'No Kings' Millions across US demonstrate against Trump

Several million people turned out in about 2,100 sites around the US on Saturday, from big cities to small towns, to protest against the excesses of Donald Trump's administration under the "No Kings" banner.

- Rachel Leingang Minneapolis Andrew Gumbel Los Angeles Melissa Hellmann Philadelphia

A coalition of more than 100 groups joined together to plan the protests, which were committed to a principle of nonviolence and took place as Trump watched a parade of tanks and soldiers in Washington DC.

Last week the US president deployed national guard and US marine troops to Los Angeles to crack down on protesters who have demonstrated against his ramped-up deportations, defying state and local authorities in a show of military force that has not been seen in the US since the civil rights era.

Organisers said that interest in the Saturday protests rose as a result, including at a site near Trump's south Florida Mar-a-Lago estate.

The No Kings coalition said more than 200,000 demonstrators gathered in New York and more than 100,000 in Philadelphia. Small towns with sizable crowds for their populations included Pentwater, Michigan, population 800, where 400 people joined the protest, the coalition said.

The protests were largely peaceful, though some - in Los Angeles and Portland - were later deemed unlawful assembly by law enforcement officers and met with teargas.

The tenor of the day was also marked by political violence. Following the shooting of two Democratic lawmakers in Minnesota, one of whom was killed along with her husband, the state's police and governor cautioned people to not attend demonstrations "out of an abundance of caution".