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The massive No Kings protests may mark a new American political posture | Moira Donegan
Over the past week or so, it seemed as if some Republican leaders were hoping that Saturday’s No Kings demonstrations – the marches and rallies hosted by a coalition of liberal groups across the country and worldwide – would turn violent. The House speaker, Mike Johnson, called them “Hate America” rallies, a moniker that was quickly picked up by other Republicans, and described the No Kings protests as a crucible of potential riots, representing “all the pro-Hamas wing and, you know, the antifa people”. “You’re gonna bring together the Marxists, the socialists, the antifa advocates, the anarchists, and the pro-Hamas wing of the far-left Democrat party,” he said. Tom Emmer, a representative for Minnesota, described the rallies as a product of the “terrorist wing” of the Democratic party. And Roger Marshall, a senator from Kansas, fantasized that the protests would require action by the national guard. Others, such as the attorney general, Pam Bondi, mused about who might be paying the protesters to show up – an idea that seemed to dismiss the notion that anyone might oppose Donald Trump’s agenda for principled, rather than cynical, reasons.At times they sounded almost wistful. Republicans, the president himself chief among them, have been fervently endeavoring to cast those who oppose their authoritarian consolidation of power as enemies – contemptible un-Americans who lack virtue, common values, or the protection of the law. In a world where it was once considered the height of inappropriate partisanship for Hillary Clinton to refer to a “basket of deplorables” among Trump voters or Barack Obama to mourn the conservatives who “cling to guns or religion”, it barely registered as news on Thursday when the White House press secretary, Karoline Leavitt, told Fox News: “The Democrat party’s main constituency are made up of Hamas terrorists, illegal aliens, and violent criminals.”But no matter how fervently and how deeply the Trump regime appears to hate the American people, the No Kings protests that brought millions to the streets on Saturday suggests that the American people hate them even more. In the densely packed streets of cities from New York to Austin to Oakland to St Augustine, Florida, the massive protests took on a tone of jubilant contempt, with Trump and his various lackeys derided on signs and in effigies, with jokes that ranged from the high-minded to the vulgar. At a protest in San Francisco, I saw one man holding a sign that quoted Walt Whitman, walking near a woman making a vulgar reference to Trump’s friendship with Jeffrey Epstein. A number of people donned inflatable character costumes – I saw a starfish, a teddy bear, two unicorns, a rooster and a pickle. They originated from Portland’s protests against Immigration and Customs Enforcement and national guard deployments as cheeky ways to mock the Trump administration’s claims that the city was “war-torn” and in need of armed invasion. If the anti-Trump resistance movements of his first administration were characterized by a kind of self-serious righteousness, those of the No Kings era have devolved into irreverence and humor. At times I was reminded of a peculiar feeling I have sometimes had, in the desperate hours after funerals or bad breakups, when I have been crying for so long that I find I’ve started laughing.The No Kings protests have been criticized for their capaciousness and indefinite agenda, and it is true that the demonstrations are the product of several large liberal groups and bring together people whose politics and inclinations would not ordinarily mix. At San Francisco’s protest, I saw the signature red rose of the democratic socialists, the Aztec eagle of the United Farm Workers, and a gold lamé sign held aloft by a largely unclothed man who declared himself a libertarian – in addition to a motley mix of men wearing the powdered wigs and tricorn hats of the founding fathers, women with white feathered sleeves and hoods posing as bald eagles, and a staggering number of people who wrapped themselves in the American flag.The hodgepodge of symbolism might reflect the chaotic and disorganized nature of the anti-Trump coalition – which, containing as it does the majority of the US’s 340 million people, is rife with contradictions. This has long been a problem for the Democrats: the party fears that their tent is too big, their base is too far from swing voters, and the coalitions of Obama and Joe Biden are too fractured and fragile to ever be maintained. But Trump has perhaps created a new kind of glue that can hold together a different kind of political movement: something that vast swaths of the American people hate even more than they hate each other.Amid the density of references and imagery, No Kings might also indicate a new political posture being born: a left-liberal popular front that mixes principle with irreverence. The aspiration of No Kings, in a way, is to abolish itself – to rebuild, perhaps a little sturdier and more honest this time, the kind of constitutional system in which law and persuasion replace Trump’s model of violence and domination. To put it another way: the people at the No Kings rallies all agree that they want to restore the kinds of liberal-democratic conditions that will enable them to disagree with one another.skip past newsletter promotionafter newsletter promotionAt any rate, the violence that the Trump regime seemed to long for did not materialize. In San Francisco, an organizer speaking into a megaphone urged attenders to ignore any pro-Trump agitators they might encounter, and to not engage with any federal agents. “If you see uniformed feds outside a building,” he warned the crowd, “it’s bait.” Before the marches, some seemed frightened of what might happen – whether Trump-aligned federal forces might crack down with mass arrests, or whether pro-Trump militias might instigate a fight. But the demonstrations seem to have been remarkably peaceful, even cheerful, avoiding provocations and meeting virtually no violence from Trump-aligned forces. In New York, an estimated 100,000 marchers participated in No Kings events across the five boroughs, and an official Twitter account associated with the New York police department reported that there had been no arrests of protesters.Trump appeared disappointed. On Saturday evening, after the marches had largely disbanded and the millions who had turned out to oppose him went home, he took to Truth Social, his proprietary social media platform, to post an AI-generated video of himself. In the cartoon, Trump – wearing a crown – flies a fighter jet over the No Kings protests, and dumps feces on the protesting citizens. It was a peevish, petulant little display of contempt – the kind of behavior that you would punish in a child but which has become bog standard for the president of the United States. He evidently wanted Americans to know that he hates them. The feeling is mutual.
