As President Donald Trump was preparing to celebrate his 79th birthday Saturday in Washington with a military parade honoring the U.S. Army’s 250th service anniversary, Vietnam veteran Herbert Smith stuck close to home.

The rally at Daley Plaza started at noon with a moment of silence for the shootings in Minnesota before moving into the streets of downtown Chicago.

The Houston demonstration is one of several planned in the region throughout the day and is expected to draw thousands of protesters.

Tens of thousands of demonstrators took to the streets across Southern California on Saturday to voice their concerns over ongoing immigration raids and oppose the policies of President Trump, who they depicted as an aspiring monarch.

The LAPD said on social media that the people in the crowd were throwing "rocks, bricks, bottles and other objects" while they were near the federal building.

Thousands gathered in Los Angeles with handmade signs, Colonial costumes and riffs on drag queens, turning the anti-Trump demonstration into a creative spectacle of resistance.

The threat had roiled the capital city, leading the state's Department of Public Safety to evacuate the Capitol building and surrounding grounds “out of an abundance of caution" around 1 p.m. DPS reopened the grounds around 4:40 p.

"No Kings" rallies brought demonstrators together, joining voices across the nation and region to protest what they call a growing threat of authoritarianism in American politics.