Fact check: How many people at the No kings rally in DC

1. Summary of the results

The question specifically asks about DC attendance, which was relatively small with only 400 protesters reported ^[1]. However, this misses the bigger picture of what was actually a nationwide protest movement that intentionally avoided concentrating in Washington D.C. to draw focus away from the military parade ^[2].

2. Missing context/alternative viewpoints

The "No Kings" protests were actually a massive nationwide movement with:

• Total participation estimated between 4-6 million people across approximately 2,000 cities and towns ^[2]
• Event organizers claimed over 5 million participants, which was independently confirmed by both the ACLU and Move On ^{[3] [4]}
• Protests occurred in all 50 states ^[5]
• Notable turnouts included:
• Philadelphia: ~100,000 attendees ^[6]
• New York City: 50,000 people ^[3]
• Milwaukee: 10,000 people ^[1]
• Even small towns like Pentland, Michigan had significant participation with 400 out of 800 residents participating ^[5]

Data journalist G. Elliott Morris noted this represented 1-2% of the total U.S. population (340 million), potentially making it the largest day of demonstrations in American history ^[7].

3. Potential misinformation/bias in the original statement

The question's focus on DC attendance could be misleading because:

• It ignores that avoiding DC was an intentional strategy by the protesters ^[2]
• Looking at DC numbers alone (400 people) would severely underrepresent the scale of the nationwide movement
• The full counting was still ongoing at the time, with the Crowd Counting Consortium noting it would take time to complete comprehensive estimates ^[1]

This narrow focus could benefit those trying to minimize the protest's significance by focusing on the small DC turnout rather than acknowledging its unprecedented nationwide scale.