About 800 people gathered downtown for one of approximately 3,300 No Kings events held Saturday that drew a total of eight million people nationally in a recurring protest against the actions and policies of the Trump administration.

There was an hour-long rally in Heritage Plaza, followed by a march over the 17th Street bridge, around Station Medical Center and back over the pedestrian bridge near the post office to comply with city officials’ requirement that marchers stay on the sidewalks because police weren’t available to close the streets — a decision that displeased local No Kings leaders.

There were no serious problems, and many motorists honked in support during the march, according to event organizer Carol Taylor — although three counterprotesters got into a testy exchange initiated by rally participants as the trio walked through the plaza crowd to join a few other protesters stationed across 11th Avenue, according to the counterprotesters.

Saturday’s was the third iteration of the No Kings movement and also the third one held locally — this time in weather that was sunny, but cold and windy.

Liam Park, 15, attended the event with his father, Wes.

He was there to support gay and transgender friends who are “stressed out” by actions of the administration, Liam said.

Wes is most offended by Trump’s “open grifting” and his “sidling up to billionaires.”

Compared to what is happening now, Watergate was hardly “a splash,” Wes said.

More and more people are “overwhelmed” with the administration’s politics, said event attendee Sarah Holland.

“Our president is so bent on making us afraid of each other,” Holland said.

“I can’t just sit at home and do nothing when the country I learned about in school (is gone),” said attendee Joan Engle of Huntingdon.

She’s upset about what she sees as an attempt to disenfranchise voters with the proposed Save America Act, with the push “to throw out every immigrant” and with the Iran War, she said.

She’s descended from passengers on the Mayflower, and those immigrants “didn’t ask permission” to come to the New World, she said.

She’s also a member of the Brethren denomination — a “peace church,” she said.

“I’m just here to support my president,” said a counterprotester who declined to give his name and who was standing across from the plaza holding a pole on which was hung a blue “Trump” flag — with two other counterprotesters who declined to talk to the Mirror.

Trump is “the best president in our lifetime,” said Tim, the counterprotester who had a feisty exchange with a few rally goers, while crossing the plaza with his daughter Tia and another man.

“(Trump is) no nonsense,” said Tim, who declined to give his last name. “He gets the job done and he means what he says.”

Three rally-goers “got in our faces,” screaming at the counterprotesters to leave and asking them whether they had a permit, Tim said.

The counterprotesters were playing a recording of the song “Ice Ice Baby,” but were otherwise minding their own business, Tim said.

“(But) when they escalate, we escalate,” said the other man.

Tia had talked her father into counterprotesting at the event because she wants to be a mother someday and wanted to get a sense of the kind of harmful influence her children will need to deal with, she said.

Prior to the event and during the rally, Taylor urged participants not to engage with counter­protesters.

“Don’t start an argument,” she said, addressing the participants Saturday. “If you have an opinion different from us, that’s all right,” she said, addressing the counterprotesters.

The Trump administration seems intent on punishing individuals, organizations and allied nations that don’t agree with it, said rally attendee Fred Petrunak.

“I think we should be building bridges — literally and figuratively — not destroying them,” Petrunak stated in a text after the event.

The Trump administration needs to learn “to live by the Constitution,” said Bob Kutz, president of the Blair-Bedford Central Labor Council, who particularly objects to the recent firing, layoff or displacement of 250,000 federal employees.

There is a threat to voters’ and women’s rights, said attendee Cynthia Cresswell of Altoona, who longs for past “leaders who promoted unity, instead of trying to divide us.”

Cresswell is especially disconcerted by an idea expressed at the Republican National Convention by a speaker who advocated for “head of household voting” — where her husband would vote on her behalf.

In grade school, students learn that division and subtraction always lead to a result less than what they began with, said attendee Bill Clark of Altoona.

It works metaphorically in politics, where hatred leads to division and loss, Clark said.

The administration’s strategy is “spewing hatred,” said Bill’s wife, Linda.

The event was co-sponsored by Indivisible Blair County, of which Taylor is president; and the Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of Blair County.

Mirror Staff Writer William Kibler is at 814-949-7038.