Chicagoans Rally For DC Amid Trump’s Capital Crackdown

An Air Force veteran wears a defaced uniform reading “VETERANS AGAINST trump:Fascism – WE DONT CLAIM Nor Support that Mark Ass Buster. [sic]” Federal Plaza, 8/14/25.

By Dominic Guanzon

Thursday, 8/14/25

THE LOOP, CHICAGO — About 150 protesters rallied at Federal Plaza and marched through The Loop for an “emergency action” in solidarity with Washington DC amid Trump’s crackdown on the latter.

Speeches from organizers repeatedly emphasized Trump’s verbal attacks on Chicago and other Democrat-led cities as a clear and present threat, and called for solidarity should a DC-like sweep from the federal government come to pass.

A protester holds a three arrows anti-fascist flag as CPD white shirts discuss across the street. Federal Plaza, 8/14/25.

“He has threatened…to bring troops , federal troops, to Chicago. For what?” said Mark Clements from the Chicago Torture Justice Center. “How do we change the narrative of power? We must stop thinking that we have no power…If we want change, change is not in a broke-down system. Change is in each and everyone of you. And you must stand up against the conditions that you find yourself experiencing, right now,” he said in a call for resistance against a potential seen in DC and in Los Angeles back in June.

“We don’t need…extra people coming here to serve as police officers. We need help in paying our rent and paying our bills so that people out here can survive.”

While DC’s status as the capital gives Trump legal clearance to deploy the National Guard there, the same cannot be said for the rest of the country, though escalations from the administration have continued every month since his second inauguration.

A protester holds a sign reading “NO ILLEGAL MILITARTY OCCUPATION on our STREETS.” Federal Plaza, 8/14/25.

Protesters also paired the DC crackdown with local ICE raids and CPD misconduct, condemning law enforcement’s holistic abuses as a whole.

“I’m here to call on every American: resist the moral action of this President and his administration,” said Rev. Charles Straight, a retired United Methodist Pastor and leader of The People’s Lobby. “I call upon every Chicagoan, every Illinoisian, to resist returning to policies that lock up poor and mostly black and brown people simply because they cannot afford bail. We cannot go back to the days when the rule was: Rich, guilty, and free, or poor, innocent, and incarcerated,” he said, in reference to Illinois’ elimination of cash bail.

“I am here because my faith demands it.”

The crowd later marched out of the plaza, made their way to State Street, and ended the demonstration at Trump Tower. Legal observers from the National Lawyers Guild were present for a moderate police presence, with no incidents observed.