WASHINGTON -- Demonstrators decrying U.S. President Donald Trump's policies took to city streets across the country on Saturday in the third edition of the "No Kings" rallies which organizers hope will be the largest single-day protest in U.S. history.

More than 3,200 events were planned in all 50 states and several cities outside the U.S. The two previous No Kings events attracted millions of participants.

Singers Bruce Springsteen and Joan Baez headlined a rally at the state capitol in Minnesota, where upward of 100,000 people were expected to gather in an area that became a flashpoint over Trump's crackdown on illegal immigration and the incursion of federal immigration agents into Democratic-led urban centers.

Other large rallies are taking place in New York, Los Angeles and Washington, but two-thirds of the events are happening outside major city centers, a nearly 40 percent jump for smaller communities from the movement's first mobilization last June, organizers said.

On the National Mall in Washington, the crowd chanted pro-democracy slogans and held anti-Trump signs. Outside one high-rise assisted-living center in Chevy Chase, Maryland, a group of elderly people in wheelchairs held signs encouraging passing cars to "Resist tyranny," "Honk if you want democracy" and "Dump Trump."

In Austin, Texas, a brass band provided the soundtrack as protesters gathered outside City Hall before a march through downtown.

Thousands gathered in midtown Manhattan, where actor Robert De Niro, one of the organizers, said that "there have been other presidents who have tested the constitutional limits of their power, but none have been such an existential threat to our freedoms and security."

"The defining story of this Saturday's mobilization is not just how many people are protesting, but where they are protesting," said Leah Greenberg, co-founder of Indivisible, the group that started the No Kings movement last year and led planning of Saturday's events.

The rallies come as Trump's approval rating has fallen to 36 percent, its lowest point since his return to the White House, according to a Reuters/Ipsos poll.

A spokesperson for the National Republican Congressional Committee criticized Democratic politicians and candidates for supporting the rallies.