WASHINGTON (AP) — There were funnel cakes, stands of festival bling and American flags aplenty. There were mighty machines of war, brought out to dazzle and impress. And there was the spray of tear gas against demonstrators in Los Angeles and Atlanta, and rolling waves of anti-Trump resistance coast to coast.

Thousands gathered at Houston City Hall for a lively protest early Saturday, cheering as local speakers decried President Trump’s immigration crackdown. Police officers in protective gear ringed parts of a subdued but attentive crowd.

The Houston demonstration is one of several planned in the region throughout the day and is expected to draw thousands of protesters.

Thousands of people in Collin and Denton counties joined the No Kings protests on Saturday as a part of a nationwide movement.

Thousands of people filled several city blocks in and around Daley Plaza in downtown Chicago--cheering, banging drums and waving upside-down American flags in the air to signal what they see as a country in distress.

Tens of thousands of demonstrators took to the streets across Southern California on Saturday to voice their concerns over ongoing immigration raids and oppose the policies of President Trump, who they depicted as an aspiring monarch.

Across the country, relatively few disruptions were reported during protests and marches where the mood ranged from joyful to defiant.

Townsend, a hair stylist in Cheney, Wash., never considered herself very political until she read the conservative blueprint Project 2025 last fall. Since President Trump’s inauguration in January, she’s attended seven protests in nearby Spokane.