United States and Canada Overview: January 2026

Demonstration trends

This section provides key figures on demonstration events, which includes incidents categorized as "Protests," and "Violent demonstrations" as recorded by ACLED. For more information on event and sub-event types, see the ACLED Codebook

United States: Dramatic increase in demonstration activity driven by anti-Trump and pro-migration sentiment

In 2025, demonstrations in the United States surged by approximately 77% compared to the previous year. This increase marks the highest number of demonstrations since 2020, which saw mass mobilization related to the Black Lives Matter movement. Following Donald Trump’s inauguration as president at the beginning of this year, anti-Trump demonstrations were the largest driver of this spike in demonstration activity. Though anti-Trump demonstrations took place at regular intervals throughout the year, the bulk of this demonstration activity stemmed from large single-day spikes around “day of action” protests, beginning with the “Hands Off” protests on 5 April and including the “No Kings” and “No Kings 2” protests on 14 June and 18 October, respectively. The most recent day of action organized by the coalition of organizations mobilizing anti-Trump protests – No Kings 2 – saw the highest single-day number of demonstrations since ACLED began collecting data on the United States in 2020. In total, anti-Trump demonstrations, practically all of which remained peaceful, constituted close to 40% of all demonstration activity this year.

President Trump’s migration crackdown was a major driver of anti-Trump demonstrations, with roughly 60% of anti-Trump protests also showing support for migrants or opposition to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and to efforts to arrest and deport them. Throughout the year, pro-migration demonstrations frequently spiked in hotspots with major migration-related operations, such as Chicago, Portland, and Los Angeles. In each of these locations, operations led by ICE, the Department of Homeland Security, and other law enforcement agencies also saw a marked increase in demonstrations with police intervention. 

As the Trump administration escalated anti-migration operations, pro-migration demonstrators increasingly used obstructionary tactics to impede law enforcement agents. ACLED records dozens of instances in which demonstrators have physically intervened to prevent ICE and other law enforcement agents from carrying out migration-related operations. Demonstrators have pulled people away from arresting agents, blocked law enforcement vehicles with their bodies or vehicles, and attempted to blockade law enforcement agency facilities. 

However, this confrontational behavior was a rare occurrence. These tactics were used only in roughly 1% of all pro-migration demonstrations in 2025, and less than 1% of pro-migration demonstrations have turned violent. By contrast, police conducted arrests or intervened physically in over 150 pro-migrant demonstrations in 2025, constituting half of all demonstrations with police intervention.

These trends already appear to be on course to continue in 2026. On 7 January, an ICE agent shot and killed a US citizen in Minneapolis, sparking national outrage and demonstrations in multiple cities.² This incident was the latest in a trend of ICE operations that have been seen as increasingly aggressive and violent — and Trump shows no sign of backing down from his fierce anti-migrant stance.³ 

United States: Resurgence of armed demonstrations

Though the political climate in the US was highly contentious in 2025, roughly 97% of all demonstrations saw no violence or police intervention. Despite this, firearms were present at over 50 demonstrations — over two-thirds of which were explicitly related to Trump — a figure that more than doubled compared to 2024. Roughly 17% of these demonstrations turned violent, meaning that demonstrations with firearms were more than five times as likely to turn violent as demonstrations without them. This reflects ACLED’s prior finding that armed demonstrations are significantly more likely to become violent. 

Radical group trends

This section provides key figures on far-right and white nationalist groups.⁴

Group spotlight: Extremist groups reach a five-year low point in 2025

In the early days of January 2025, President Trump granted clemency to all who had taken part in the 6 January Capitol riot, including the leaders of the Proud Boys and Oath Keepers.⁵ This move marked a shift in the political climate. The law enforcement crackdown on extremist groups following the Capitol riot had previously caused a sharp decline in these groups’ activity, as their leaders and high-ranking lieutenants were incarcerated. It also removed many of the most effective organizers and recruiters from extremist spaces, leading to the decay of many of these groups. 

Once Trump’s pardons took effect, however, what followed was not a massive resurgence in extremist mobilization. Instead, overall extremist group activity in 2025 reached the lowest recorded levels since ACLED began collecting data in 2020, with extremist groups participating in less than a third of the number of political violence and demonstration events recorded in 2021, the peak of these groups’ activity. 

Several factors contribute to explaining this trend. Some groups have simply decayed too far to stage a resurgence following the 6 January law enforcement crackdown. More broadly, however, many extremist groups may be less motivated to mobilize and find recruiting more difficult during Trump’s presidency, as they see aspects of their agenda, including anti-LGBTQ+ and anti-migration stances, being enacted by the administration. 

Still, this trend should not discourage continued vigilance toward these groups — 2020 and 2021 saw extremist groups regularly mobilize around major political flashpoints, culminating in frequent street brawls and other violent clashes. If the right circumstances emerge in 2026, these groups may well mobilize once more.