Moira Donegan is a Guardian US columnist More
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No Kings protesters on their hopes for resistance movement against Trump: ‘If we lose momentum, we lose the fight’
Saturday’s No Kings protests brought millions to the streets across all 50 states in the latest demonstration against Donald Trump’s administration amid a government shutdown. But many protesters are already strategizing about what to do next.Some said continuing protests were a sign of vibrant civil resistance against the administration’s heavy-handed policies, which have challenged legal and constitutional norms in the US. They also discussed economic boycotts and strikes.Others were concerned it would take more Americans feeling direct impact to catalyze change. “I think we have to see the demise before it can turn around, sadly, but we’re here to make sure that doesn’t happen,” said Eric Stone, a 35-year-old from Oklahoma who attended the protest in Washington DC.Guardian reporters covered protests in Atlanta, Washington DC, Chicago and Los Angeles and asked attendees why they showed up, what they are hoping to see from the resistance movement, and whether the Democratic party was an effective opposition party. Here is what they said:Washington DCMary PhillipsA Native American originally from the Omaha tribe in Nebraska and Pueblo of Laguna in New Mexico who now lives in Washington DCView image in fullscreen“I think there are brilliant minds who are here today who know what bad legislation, bad policies, can do to our entire country, and what the future looks like if we continue down, not able to stop what’s happening and proceeding. These are all people from different walks of life, different skills and and levels of masteries in their own disciplines.“I believe the [leaders] who are vocal are definitely making waves and doing what they’re supposed to do, but I think there are others who are still on the fence. [There are] key issues that we need them to be 100% towards democracy, and it feels like they’re not. It feels like they are sticking to the old rules. But we have all set a set of new rules right now and they need to look at what those rules are to make up their decisions in their backrooms. And then speak on the floor what those are, what we are fighting on the streets.“So No Kings, I think, is the pinnacle of what we’re so close to right now, having a king. Once martial law goes into place, we would be under that threat, and we don’t know what the end of it looks like really, other than changing the constitution, which I think is easier done than we thought ever could be. This movement may turn into more than No Kings. It may turn into saving lives, period – saving our life, saving our freedom to be United States citizens because anybody right now can be told you’re not a citizen any more.”Laura BuckwaldNo Kings protesterView image in fullscreen“People are waking up because right now, it’s affecting people immediately in their day-to-day lives. It’s affecting our health insurance. It’s affecting our ability to just live our lives as we choose to live them. The government is trying to tell us how to run our lives, and that’s just not acceptable in the United States. As far as leadership is concerned, we’ve been disappointed on the leaders that we should have, particularly in Congress, and we’re hoping that this gives them the courage to stand up. We’re proud of what they’re doing now right now, not opening up the government until we have proper healthcare covered. But they need to do a lot more doing that, so I hope they do.“Just yesterday, I got a notice from my health insurance company about my premiums going up – they’re almost doubling. They put straight out that they are not going to cover any healthcare that is for transition purposes, so our transgender Americans will not have coverage under the plan that I have. That is totally unacceptable. I teach young people and I’ve encountered trans youth, and they have told me that without this healthcare, it makes some of them want to commit suicide.“I think [what Republicans have done has] been despicable. They have cut so many programs just so that they can give tax breaks to rich people, make billionaires trillionaires … Our taxes aren’t going to go down. We’re not going to see any benefit from it and we’re going to have the same taxes, if not more, and we’re going to have less in benefits that we have paid for. This is a tyrannical regime in office right now and they need to resign. They can’t handle the job. They’re incompetent and they’re mean. They’re cruel to people in the United States and that is anti-American. It is un-Christian and it’s unacceptable.”Mike ReidA former Republican from Maryland who switched parties during Bill Clinton’s administration. He said he hasn’t voted for Trump in any electionsView image in fullscreenReid was holding up a sign of the founding fathers with “No Kings” on it.“It’s actually my wife’s idea, but these were the original No Kings gang and they’re the ones who first had said ‘no kings in America.’ And then on the back we have the original Bill of Rights, which has the part about freedom of speech, freedom of press, freedom of religion and the right of people to peaceably assemble. So we and the people here are standing up for what America is supposed to be … We’re the ones who represent what real America is. Those rightwingers and the White House and Congress – they are betraying everything this country was supposed to be about, and that’s why people, common people, have to stand up.“I think that some Democratic governors like Gavin Newsom [in] California and JB Pritzker in Illinois are doing very well. They’re standing up. And I mean, there is a limit to what they can do with the bloc, they’re totally out of power right now. But state government, Democratic state governors, some of them are standing up – not all unfortunately, but some of them.“I grew up in a Republican family. I was Republican up until about 20-some years ago, back when the party was about limited government, fiscal responsibility, individual rights. They have betrayed all of that. And the party that today calls themselves Republicans – they’re not Republicans, they’re fascists, and they’re betraying my great-great-grandfather who served in the Union army in the civil war.”Eric Stone, 35Identifies as an independent and said most of his family are Republican Trump supportersView image in fullscreen“My family is Maga; my family is Trump supporters. I grew up in a small town where they didn’t want a dictatorship. They didn’t want people who were disrespectful to women. They didn’t want people who were racist and all these hateful things. And yet here they are supporting and cheering on this man like they want him to be the second coming of God. And now that I’m out here protesting this, it’s like … everybody in that circle drank the Kool-Aid. “I got people losing their jobs [around me because of the shutdown]. They’re scared that they can’t pay their bills. They’re stressing … and they’re everyday people who work their jobs and work for this country to keep it running. And we’re going to tell them they shouldn’t be paid for, what for? “I support what they stand for. For the most part, you’re not going to agree with everybody on everything. However, I feel like Democrats, they don’t have, for a lack of better terms, the balls – they’re too weak, because we always end up in this situation. The Democrats just want to talk for long hours and go on TV and do these events, which is beautiful … It’s powerful. However, you have access to that building right there. We’re standing right next to the Capitol building. Go do something about it.”Shawn SkellyFormer assistant secretary of defense for readiness in the Biden-Harris administration (only the second-ever out trans person to hold a Senate-confirmed position) and the co-founder of Out in National Security. She was a speaker at the rallyView image in fullscreen“The United States military is made up of people from every background, from every part of the country, to include immigrants and to include LGBTQ people. [Trump officials have] decided that you can’t allow transgender service members to serve. [These members have] been in command of units flying aircraft. They are high-end engineers. They are small unit leaders. None of them have blown up or failed or been drummed out of service because of the fact that they’re transgender. Each and every one of our 2.1 million service members are American heroes in their own way. You can’t have people in that institution while you’re trying to make trans people the enemy and the reason for oppression in that way.