Protesting against the direction of the country under President Donald Trump, people will gather on Saturday in the nation’s capital and communities across the United States for “No Kings” demonstrations – what the president’s Republican Party is calling “Hate America” rallies.

This is the third mass mobilisation since Trump’s return to the White House and it is expected to be the largest. It comes against the backdrop of a government shutdown that not only has closed federal programmes and services, but is testing the core balance of power as an aggressive executive confronts Congress and the courts in ways that organisers warn are a slide towards American authoritarianism.

Trump himself is away from Washington at his Mar-a-Lago home in Florida.

“They say they’re referring to me as a king. I’m not a king,” Trump said in a Fox News interview airing early on Friday, before he departed for a US$1 million-per-plate Maga Inc. super PAC fundraiser at Mar-a-Lago. Protests are expected nearby on Saturday.

While the earlier protests this year – against Elon Musk’s cuts in spring, then to counter Trump’s military parade in June – drew crowds, organisers say this one is building a more unified opposition movement.