About 300 Jackson residents and visitors took to Town Square on March 28 for a “No Kings” rally that mirrored thousands of planned demonstrations across the country as the war in Iran stretches into a second month and immigration crackdowns continue.
The mood remained festive despite a wide swath of frustrations with the Trump administration. Returning demonstrators in the crowd said there were fewer hecklers than at past rallies.
The third rally of its kind since Trump’s 2025 inauguration was slightly smaller than Jackson’s October “No Kings” rally. But organizers were grateful for the turnout and enthusiasm in the midst of spring break.
A 90-year-old Moose resident and 11-year-old tourist were united in their discontent with President Donald Trump over a single issue: the environment.
“Trump just denied that global warming is even a thing, so, it’s just gonna melt more,” said Henry Dancig, 11, standing with his 9-year-old brother on a recommissioned Snow King chairlift to get more height for their “No Kings” sign.
Shirley Craighead’s sign had the Woodie Guthrie lyrics: “This land is your land, this land is my land.”
“We’re right here with the first national park in the world and we sure hope that we can keep them. But we can’t if the present administration stays in,” the 90-year-old told KHOL.
Several outlets reported that the White House was unphased.
The BBC reported that a White House spokesperson called the protests “Trump Derangement Therapy Sessions” and said the only people who care “are the reporters who are paid to cover them.”
Passerby honked their support as Jackson’s mayor, legal aid groups and advocates called attention to billionaires and what they say are “racist” policies that are changing Jackson Hole.
Protesters also wanted Teton County Sheriff Matt Carr to stop working with federal immigration enforcers. Others were frustrated by the war in Iran, and Republican support for Trump’s agenda, especially from Wyoming’s congressional delegation.
Through a microphone, Dan Sheehan, an organizer with Jackson Hole for Palestine, told the crowd that the ski town has an outsized impact on federal politics despite its reputation by some as an insulated enclave.
“Every year, the Republican Party hosts one of its most lucrative fundraisers right here in Jackson Hole, where some of the most destructive people in tech, in business, in finance, in politics fly in on their private jets,” he said.
He urged residents to respond by boycotting businesses that host Republican leaders and tech CEOs. And he promoted a new rapid response network that aims to protect “your undocumented neighbor” from deportation.
Sage Howk, a Jackson wilderness guide, came to speak out in support of transgender residents who are made a “scapegoat” at the state and federal level.
Joined by friends with signs protesting Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), Howk said the rally was proof “people really care about this country and care about our freedoms.”
Another guide, Joe Smith, 37, who works for the Snake River Fund, held a sign asking U.S. Rep. Harriet Hageman to “wake up and smell the sagebrush.”
He said Republicans that allow the president to deny climate change are “the single biggest threat to our beloved backyard resource.”
Several said that coming together at “No Kings” protests over the past year has helped many feel a sense of unity.
The demonstrations show that the United States is “a country of people who care about each other and who help each other,” rather than “neighbors against neighbors,” said Melissa, a public special education teacher in Jackson, who declined to give her last name because she wanted her students to be free to develop their own political opinions.
“We are way more connected than we are divided,” she said.
Many featured speakers emphasized that theme as well. Kaitlyn Denzler, the newly named deputy director of the ACLU of Wyoming, told the crowd: “Whether you’re here because you’re directly impacted by these abuses, or because you are defending your neighbors, or maybe just because you deeply and truly believe in this democracy, we are in this together.”
A trio of young visitors from New York were grateful to be able to lend their voices to the crowd, speaking out against ICE and the war in Iran.
“I don’t think anyone wants that to be happening right now,” said 18-year-old Acadia Tweed-Kent. “Gas prices are crazy. I don’t think people really want troops on the ground there. It’s all for oil in the end.”
Other visitors came from California, Massachusetts, and southern Wyoming. Organizers planned to deliver a petition to the sheriff’s office calling for the end of partnering with federal immigration officers.
Martin Hagan, 71, a retired public school bus driver, said democracy is the strongest tool against presidents who seek to take away personal liberties.
“The billionaires have a stranglehold on this county,” he told KHOL. “If it goes any further, there’s two national parks that are at stake, and all the public lands that surround them. And then beyond all that on a national level, I just hate a bully… meaning Trump.”
Another retiree, David Hardie, who renovated warehouses around the valley, held a sign calling to protect public lands while deporting U.S. Sen. John Barrasso and Rep. Harriet Hageman.
He said their desire to sell national forest and park land to developers is “absolutely appalling.”
Nathaniel Piers, a Jackson Hole Mountain Resort worker, shared his frustration with the Republican party.
“They have no basis. I don’t even know what they represent anymore. Even their gas prices, their lifeline, it’s not even low anymore,” he said.
But Piers reserved his strongest disdain for Trump himself, a leader he said is “manipulating policy through executive orders, not going through appropriate channels, committing war crimes, having a proxy leadership, and firing them at any moment, just to evade any sort of responsibility.”
His sign reflected the event’s theme, reminding those who passed by that Americans rejected their last king in 1776.