“There should never be a shutdown, frankly, and that it’s lasted this long is the fault of the [Republican] party, the political party that has all the levers of power right now … and a very willing supreme court to let them do pretty much what they want to do, pending appeal. This is democracy in action right here. This is our constitution and our civil rights in action. It’s about ‘we the people’. As Lincoln said in the Gettysburg Address, it’s government of the people, by the people, for the people. This is America at its best.” Los Angeles, CaliforniaGinny Eschbach, 72Turned out on Saturday for her 42nd protest since Trump’s inauguration. She wore a SpongeBob SquarePants costume to be ‘whimsical’View image in fullscreen“I have felt that the movement needed a face for a long time, someone to rally the troops, who we respect and admire. But who is that? I do not know.” She suggested it might possibly be a figure like Barack Obama. “There’s all these groups and these protests all coalesce, but I’m afraid it’s too fragmented. There needs to be one movement.”“This is not a joke,” she said of Republicans’ resistance to negotiate with Democrats over the expiration of Affordable Care Act subsidies. “If they defund people’s health insurance by not continuing the subsidies, it’s gonna be a mess. Even if they got that through, our healthcare is being so eroded by cutting science funding. There’s already reports of rural hospitals closing down. This is just going to spread through the country. It’s going to be a nightmare.”Eschbach said she will definitely continue to protest – sometimes she will attend two to three a weekend. She is currently canvassing to help pass Proposition 50 in California, part of the plan to counter Texas’s gerrymandered maps. “I’ll just carry on,” she said. “I write postcards, I go to protests, I talk to people. I’ll do whatever I can.”Talia Guppy, 46Social worker in Los AngelesView image in fullscreenGuppy comes from a long tradition of social justice activism – her parents marched with Cesar Chavez and the United Farm Workers. “The least I can do is be out here,” she said.Among the leaders stepping forward, Guppy mentioned her state’s governor, Democrat Gavin Newsom, who is widely expected to run for president in 2028. She credited the governor with going “head to head and toe to toe” with the president. “Sometimes we have to fight fire with fire,” she said. “We can’t always take the easy road.”Guppy said she has many friends who are federal workers and have told her they want Democrats to keep fighting to preserve access to affordable healthcare and to constrain the Trump administration. “I’ve been protesting since the first big raid on June 6,” she said, and vowed to continue. “We’ve been doing as much as we can anytime that we can because it has to continue. If we lose the momentum, then we lose the fight.”Taylor G, 55 No Kings protesterHe said some people have stepped up to try to check Trump – the unions, certain universities and among Los Angeles’s entertainment industry, including Jane Fonda. But he said he has been disappointed so far by the lack of response from the “dotcom” companies, such as Facebook and other tech giants. “All of those companies just seem to be going along with it because it’s good for their business,” he said. “People have to get way out of their comfort zones,” he added, suggesting the left-leaning movement needed more leaders willing to venture into less friendly territory and try to persuade people who may not be ideologically aligned with Democrats. “Even though we might not agree on everything, we could agree that what’s going on in the country is not good,” he said. He added that he has friends who have left the country because of the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown. He approved of the Democrats’ hardball approach to the government shutdown and would absolutely be willing to walk off the job. “I think that we need to do a lot more like what they do in Europe, a general strike, meaning everybody walks out, not just Democrats,” he said. Chicago, IllinoisOscar Gonzalez, 28From the west side of the cityView image in fullscreen“My parents are immigrants. I love them to death. I want Chicago to be a safe city. I want America to be a great nation for everybody. No human’s illegal, so I’m here to embody that and show everybody that we have all the power to make change.“We need a Cesar Chavez, Malcolm X, Martin Luther [King], we need somebody to embody. Fred Hampton, you know, we’re in Chicago.”Abel Mebratu, 43From Rogers Park, a neighborhood in ChicagoView image in fullscreenMebratu was carrying a sign depicting Silverio Villegas-González, who was killed by Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (Ice) last month. “[I’m here] giving a voice to a voiceless man that has been taken from us – unfairly and unlawfully – and his kids need justice. “I’m originally from Ethiopia and I consider myself a Chicagoan. We have values that we share and when our values are attacked, we come together. We’re led by our values and what we stand for and what we want to pass on for our next generation.” Lindsay Weinberg, 43No Kings protesterView image in fullscreenWeinberg held a sign referencing her great-grandmother, who died in the Holocaust.“It’s really personal to me when I hear people getting grabbed off the streets and taken away … I mean, many, many victims of the Holocaust don’t know what happened to their relatives, but I happen to know that [my great-grandmother’s] bones are in a mass grave … that’s important history for people to remember.“People are getting disappeared. People are hiding. People are being murdered. People are being wounded. People are experiencing trauma. It’s escalating.”Atlanta, GeorgiaGeoff Sumner, 68A retired military veteran from Stone Mountain, GeorgiaView image in fullscreen“There don’t seem to be any [leaders of the resistance] at the moment, so we’re it. Right now we got nobody. Where are they? [Chuck] Schumer-crats? Hakeem [Jeffries]? We got nobody.”Sumner doesn’t agree with what the Democrats are doing regarding the shutdown. “We don’t need to negotiate with fascists … You want our votes? Stop all this fascism. Stop all this arresting people in the street … It’s a hell of a lot more than healthcare, ain’t it?”“We gotta get the Trump regime out – all of them out. We gotta do it fast before they consolidate whatever they’re doing … How far should we go? That’s up to every individual. But I think people in America are in denial or they don’t know how bad it’s fixing to get.”Jake Riley, 44Project manager from AtlantaView image in fullscreen“I would say AOC, first of all, she would be a leader if I had to pick somebody. She would probably be up there. But as far as the protesters and on-the-ground people? I think it’s better if it’s more of a loose alliance of people. I don’t really think we have a leader structure.“After the rally, we have to get [everyone] running for every office imaginable. There’s lots of contests that go unchallenged.”Joshua Wilson, 22Multimedia producer from Lawrenceville, GeorgiaView image in fullscreen“I work with a lot of government officials at my job as clients. With the shutdown happening, I’ve been getting less work … and less work. Recently my boss politely told me, ‘Hey, you know, if you don’t want to come to work’ … I can just stay home on certain days because of it. I do think Democrats are doing the right thing, but granted it does affect me and affect me in a big way. So I’m willing to risk my paycheck for doing what’s right.“I feel like this [protest] is actually something. We should be joining organisations, reading up, getting educated and knowledgeable about the situation, or at least listening to outlets. You know, at least trying to join the community.” More
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No Kings protest live updates: millions march against Trump in nationwide day of protest
Millions are expected to show out for protests on Saturday at more than 2,500 locations across America, from small towns to large cities, to speak against the Trump administration.No Kings, the coalition behind a mass demonstration in June, is again calling people to the streets to send the simple message that Donald Trump is not a king, pushing back against what they see as increasing authoritarianism.Several US cities now have a militarised presence on the ground, most against the will of local leaders. Trump has promised to crack down on dissent as part of an ongoing retribution campaign. Still, organisers say they expect to see one of the largest, if not the largest, single day of protest in US history.
What are the No Kings protests?
