Global Search for Justice: No Kings - Trump Effigies
Angela Preuss | Minnesota, United States
Photographer: Angela Preuss
Exhibit Title: Global Search for Justice: No Kings - Trump Effigies
Location: Minnesota, United States
On March 28, 2026, more than 3,000 “No Kings” rallies took place across the United States. In St. Paul, Minnesota, the crowd was estimated at 200,000. Yet several major news organizations described these gatherings as fringe events with no coherent agenda. Some even suggested that older protesters were simply reliving the demonstrations of the 1960s, treating the day as a nostalgic performance rather than a political act.
This exhibit — along with my broader body of work — documents a very different reality. The No Kings rallies carried a clear and forceful message: No Kings! Many participants explicitly invoked Donald Trump as the figure they believed embodied that warning. The effigies featured in this exhibit make that message unmistakable, offering material evidence of the rally’s intent, creativity, and collective voice.
Minnesota is experiencing a moment of profound civic upheaval, and no single frame—or single exhibit—can contain the full story. What is happening on the ground is not one movement but a constellation of them: legal observers, street medics, mutual-aid networks, artists, elders, students, faith leaders, immigrant families, and thousands of ordinary Minnesotans stepping into extraordinary roles. Each group brings its own language, its own rituals, its own way of resisting and caring for one another.
To honor that complexity, I chose not to create one large exhibit that skims the surface. Instead, this project unfolds as a series of smaller, focused exhibits, each one tracing a specific thread in the larger tapestry of resistance. Together, they reveal the depth, diversity, and creativity of Minnesotans responding to Operation Metro Surge—not as a single narrative, but as a living ecosystem of actions, voices, and communities.
My goal is not to simplify what is happening, but to witness it honestly: the craft, the courage, the contradictions, and the countless ways people show up for justice in this place we call home.
Angela Preuss
angela.preuss101@gmail.com (Kindly use SDN in subject line.)
612-380-3647 (Text Please)
No AI was used in the creation, editing, or processing of the photographs.
To help refine the written language accompanying the exhibit, Microsoft Copilot was used.
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