Jaffrey and Peterborough held rallies on Saturday, joining a national “No Kings Day” movement, with protests across the United States coinciding with a military parade in Washington, D.C., and President Donald Trump's 79th birthday.

The military parade was hosted in honor of the Army’s 250th anniversary, which was also Trump’s birthday and Flag Day. Trump has sought a display of the nation’s military through a parade since his first term, after seeing a similar parade during Bastille Day  in France in 2017. 

Protesters organized on Saturday against what they say have been government overreaches by Trump, the military parade itself, which they said was a waste of government funds; and deployment of troops against protestors in California, where anti-ICE protests have been ongoing for the past week.

On Saturday, Jaffrey held a rally at the downtown intersection of Peterborough and Main streets in the morning, followed by a similar rally in Peterborough in the afternoon.

According to Francie Von Mertens, the Peterborough rally drew more than 850 sign- and flag-waving people lining sidewalks at the Route 101 and 202 traffic lights – more than twice the size of the first “No Kings Day” on April 19 that celebrated resistance against King George.

Eleanor Ahlborn-Hsu, a member of the Jaffrey Democrats, was one of the organizers of the Jaffrey rally.

”We think it’s ridiculous to be spending millions of dollars on military parade, while you are cutting Medicaid and things for ordinary Americans,” Ahlborn-Hsu said.

She said she was pleased with Saturday’s turnout, which lined both sides of Peterborough Street, and spilled down Main Street. 

“I would say this is larger than many of our sign-holding events that we’ve had in the past. This is a really great turnout, and shows what happens when the word gets out and people talk to their neighbors,” Ahlborn-Hsu said.

Dick Ames, a Democratic state representative for Cheshire 13, attended Jaffrey’s rally.

“I think it’s terribly important that the people of New Hampshire, the people in Jaffrey speak up and show that they demonstrate, by their presence, that they don’t agree with and object to the actions of the Trump administration, particularly people who are trying to live and work in this country according to the rules,” Ames said. “And many other aspects of the Trump administration’s policies that are hurting, not helping this country.”

For attendee Justin Charles of Rindge, Saturday was the second day in a row he was involved with an organized protest. The day before, he had traveled to Washington, D.C., to protest with a group of other veterans in front of the Supreme Court and the Capitol.

Charles, a Marine Corps veteran, said what he sees happening now is not why he joined military service.

“I think when I think back to when I was a veteran and joined the service, a lot of veterans joined with good intentions, to serve their country, and we mostly joined to fight fascists, not put up with them in our own country,” Charles said. 

Charles said that military members shouldn’t be used as “political pawns” or to stroke the president’s ego. He said the military parade and the deployment of troops in California were both examples of that. 

“That flies directly in the face of why I joined. And I can’t stand by while that happens,” Charles said.

Ashley Saari can be reached at 603-924-7172 ext. 244 or asaari@ledgertranscript.com. She’s on X @AshleySaariMLT.