A coalition of left-leaning groups is again leading a day of mass demonstrations across the US to protest against the Trump administration. The coalition spearheaded a previous No Kings protest day in June, drawing millions to the streets to speak out against the president on the same day Trump held a military parade in Washington.The protests are called No Kings to underscore that America does not have kinds of absolute rulers, a ding against Trump’s increasing authoritarianism.“‘NO KINGS’ is more than just a slogan; it is the foundation our nation was built upon,” a website for the protests, nokings.org, says. “Born in the streets, shouted by millions, carried on posters and chants, it echoes from city blocks to rural town squares, uniting people across this country to fight dictatorship together.”
Where are they happening?
Organisers say there are more than 2,500 protests planned across the country, in the largest cities and in small towns, and in all 50 states. It is part of a distributed model where people protest in their own communities rather than travelling to large urban hubs to show that discontent with Trump exists in all corners of the US.For the 18 October day of action, organisers have identified several anchor cities: Washington DC; San Francisco; San Diego; Atlanta; New York City; Houston, Texas; Honolulu; Boston; Kansas City, Missouri; Bozeman, Montana; Chicago and New Orleans.The protests start at different times depending on location. The No Kings website has a map with details for each location.Read more about who organised the protests, why organisers are asking protesters to wear yellow, what Trump has said about them and more in our Q&A here:Here are some more images of other No Kings protests underway in several US states including North Carolina, Florida, Arizona, and Vermont.Screenwriter and director Tony Gilroy, who created the Star Wars series Andor, was among the thousands of people who gathered in downtown Los Angeles on Saturday afternoon for the No Kings protest.Andor, starring Diego Luna as the protagonist, follows Cassian Andor’s journey as a thief-turned-spy for the Rebel Alliance — the good guys whose ranks eventually go on to include characters such as Luke Skywalker, Princess Leia and Han Solo — in a crusade to take down the Galactic Empire.“We spent six years making a show about the fascist takeover of a galaxy, far, far away,” he said. “We didn’t think we were making a documentary.”Gilroy said the show offered a clear model for what authoritarian rule looks like – and how to resist it.“We spent a lot of time thinking about sacrifice and courage, and the incremental encroachment of authoritarianism and how it works,” he said. “I think I would have been. I think I would have been here anyway, but the show is only amplified my understanding of it – my understanding of the sort of karaoke fascist playbook, but also my appreciation for the varieties of courage it takes for people to resist.”Gilroy was dismayed by the “vacuum” of leadership among the anti-Trump resistance but saw reason to be hopeful as he looked out at the gathering crowd of Angelenos waving American flags and No Kings posters.The rally in Portland has turned into a massive march, now filling the city’s Hawthorne Bridge with thousands filling the streets leading to the bridge.I just witnessed a remarkable scene further back in the crowd, as protesters carrying handmade signs passed a trio of street performers, dressed as Donald Trump, whose head was entirely constructed of Cheetos, JD Vance and Kristi Noem.Just behind the performers, a group of nine people in black bloc clothing held a banner with the slogan “Organize to Attack the State” and chanted for insurrection and revolution.At least one Portlander passing the group suggested that they looked like entirely “fake antifa”.Fake or not, they were massively outnumbered by a crowd that included hundreds of people in animal costumes, making the protest feel more like a carnival than anything at all threatening.Crowds are amassing outside of City Hall in Los Angeles, where many protesters are carrying American flags and organizers are handing out sunscreen and water.A group is dancing to a live band play as street vendors sell hot dogs and elote. There is a large contingent of inflatable costumes – I’ve spotted a frog, a shark and a duck.Many people are also waving Mexican flags, which have become a sign of resistance and protest amid the Trump administration’s violent immigration crackdown in the city.There are plenty of signs denouncing Ice and Trump’s deportation campaign. “If you don’t care that he’s a felon, you shouldn’t care if someone is undocumented,” said one, referencing Trump’s 34 felony convictions by a New York jury.Before the march begins, a speaker just led the crowd in a chant: “Fuck Trump. Fuck Ice.”A panoply of speakers in Atlanta addressed both national problems like draconian immigration enforcement and the erosion of civil liberties, as well as issues of sharp local concern, as when a representative of Play Fair ATL – a coalition of anti-homelessness advocates and rights groups – took the stage.Play Fair intends to hold Atlanta to commitments to refrain from sweeping homeless people from the city’s streets ahead of the World Cup next year, skeptical of mayor Andre Dickens’ resolve to resist demands by FIFA and Trump.The suggestion that support for antifa–that is, antifascism–is tantamount to support for terrorism drew particular scorn from protesters.“I think that’s absurd,” said Nicky Cooper, a software developer in Atlanta. She wore a shirt with an antifascist symbol on it to the rally. The labelling of people as somehow sympathetic to terrorism is chilling, she said. “I mean, we’re leaving a digital trail of this. You know? I have antifascism mentioned on my social media stuff. I mean, I’m not a ‘member’ of antifa, because how do you join antifa? So it’s like, who the hell are we looking for here?”Comments by defense secretary Pete Hegseth to an assembly of high ranking military leaders last month featured prominently in the words of speakers and the reaction of protesters.Brian Woods, 65, from Lawrenceville, is a former Army communications staff sergeant. “I thought it was unnecessary. It goes against what we know as military people.” He marveled at the decision to put that many leaders in the same room at the same time, potentially providing an immense military target to America’s enemies. “He could have said that over one of their so-called secured lines,” a dig by a commo guy at Hegseth’s Signal chats. “They have a bulletproof mentality, so they just do things recklessly, without real thoughts that go into those types of conversations and communications.”Atlanta’s protest march concluded at 2 PM without incident, traveling down streets hallowed in civil rights history from the Atlanta Civic Center to the state capitol building about 1.2 miles away. At least 35 other affiliated No Kings Day protests demonstrations progressed across the state, from Brunswick near the Ice detention center in Folkston on Georgia’s southern border, to Dalton in the heart of Marjorie Taylor Greene’s northwest Georgia district.Initial crowds of about 10,000 in Atlanta contracted a bit as the day progressed, but turnout was roughly equivalent to those in June in Atlanta, and more widely dispersed across the state.Erik Malewaski, a college professor who lives in Marietta–where protests also had been planned–attended the Atlanta event anyway.“I did the Marietta protest last time, and I wanted to see exactly what would go down here, particularly I thought we may get speakers like Warnock and Stacey Abrams.”As well he did. Both senator Rev Raphael Warnock and former Georgia gubernatorial candidate Abrams described the actions of the federal government under President Donald Trump as fascist in plain terms.