no kings day
On Saturday the 14th, across the country, millions of Americans poured into the streets under the banner of the “No Kings Protest.” The demonstrations come just days after protests rocked the Los Angeles area, with federal and local police unleashing brutal force against civilians. Police beat protestors, drowned streets in tear gas, and arrested many. They all follow months of rising tyranny under the Trump administration. Mass deportations, imprisonment of political dissidents, and the unlawful detainment of a sitting U.S. senator are just some of the striking examples of this tyranny.
The Saturday protest itself, named “No Kings” to mock Trump’s desire to crown himself above the law, was the brainchild of an organization called 50501. Started in the aftermath of the 2024 election, its name means fifty protests, fifty states, one day. Although beginning as mostly a social media idea, it quickly spread, organizing the first national rally in February attended by over 70,000 people. In April it staged the “Hands Off” protest, which drew over five million, one of the largest mass protests in American history. They target not only Trump, but the party that props him up, the billionaires who fund him, and the systems that protect him. Protestors carry signs not only denouncing the president, but Elon Musk, whose power, wealth, and disdain for democracy have become a lightning rod for public ire.
Protestors at the Charlottesville, Virginia “No Kings” rally.
“No Kings” was timed precisely to fall on Trump’s birthday and clash with his grotesque military parade, a pageant meant to flex power and command loyalty. Instead, it was upstaged. The ACLU estimates over 5 million Americans took part in “No Kings,” while fewer than 50,000 showed up to celebrate the strongman. In a nation where image is everything, this was not just a protest, it was humiliation. Our correspondents attended marches in Charlottesville, Virginia and Northfield, Minnesota. The two towns are hundreds of miles apart, and yet haunted by the same dread and inspired by the same spirit. In both cities, thousands gathered under fluttering American flags, chanting “Save Our Democracy” and vowing never to submit. In Northfield, many spoke of Trump’s assaults on the courts, his attacks on immigrants, and the unlawful deportations carried out in darkness.
Demonstrations like this may be the greatest fear of the regime. The people are waking up, they are not so easily scared. They are afraid of the notion that even as they arm their agencies, gut our rights, and defile the institutions meant to protect us, we have remembered our power. Saturday proved that the movement is alive, not online or in theory, but in the bodies of millions who’ve said, once and for all, we the people will not kneel before a king.
