equestrian statue of a former absolutist Portuguese king, Joseph I, from which speakers blared out messages against the Trump presidency to the US citizens living in Portugal who were gathered around.
The atmosphere was not tense, it was relaxed, yet determined. There were people of all ages and professions, retired, couples, and families with children, all united in one aim, although their individual reasons varied – to push back on the Trump presidency’s increasingly authoritarian assault on democratic values which have underpinned the United States of America since its founding in 1776.
Network of the powerful
The speaker, Karen, as formidable as those un-entitled Karens screaming in US supermarket parking lots, was definitely entitled to speak out on behalf of the assembled crowd on the outrage of the Epstein scandal.
“Friends, neighbours, fellow Americans, we gather today not out of hatred, but out of love – love for our Republic, where no one is above the law. Yes, this (Epstein) case is not a conspiracy theory. It’s a documented, court-confirmed network of powerful men who trafficked, abused, exploited children, and for decades walked free.
“But Jeffrey Epstein didn’t operate alone. He operated with a safety net woven from old money, private jets, offshore accounts, and the quiet loyalty of some of the wealthiest human beings on the planet,” she said.
Calling them the ‘Epstein class’, they had “accumulated or inherited staggering wealth, and rules simply stopped applying to them. They attended parties, booked flights in private jets, and when the walls started closing in, they made phone calls, hired lawyers, opened cheque books, and children paid the price for their protection”, she added.
“Terrified for my daughter’s life”
Another Karen … less bombastic but no less convicted in her opinions, Karen Meier who hailed from Washington State but now lives in Lagos, in the Algarve, said she had come for “so many different reasons”, but the main one was because she is the mother of a transgender daughter and “I’m terrified for her life”.
“I’ve seen my friends and neighbors pulled away by ICE for no other reason than they’re brown. I’ve seen transgender people harassed for no other reason than they don’t fit into a checkbox,” she said.
“I’m terrified for all America and the world. Propagating these illegal wars is ruining the economy for the entire world, but mainly I’m here for people’s rights,” she said.
As the one-month mark has passed in the ongoing, expanding and escalating war being prosecuted by the US and Israel against Iran, the incremental damage is now starting to undermine the global economy.
In terms of energy, before the war, the price of oil was at around US$70 a barrel, and is now sitting at US$115 – an increase of 45% in one month, while natural gas prices have doubled in Europe, and around US$5 trillion has been wiped off the financial markets in the US alone with inflation rising and interest on bonds increasing all because of the war.
“Don’t want my children around guns”
Bryan and Michael, formerly from New York City, also had plenty to say about the Trump administration.
“I have children, and I just felt like the atmosphere and environment in the US was changing so much … I wanted a safe life for them and not go to school and be worried about guns. I have always loved Portugal and so decided to move here,” said Bryan.
“I think the situation started to deteriorate in the 1980s with the Ronald Regan administration. We’ve seen public services being defunded, workers’ rights taken away, and corporations and billionaires starting to control everything,” he said.
“Once money gets into politics, it becomes corrupt. It is no longer about voting and democracy; it’s about lobbying and paying politicians. The US is now no better than any other country that is completely corrupt. It has become a corrupt nation.”
They also thought that the evangelical sects had a grip on politicians, while politicians used them to achieve their agendas. “Most of these people don’t care about religion, they just want the power and the money.”
Trump is “racist”
Jason Gardener, also from New York but who lived in California, now lives in Portugal because, as he says, “Trump won!”
“He is racist and opened his campaign that Mexicans were rapists,” he said, and added that the right-wing media like Fox News had stoked up much of the division.
On the issue of the US paying for Europe’s protection within NATO, he said, “Sure! Doesn’t the wealthiest country need to pay its dues?”
Donna from New York told me that there was “so much division and a lot of hate. It’s just a really sad time to be in the United States, unfortunately.”
“Once there was tolerance and understanding; it used to be ‘OK’ to agree to disagree on certain things, but it’s beyond that now. It’s got so black and white and how anybody could support that horrible excuse for a human being is beyond me,” she said.
Symptom of a bigger problem
Thia, who had been helping with the organisation, admitted she hated Donald Trump and what he was doing to the United States.
“He is a symptom of a bigger problem and both parties are responsible.” I ask her if America has an immigration problem. “No, we need more immigrants, and now we’re going to have an even bigger housing crisis because we’re deporting all those who were working on building new houses,” she concluded.
Photos: Chris Graeme
Source: Essential Business
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On Saturday, March 28, 2026, millions of people took part in the third wave of “No Kings” protests across the United States and more than a dozen countries worldwide. Demonstrators voiced their opposition to key policies of US President Donald Trump’s second administration, highlighting concerns over the war with Iran, federal immigration enforcement (ICE), and the escalating cost of living.