“They want us to believe that we’re in danger if we speak up…that if we assemble like the First Amendment tells us we can, that there’s a problem,” Abrams said, arguing that the attacks on press freedoms and the firing of outspoken Trump critics like Karen Attiah and Jimmy Kimmel are discrete steps on a path to autocracy. “They want to break democracy forever.” said Abrams. “Their destination is to take our country from us.”I am in downtown Portland, where many thousands of No Kings protesters, many in inflatable animal costumes, are rallying in a riverfront park.A small group of eight counter-protesters in Maga hats and Charlie Kirk shirts have been making their way through the crowd, trying to antagonize demonstrators by blaring air horns and shouting praise for Trump and transphobic slurs through megaphones.The group is led by Tommy Allen, a pro-Trump streamer who was recently charged with assault by Portland prosecutors for punching a protester outside the Ice facility in south Portland during a skirmish instigated by Nick Sortor, a conservative influencer.Their IRL trolling has led to jeers from some members of the crowd, but they have largely been ignored so far. One man, holding a sign in favor of trans rights, repeatedly screamed at the Trump supporters that they were “bootlickers”.Other protesters alerted Portland police officers to the fact that Allen seemed to be trying to provoke conflict, while recording video, and that he was recently arrested. Officers on bicycles seemed to be tracking the movements of Allen and his group from a distance.The New York police department posted on social media that most rallies across the city had ended and that there had been no arrests, adding that more than 100,000 people showed up to peacefully protest.“The majority of the No Kings protests have dispersed at this time and all traffic closures have been lifted,” the NYPD wrote. “We had more than 100,000 people across all five boroughs peacefully exercising their first amendment rights and the NYPD made zero protest-related arrests.”Good afternoon from Los Angeles, where more than two dozen No Kings protests are planned across southern California.In California, San Diego and San Francisco have been identified as the “anchor” cities for the No Kings protests, but a major demonstration is expected to kick off in downtown Los Angeles, at Gloria Molina Grand Park.Here activists are encouraging voters to pass “Prop 50” – a ballot initiative to redraw California’s congressional boundaries to give Democrats an additional five seats to offset the Republican-drawn and Trump-sought gerrymander in Texas.Earlier this morning, a group of protesters formed a human banner on Ocean Beach in San Francisco that read, according to the local ABC affiliate, “No Kings Yes on 50”.Reports are coming in that more than 200,000 people in the Washington DC area rallied near the US Capitol during the No Kings protest today. The event is of the largest nationwide mobilization since president Trump returned to office.Millions took to the streets today across more than 2,700 cities and towns, marking a day of defiance against Trump’s authoritarianism, billionaire-first politics, and the militarization of American cities.Many people at protests across the nation appear inspired by “Operation Inflation”, an initiative where demonstrators wear colorful and inflatable costumes to protests, usually resembling an animal or Pokémon-type character.The trend started with a protester dubbed the Portland Frog, who began dressing in an inflatable frog costume to attend Ice protests.The Senate minority leader, Chuck Schumer, has joined the No Kings protesters in New York.“I proudly marched side-by-side with labor unions and so many more of our fellow citizens in NYC,” he wrote on social media. “We have no dictators in America. And we won’t allow Trump to keep eroding our democracy.”From my colleague Siri Chilukuri in Chicago:The No Kings protest kicked off in Chicago, Illinois, at Grant Park’s Butler Field at noon. There are at least 10,000 people as the speeches begin. An intergenerational group of protesters has gathered, most with signs opposing Ice’s presence in Chicago or mocking Donald Trump.Many flags, signs and T-shirts read, “Fuck Ice”, and others read “Hands Off Chicago”, a rallying cry that began when Trump first announced his intent to send the national guard into the city. Other signs read “Resist Fascism” and “Hands off our Constitution”.Mayor Brandon Johnson spoke to the crowd, which erupted in cheers when he took to the stage.“They have decided that they want a rematch of the civil war,” he said.“We are here to stand firm and stand committed that we will not bend, we will not bow, we will not cower, we will not submit. We do not want troops in our city.”The crowd erupted in chants of “Fuck Donald Trump” while the Illinois representative Jonathan Jackson spoke to the crowd. Later, as ACLU Illinois’s communications director Ed Yohnka spoke, the crowd chanted: “USA! USA! USA!”Senator Dick Durbin, Lt Gov Juliana Stratton, Representative Chuy García, President of the Cook County board of commissioners Toni Preckwinkle, as well as local aldermen and state representatives were in attendance. More - in US Politics
Biggest US labor unions fuel No Kings protests against Trump: ‘You need a voice to have freedom’
Recovery from a recent surgery for colon cancer will not stop James Phipps, 75, from attending Saturday’s No Kings demonstration in Chicago, Illinois. “I have a burning desire to be a part of the protest.” he said, “because that’s all I’ve done all my life.”Phipps, born in Marks, Mississippi, was involved in the civil rights movement in the 1960s from the age of 13, when he was part of racially integrating his local high school and organizing with the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee. At 15, he became involved in the Mississippi Freedom Labor Union (MFLU), which organized sharecroppers for better wages.At the time, the MFLU was organizing cotton pickers. “They were paid 30 cents an hour, working in the hot sun, 10 hours a day, which was $3, two and half cents per pound of cotton,” said Phipps. “It broke their necks, backs, pelvis and knees.”“They had no medical care,” he added. “That’s one of the key things in my mind right now.”Phipps, who now works in administrative support in Cook county, is a member of SEIU Local 73.He was thankful he had health insurance to cover his recent cancer surgery. The federal government shutdown continues, after Democrats demanded that Republicans address recent Medicaid cuts under Donald Trump and extend health insurance subsidies scheduled to expire at the end of the year. The expiration would set the stage for rapidly rising insurance premiums and risk driving an estimated 3.1 million Americans off health insurance.View image in fullscreen“You have greedy men thinking about one thing, and that’s about enhancing their pocketbook, their financial wellbeing,” said Phipps, who has also been alarmed by aggressive Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) raids in Chicago. The Trump administration has defended the raids with false and misleading claims about crime.“There’s no reason why you should walk the streets, taking people out of their home, and they’ve been here for 20 or 30 years,” he said. “I had Mexican neighbors live next door to me 41 years. They were some of my best friends in life. We coalesced with each other.“We were social with neighbors, with each other, and we loved each other. When one saw somebody died or there was a problem, we were already there.”There are parallels, Phipps said, between how immigrants are being treated under Trump to the discriminatory laws he grew up under in Mississippi.“The same struggle that Mexican Americans and people of color are going through, we went through that since 1619, especially in the south when we had Jim Crow,” he said. “If you dared do anything at that time to confront them about the way you were treated, you would end up being found in the river or lynched somewhere, so I identify with what is going on.”‘We didn’t want kings then, and we don’t want kings now’Some of the largest labor unions in the US are involved in organizing the No Kings protests, with more than 2,600 demonstrations planned across all 50 states, with the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) and American Federation of Teachers anchoring events.