COLUMBIA, S.C. — Large numbers of protesters are expected to descend on the South Carolina State House this Saturday for a planned protest against President Donald Trump. And who shows up may tell us something about where the administration is headed.

Saturday’s planned demonstration at the State House is one of several “No Kings” protests being organized across the country to coincide with a planned military parade in Washington, D.C., to mark the Army’s 250th birthday — and which also falls on the president’s 79th.

The protests are also taking place with the backdrop of Trump’s deployment of thousands of National Guard troops to Los Angeles in response to protests against immigration raids in the city, a move that was resisted by local officials who fear it could increase tensions and the potential for violence.

Other demonstrations held at the State House so far this year have drawn hundreds upset by the Trump administration’s actions on immigration and other issues. Which raises the question of whether those numbers represent any waning enthusiasm for the president in a state that voted for Trump by 18 percentage points seven months ago.

What polls say

Winthrop University has conducted three statewide polls of South Carolina voters since Trump assumed office on Jan. 20. In February, April and May, Trump’s approval among all voters has been consistently around 45%. The disapproval rate was at 40% and rose to 45% and 43% in the next two months, respectively. But that’s largely because the percentage answering “don’t know” fell from 16% to 11% to 9%.

“That may not be the same after the protests” in California, said Scott Huffmon, director of the Winthrop Poll. “There’s a clear difference over [Kilmar Abrego] Garcia being brought back, but that’s really the only strong immigration story that’s bubbled up to public attention.”

Abrego Garcia is a citizen of El Salvador who previously lived in Maryland after entering the country without documentation. He and several other immigrants the Trump administration accused of gang ties were deported to a notorious prison in El Salvador under an emergency war powers act that courts later blocked. A judge ordered that the U.S. “facilitate” Abrego Garcia’s return to the U.S. because his deportation violated a previous court order that found Abrego Garcia was likely to face persecution if he was returned to El Salvador, and the Supreme Court later upheld the decision.

Trump initially insisted he was unable to remove Abrego Garcia from Salvadoran custody, but earlier this month he was brought back to the U.S. to face charges of human smuggling.

The May Winthrop poll showed that 44% of South Carolinians said Trump should comply with court orders to return Abrego Garcia to the United States. 33% said he should not, and 23% were unsure.

“We shouldn’t assume that all of the respondents knew the particulars of the Abrego Garcia case,” Huffmon noted when releasing the poll results. “If they didn’t, this becomes more of a referendum on whether the Trump administration should be bound by court orders when it comes to immigration.”

The same poll shows that 45% of South Carolinians disapprove of Trump’s handling of the economy, while 43% approve. But Trump is much stronger on immigration, with 50% approving of his handling of the issue and 40% disapproving.

“The people who constantly follow the news forget that the average person doesn’t pay attention closely until something like the protests erupt, and then they see it as coming out of nowhere,” Huffmon said. “It’s possible that people who like the idea of Trump deporting folks have a problem with using the National Guard and military against U.S. citizens. That could produce a shift among those moderately supporting Trump.”

But the Winthrop University pollster was unsure how representative that subset of the population will be of the people at Saturday’s protests.

“People at protests are going to be of two flavors,” he said. “The largest number are the most liberal and active, but among them are people who normally wouldn’t attend a rally for the Democratic Party, but became concerned because of this. They will be the minority among the protesters, but there will be some people who wouldn’t have shown up except for the extreme nature of what was happening.”

Differing perspectives

But Greg Brewer, an engineer and self-described “limited government fiscal conservative” living in Lexington, was weary of what a mass protest in the state’s capital might mean. He remembers the last large protest in the Midlands, when a march against the Minneapolis police killing of George Floyd in 2020 ended with vandalism and a police car set on fire.

“I think if you haven’t learned from the past, you’re doomed to repeat it, and the last time a protest came through the Vista, it ripped things apart,” he said. “So if that’s what’s indicated, we need to learn from the past and make sure the resources are deployed to make sure that doesn’t happen.”

Brewer used to live in California, and moved back to South Carolina amid the strict lockdown requirements imposed by Gov. Gavin Newsom at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic.

“California in general is completely mismanaged, with its debt, its catastrophes,” Brewer said. “The vegetation isn’t managed, which is why they have these wildfires. I think there’s nothing impressive about Gavin Newsom, he’s a disaster.”

“Trump got elected because of concerns about sovereignty and border protection,” he said. “That’s what he campaigned on, and he’s delivering on it.”

He encourages any protesters to find peaceful ways to channel their concerns into constructive action.

“Regular people can engage each other in civil and respectful ways,” Brewer said. “You can speak to your representative at the State House or find a way to handle it locally.”

State Rep. Todd Rutherford, D-Richland, minority leader in the state House of Representatives, said he was unsure who would be involved in Saturday’s protest.

“I’ve been involved with protests since college, and I can never tell,” Rutherford said. “I remember at every single George Floyd protest, I was shocked at how many people showed up. It really depends on what’s on people’s social media feeds.”

Rutherford believes that at least some people who voted for Trump are reconsidering, citing Arab American voters in Michigan who abandoned the Democrats over the Biden administration’s approach to the war in Gaza, or Cuban Americans who have seen the revocation of immigrants’ protected status under Trump.

“Republican businessmen see their 401(k)s plummet, and then when a court rules he did something illegal, the stock market goes up,” he said. “Even the business community feels like they did not get what they pay for.”

©2025 The State. Visit at thestate.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.