Attribution: Chad Davis., CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons
By Geoff Carter
Last Saturday, the nationwide No Kings rally, composed of over 2600 separate demonstrations spread across all fifty states, took place. Over seven million people showed up to protest the Trump administration. Massive demonstrations in Boston, Chicago, New York City, and other major cities topped one hundred and, in some cases, two hundred thousand participants. The march in NYC spanned twenty-two blocks, a distance of two miles—two solid miles of angry Americans. Thousands of other protests took place in suburbs and small in every state in the union, even deep-red strongholds like Oklahoma, Mississippi, Utah, Arkansas, and Alabama.
In many ways, these demonstrations resembled street fairs or farmers’ markets (minus the food) more than they did political demonstrations decrying the efforts of Donald Trump to take over the United States of America. Taking the cue of protestors in Portland, Oregon, demonstrators suited up in inflatable frog, unicorn, and dinosaur costumes, adding a sense of whimsy to the proceedings.
At the Milwaukee No Kings Rally, speakers voiced their anger and opposition to ICE arrests, Medicaid cuts, the government shutdown, and countless other presidential transgressions. These speeches were punctuated by an actor in an inflatable Trump costume coming on stage whining and crying about how unfairly he has been treated. It sort of reminded me of an SNL skit. It was hilarious.
In all this raucous and enthusiastic patriotism, only one protestor was arrested for wearing a penis costume and sporting a “No Dick Taters” sign. Other than that, this huge string of demonstrations was non-violent—except for twenty-two MAGA supporters who tried to disrupt the peaceful protests.
According to an MSNBC Report, “On Saturday afternoon, The New York Times asked the White House for the president’s reaction to the demonstration. ‘“Who cares?”’ a Trump spokesperson replied.”
I care. Seven million Americans (and probably a great number more who couldn’t show up) care. Obviously.
Apparently, the president cares, too. He really does.
In his eminently predictably immature reaction to criticism, Trump lashed back viciously and—with his lack of taste and class—posted an AI-generated video of himself, wearing a crown, flying a jet and dropping what appears to be feces onto demonstrators below. It was a disgusting and childish reaction to the concerns of the people—his constituents—about the state of our country.
Then on October 20th, two days after the No Kings rallies, he began tearing down the East Wing of the White House, claiming that this was necessary to build his gargantuan new 90, 000 square foot presidential ballroom. It didn’t seem to matter that he had promised months before, when presenting the initial idea for the ballroom, that the White House would not be touched. He lied—which is hardly surprising. What was surprising was the suddenness and audacity of the tear-down. It reminded me of an angry two-year-old not getting his way and throwing things during a tantrum.
As Jamelle Bouie points out in his New York Times column, Trump’s claims to and exercise of unbridled power is based on the compliance of the people and most civil institutions. Bouie argues that this sort of compliance is voluntary and that demonstrations of the scale of the latest No Kings rally is evidence that he does not have that support.
As Bouie states “Nationwide protests with millions of people are a direct rebuke to the president’s narrative. They send a signal to the most disconnected parts of the American public that the president is far from as popular as he says he is, and they send a clear warning to those institutions under pressure from the administration: Bend the knee and lose our business and support.”
That the Republican Party sees this danger is obvious. Republican senators John Barrasso of Wyoming and Steve Scalise of Louisiana reviled the No Kings rally as a “I Hate America” rally. Majority Leader Mike Johnson maintained that Hamas leaders, antifa types, and Marxists would be on “full display”. White House Press Secretary Caroline Leavitt went further, saying that “the Democrat Party’s main constituency is made up of Hamas terrorists, illegal aliens and violent criminals” (NYT).
Of course, these select few of Trump’s invertebrate lapdogs in Congress realize that these challenges to his demented vision of unbridled power undermine the very foundation of his power. In other words, to be a king, he has to be recognized as a king by the people and by the civil institutions that comprise our society—institutions like our universities, our law community, our justice system, and our judicial system. Despite his claims to the contrary, he was not elected by a mandate, and his support has been steadily eroding since he took office nine months ago.
Some universities, like Harvard, have resisted his attempts to extort their compliance to his policies. Some of our country’s most prestigious law firms have caved to his demands. Others have not. The federal judiciary—minus SCOTUS—has time and again ruled against the Trump administration’s high-handed attempts to grasp every lever of power. They forbade him from sending deportees to El Salvador—which Trump disregarded. They stopped him from sending National Guard troops to Portland—a ruling which was overturned on appeal and ruled against the administration in dozens of other cases. Now, members of the federal circuit are beginning to rail against the obviously partisan rulings of the Supreme Court. (Politico)
Through midnight ICE raids, miliary invasions against US citizens on American soil, and selective persecution of his enemies through the co-opted Justice Department, the president has attempted to intimidate and frighten the American people into bending the knee and recognizing his power. But it’s not working.
When seven million people rise and say no, we don’t want to live in a country where people are arrested and deported without due process, where Medicaid benefits are stripped away, where our justice system and Supreme Court are compromised almost beyond recognition, and where our president spends our money like a drunken sailor, they do not recognize the president as a king—and never will.
Over seven million people showed up last Saturday. They showed up in big cities, suburbs, and small towns. They showed up in the deep-red states of Mississippi, Alabama, Oklahoma, and Arkansas. God knows how many others wanted to show but could not. If Trump continues with his highly unpopular and draconian policies, the size of the crowds will increase. People are fed up. They want the American they know and love back.
Who cares? They care. We care.
Notes
- https://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/maddowblog/trumps-top-reaction-no-kings-events-was-proof-success-rcna238603
- https://www.npr.org/2025/10/19/nx-s1-5579042/no-kings-protests-takeaways
- https://www.nytimes.com/2025/10/18/opinion/no-kings-protests-republicans-trump.html
- https://www.politico.com/news/2025/09/11/supreme-court-emergency-rulings-judges-00558058