“Unions understand that a voice at work creates power for regular people at work. Unions understand that a voice in democracy creates power for regular folks, for working folks in a society,” said Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers. “These are two of the main ways that regular folks have any power.“We and labor understand that you need to have a voice to have freedom. Freedom does not come without a voice.”While prominent Republicans and Trump administration officials have claimed the protests amount to “hate America” rallies – in stark contrast to Trump’s description of January 6 rioters as “patriots”. The Republican congressman Tom Emmer went so far as to suggest that Democrats were bowing to the “pro-terrorist wing of their party” by standing by demands that Republicans address recent Medicaid cuts and extend health insurance subsidies.Weingarten said the events were actually a response to abuses of power by Trump, and designed to express frustration over his administration’s failure to deal with issues such as soaring grocery and healthcare prices.“I love America and I resent anyone attempting to take away my patriotism because I want the promise of America to be real for all Americans,” she said. “That’s where labor is. They want the promise of America to be real for our members, and for their families, and for the people we serve.View image in fullscreen“Our founders were a rebellious lot who said, ‘We don’t want kings.’ And now 249 years later, people are saying, ‘No, we meant it.’ There’s a lot of things that we’ve changed in America, but one of the things that had stayed constant is we didn’t want kings then, and we don’t want kings now.”“The real threat to this country isn’t peaceful protesters. It’s politicians shutting down our government to protect billionaires and corporate greed,” said Jaime Contreras, executive vice-president for SEIU 32 BJ, which represents 185,000 janitors, security officers, airport workers and other service employees around the east coast of the US. “What’s ironic to me is you call peaceful protesters ‘terrorists’, but then the people who destroyed our nation’s Capitol building ‘patriots’.“On 18 October, SEIU members will be in the streets across the country as part of the No Kings [protests], because America belongs to the people, working people, not to billionaires or a few politicians who think they can rule like kings in a democracy like ours.” More
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Millions expected across all 50 US states to march in No Kings protests against Trump
Americans across all 50 states will march in protests against the Trump administration on Saturday, aligning behind a message that the country is sliding into authoritarianism and there should be no kings in the US.Millions are expected to turn out for the No Kings protests, the second iteration of a coalition that marched in June in one of the largest days of protest in US history. Events are scheduled for more than 2,700 locations, from small towns to large cities.Donald Trump has cracked down on US cities, attempting to send in federal troops and adding more immigration agents. He is seeking to criminalize dissent, going after left-leaning organizations that he claims are supporting terrorism or political violence. Cities have largely fought back, suing to prevent national guard infusions, and residents have taken to the streets to speak out against the militarization of their communities.Trump’s allies have sought to cast the No Kings protests as anti-American and led by antifa, the decentralized anti-fascist movement, while also claiming that the protests are prolonging the government shutdown. Greg Abbott, the governor of Texas, has said he will send the state’s national guard to Austin, the state’s capital, in advance of the protests.Some politicians, including Democratic senators Chuck Schumer and Chris Murphy, and independent Senator Bernie Sanders, are expected to attend the protests. The No Kings coalition has repeatedly underscored its commitment to nonviolent resistance, and tens of thousands of participants have trained on safety and de-escalation tactics.“What’s most important as a message for people to carry is that the president wants us to be scared, but we will not be bullied into fear and silence,” said Lisa Gilbert, the co-president of Public Citizen, one of the protest organizers. “And it’s incredibly important for people to remain peaceful, to stand proud and to say what they care about, and not to be cowed by that fear.”More than 200 organizations have signed on as partners for the 18 October protests. Organizers have identified several anchor cities: Washington DC, San Francisco, San Diego, Atlanta, New York City, Houston, Honolulu, Boston, Kansas City in Missouri, Bozeman in Montana, Chicago and New Orleans.The simple framing of the protests is that the US has no kings, a dig at Trump’s increasing authoritarianism. Among the themes the organizers have pointed to: Trump is using taxpayer money for power grabs, sending in federal forces to take over US cities; Trump has said he wants a third term and “is already acting like a monarch”; the Trump administration has taken its agenda too far, defying the courts and slashing services while deporting people without due process.skip past newsletter promotionafter newsletter promotionThe June No Kings protests drew millions to the streets, with the Harvard Crowd Counting Consortium estimating that between 2 and 4.8 million people attended protests across the more than 2,000 locations in what was “probably the second-largest single day demonstration since Trump first took office in January 2017”, second to the Women’s March in 2017. More
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Maga is painting Saturday’s protests as violent treason. Prove them wrong | Judith Levine
“They have a ‘Hate America’ rally that’s scheduled for October 18 on the National Mall,” the House speaker, Mike Johnson, said on Fox News on Friday. “It’s all the pro-Hamas wing and, you know, the antifa people. They’re all coming out.”The Republican Minnesota congressman Tom Emmer said the party’s “terrorist wing” was holding the “Hate America” rally. “Democrats want to keep the government shut down to show all those people that are going to come here and express their hatred towards this country that they’re fighting President Trump,” said the House majority leader, Steve Scalise. The transportation secretary, Sean Duffy, embellished the story on Fox, referring to the demonstrations’ “paid protesters” and adding: “It begs the question who’s funding it.”These people are, of course, slandering the second round of No Kings marches, following those on 14 June, which dwarfed Trump’s pitiful birthday party military parade. This time the events – more than 2,500 of them, according to organizers, planned for every state – promise to be even larger.Trump’s allies are trying to overwrite the patriotic, historically resonant words “No Kings” with insinuations of treasonous violence.Everyone participating in the protests must prove them wrong. Nonviolence, both rigorously disciplined and open-hearted, must define 18 October.The stakes are bigger than anything that happens tomorrow. Because these politicians are not just talking. This smear campaign is one skirmish in the all-fronts war on a vaguely defined leftwing entity the administration calls “antifa”. This war – declared in the 25 September national security presidential memorandum, Countering Domestic Terrorism and Organized Political Violence – is not just supported by propaganda. Disinformation is its essence.The national security reporter Ken Klippenstein published a restricted-circulation FBI/homeland security bulletin on “domestic violence extremists” (DVE), released on 1 October, that links attacks on Ice buildings to peaceful anti-Ice demonstrations. Since June, it says, “small groups of threat actors, some of whom are DVEs, have leveraged large, lawful protests” in California and Oregon “to engage in violent activity” against Ice facilities and “violent confrontations with law enforcement”.Last week, at a