People protesting the Trump Administration in Portland. (Staff file photo)

Local residents, including Lake Oswego City Councilor Massene Mboup, will continue protesting the Donald Trump administration as part of a nationwide effort to push back against authoritarianism.

Unite4Demoracy, part of the Indivisible movement, has protested every Saturday since March, and will continue to make its voice heard with a rally from 10-11 a.m. Saturday, June 14 on State Street in downtown Lake Oswego. Activists are calling June 14, which is Trump’s birthday and the day he has planned a massive military parade,  “No Kings Day,” and hundreds of protests are planned nationwide.

Steve Friedland, co-founder of Unite4Demoracy, said about 100 people have attended recent rallies and expected even more people to show up Saturday. The protests are peaceful, he emphasized.

“It’s basically to stand up for democracy and all that entails and having people have the freedom to express their views peacefully non-violently in this setting, that is the primary intent,” he said.

Mboup said that his decision to protest comes down to his foundational values of wanting to protect American democracy, adding that the Trump administration’s decision to use the National Guard to scuttle protests in Los Angeles and plan to use “heavy force” against protestors at the upcoming military parade Saturday violates people’s right to free expression. Mboup is alarmed that Trump is quick to use force against protestors while pardoning those involved in the Jan. 6, 2021 insurrection. He also said he felt that the country is backsliding from a representative democracy into a dictatorship.

“This country is going south and we have a president who thinks he is a king,” Mboup said.

“I am standing up. When I became a city councilor, the officers who swore me in asked me to defend the constitution and republic of the United States and that’s what I am doing and I am calling on other citizens to do it.”

For more information on the movement, visit https://indivisible.org/.