White House “antifa roundtable”, the homeland security secretary, Kristi Noem, claimed: “Antifa is just as sophisticated as MS-13, as [Tren de Aragua], as Isis, as Hezbollah, as Hamas, as all of them.” The US attorney general, Pam Bondi, thanked the treasury secretary, Scott Bessent, “for getting to the bottom of these funding mechanisms and individuals who are perpetuating [sic] this violence on our American cities”.Commentators on the “Hate America” blitz, including some of the events’ organizers, have called it an attempt to silence dissent by scaring would-be marchers into staying home. My hunch is that diminishing the crowds is just half of the strategy. The other half is more pernicious. With Ice and the military already dispatched to terrorize Black and blue cities, such language may inspire civilian paramilitaries – many of them armed, organized and trained – to go into the streets and cause mayhem.These militias took action on 6 January 2021. They are itching for another opportunity to attack the “enemy within”, and they don’t need explicit orders to do so. “Hate America” is the phrase that could impel them to act.In larger cities like New York and San Francisco, the marchers will far outnumber any counter-protesters. In the cities occupied by federal troops, where local police don’t relish the optics of teargas wafting through crowds of elderly baby boomers and babies in strollers, there’s no guarantee the feds will restrain themselves. The national guard and Ice have already gassed and pepper-sprayed demonstrators apparently doing nothing more aggressive than standing around and yelling, or, like the Chicago pastor shot in the head with a pepper ball canister, nothing aggressive at all.Enter the freelance enforcers. And it’s in the red states, where gun laws are lax and progressives constitute a small minority, that the odds of aggression and goading to aggression by Maga loyalists are highest.Maga wants nothing more than violence at the marches. Any violent clash, no matter who starts it, will be a green light to the administration to step up the policing crackdown, including on Saturday. The White House deputy chief of staff, Stephen Miller, has been tossing around the word “insurrection” to describe peaceful opposition to the Trump agenda. The president could use anything construable as chaos to invoke the Insurrection Act.skip past newsletter promotionafter newsletter promotionNonviolence is not the same as passivity; it’s the antithesis of surrender. It is not mild, not even friendly. Contradictory as it sounds, steadfast nonviolent resistance against a violent state is the most righteous expression of rage.It’s reassuring that the national non-profit Indivisible, which is also reportedly in Trump’s sights, is among the groups at the helm of the No Kings events. Since its founding in 2016, the organization has been committed to nonviolence. “We reject all forms of political violence and intimidation, no matter the source or the target,” reads its website. “That’s not just a moral stance – it’s a strategic one. Movements that create lasting change do so by building trust, forging solidarity and demonstrating discipline, even in the face of threats or attacks.”Almost all of the 250 partner organizations that appear on NoKings.org are as politically vanilla as progressives can get: the ACLU, Faithful America, the Sierra Club, the Feminist Majority.Alert to the administration’s provocations, Indivisible provides detailed information on running legal, safe and peaceful events. “We expect all participants to seek to de-escalate any potential confrontation with those who disagree with our values,” it says. Weapons of any kind are always prohibited.The good news is that nonviolence is the 21st-century US left’s default behavior. With few exceptions, it is not just nonviolent; it is anti-violence. Prison abolition, disarmament, the feminist politics of care, pacifism – these are leftwing movements. By contrast, extreme-right causes, institutions and tropes – gun rights, the carceral state, the “warrior ethos” – spell out a politics of coercion, cruelty and punishment.On 18 October, tens of millions of people in the streets, peacefully exercising the democratic rights that the Trump regime is laboring to eliminate, will give the lie to Maga’s hallucinatory network of bomb-throwing traitors. No Kings will show America who the real haters are.
Judith Levine is a Brooklyn-based journalist, essayist and author of five books. Her Substack is Today in Fascism More
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US cities to resist Trump’s crackdown on dissent with No Kings protests: ‘We will not be bullied’
Donald Trump has promised to crack down on dissent and sent troops into US cities. His allies are claiming antifa, the decentralized antifascist movement, is behind plans to protest. He is looking for any pretext to go after his opponents.Still, this Saturday, even in cities with troops on the ground, millions of people are expected to march against the president as part of a second “No Kings” protest. The last No Kings protest in June drew several million people across more than 2,000 locations. This time, more than 2,500 cities and towns nationwide are hosting protests.Organizers expect this Saturday’s protests to draw more people than the June events as the American public sees the excesses of the Trump administration more clearly.“Their goal is to dissuade you from participating,” said Ezra Levin, a co-founder of Indivisible, the progressive movement organization with chapters around the US that is a main organizer of No Kings. “That doesn’t mean that everybody has the same threat level. It doesn’t mean that people should ignore what the threats are, but it does mean we’re going to need to see a lot of courage out there on Saturday.”More than 200 organizations are signed on as partners for the 18 October protests; none have dropped off for fear of a Trump backlash, Levin said. The American Civil Liberties Union, the civil rights group, is a partner, as is the advocacy group Public Citizen. Unions including the American Federation of Teachers and SEIU are in the coalition. The new protest movement 50501, which began earlier this year as a call for protests in all 50 states on a single day, is also a partner. Other partners include the Human Rights Campaign, MoveOn, United We Dream, the League of Conservation Voters, Common Defense and more.Resistance to Trump continues to grow. The Harvard Crowd Counting Consortium, which tracks political crowds, noted that 2025 had seen “far more protests” than during the same time period in 2017. The June No Kings protests were “probably the second-largest single day demonstration since Donald Trump first took office in January 2017”, second to the Women’s March in 2017, the consortium said.In June, on the same day a man shot and killed a Minnesota lawmaker and her husband, tens of thousands of people still turned out for No Kings in St Paul while the shooter was on the loose, with attenders saying they didn’t want to back down in the face of political violence.The messages behind the No Kings protests are simple: Trump is acting like a king, and the US rejects kings. The No Kings coalition has cited Trump’s “increasing authoritarian excesses and corruption” as motivation for the protests, including ramping up of deportations, gutting healthcare, gerrymandering maps and selling out families for billionaires.In the months since the first No Kings protests, Trump’s menace against the opposition has only grown, particularly after the far-right commentator Charlie Kirk was murdered. Trump declared antifa to be a terrorist organization and has promised to investigate and take action against any leftwing groups he deems support terrorism.Amid this backdrop, tens of thousands of people have joined calls in recent weeks to prepare safety plans, train on how to serve as marshals for the protests and learn de-escalation tactics.Still, some people may decide to stay home because the threats against them are too great, including the fear of deportation for participating in peaceful protest.“They’re making choices like that every day when they decide whether to go to school or whether to go to work or whether it’s safe to go grocery shopping,” said Lisa Gilbert, co-president of Public Citizen. “Unfortunately, that’s the climate that the Trump administration is engendering aside from this particular day of activation, so I assume that people will make that calculus on this day as well. But I also think that the fact that people have to make that calculus is part of the reason for our protest.”Cities under occupation prepare for protestsTrump has declared war on Chicago, one of the several Democratic-run cities that have seen infusions of federal forces and increasingly militarized immigration agents on the ground. A judge last week blocked the deployment of national guard troops to the Chicago area for at least two weeks, but ramped up immigration enforcement has continued and Chicago is one of several cities that will have protests on Saturday despite the federal presence on the ground.It’s not clear what posture federal agents and military troops will take for the event. In Texas, Governor Greg Abbott said he will deploy national guard troops to Austin, the capital city, though there will be protests in cities and towns throughout the state.In response to questions about whether immigration enforcement officials will be at protest sites, the Department of Homeland Security assistant secretary Tricia McLaughlin said: “As it does every day, DHS law enforcement will enforce the laws of our nation.”In Portland, Oregon, where Trump sought to send in national guard troops but was blocked by the courts, protesters in recent days have leaned into the absurd, showing up naked on bikes, or in inflatable costumes. The Washington Post declared “inflatable frog suits” the “protest fashion statement of the year”.Portland organizers are planning Saturday events they have called joyful and family-friendly, including music and speakers. “Trump is sending militarized agents into our cities, muzzling voters and showering billionaires with handouts. Hard-working American families are left behind,” Dannelle D Stevens, who helps run Miller Street Indivisible, said in a statement. “That’s not democracy. That’s tyranny. And we will not meet it with silence. We refuse to give up.”Chicago, too, is fighting back, both in the courts and on the streets. People have sought to run immigration agents out of their neighborhoods. Some are using whistles to warn their neighbors when agents are nearby. Protests at detention facilities are ongoing, and agents have used teargas and pepper balls to deter protesters.On Saturday, the city is one of several sites serving as anchor protests, expected to be some of the day’s most attended.In June, more than 70,000 people attended Chicago’s main protest, overflowing Daley Plaza, said Denise Poloyac of Indivisible Chicago. On Saturday, the protest will be in the larger Grant Park, with a march planned to begin and end at the park’s Butler Field. It’s hard to predict turnout for a protest, but Poloyac said there had been a surge of interest and engagement in the event.Trump is “using our tax dollars to attack and declare war on our city and on the people that live here,” and locals should make it clear in large numbers that they don’t agree with it, Poloyac said. “We’re asking people to lean into their courage.”Organizers will have more than 150 safety marshals along the route and in the rally location, she said. The idea is that “we keep us safe.” Marshals from Indivisible Chicago and other organizations helped serve at other events, like Mexican Independence Day parades, to protect their community, she noted.People are “already taking risks” just by going about their daily tasks in the city now, Poloyac said. There’s also a sense of strength in numbers at a protest; when there are tens of thousands of people, it’s harder to single someone out, she said.“We’re hoping that people who didn’t come out in June are really angry now and upset and see what’s happening,” Poloyac said. “Those of us who do have more privilege need to come out and especially use that privilege to make our voices heard and to make it clear how unacceptable this is, what Trump and his agents are doing.”Republicans seek to undermineTrump’s allies, including members of Trump’s cabinet, have pre-emptively blamed No Kings for the government shutdown and smeared them as anti-American or paid protests, a common refrain against street protests.The House speaker, Mike Johnson, said the protests would be filled with the “pro-Hamas wing” of the Democrats and the “antifa people”. Tom Emmer, a Minnesota congressman, called the protests the “hate America rally” and said Democrats were beholden to the “terrorist wing of their party”. By claiming the protesters are part of antifa, the Trump administration could seek to go after people as domestic terrorists because of Trump’s recent executive order.Pam Bondi, the attorney general, said: “You’re seeing people out there with thousands of signs that all match, pre-bought, pre-put together. They are organized, and someone is funding it. We are going to get to the funding of antifa. We are going to get to the root of antifa, and we are going to find and charge all of those people who are causing this chaos.”Levin, of Indivisible, said the Trump administration was nervous about demonstrations that threaten its power, “so, in a weird way, it’s a compliment of our relevance and power.” These mass days of protest were often filled with “moms and grandmas and kids and dogs” and a joyful atmosphere, he said.The No Kings coalition affirms a commitment to non-violent action on all of its marketing materials, and organizers emphasize that their groups are all trained in tactics that enforce non-violence.“The violence is coming from the administration through their militarized crackdowns and through masked agents roaming our streets terrorizing communities, not coming from protesters,” Gilbert said. “The president wants us to be scared, but we will not be bullied into fear and silence, and it’s incredibly important for people to remain peaceful, to stand proud and to say what they care about, and not to be cowed by that fear.”What comes nextMass distributed protests help show that opposition is large and growing, in all corners of the country. They can help people find organizations or like-minded neighbors to work with on future actions, and they let people know that they aren’t alone in their dissatisfaction.But street protests alone are just one tool to counter the presidency. Other non-cooperation tactics, like economic boycotts or pressure campaigns, can help protesters achieve policy changes or get companies and pillars of civil society to stiffen their spines instead of caving to Trump.Levin cited the recent Disney boycott campaign after the company temporarily took Jimmy Kimmel’s late-night show off the air as a successful model. This year’s Tesla Takedown boycotts and protests led to lower stock prices and reputational damage for Elon Musk’s company.The president of the Communications Workers of America union, Claude Cummings Jr, called on protesters to use No Kings to spread the word about a boycott of T-Mobile for its alignment with Trump, calling the phone company “some of the worst union busters in America”.“We know boycotts can work,” Cummings wrote in email this week.“We need to keep showing these companies that there’s a cost for embracing Trump’s un-American actions.”Gilbert, of Public Citizen, said protesters should think about how to take it one step further: “If you’ve never called your senator before, you do that. If you’ve never thought to boycott because of political issues, you do that. If you’ve never thought to post on social media about how you feel about militarization of your city, you do that. It’s really asking everyone to activate just a little bit more and to stay engaged.” More
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Oregon sues to block ‘illegal’ deployment of 200 national guard troops to Portland
The state of Oregon filed a lawsuit in federal court on Sunday seeking to block the deployment of 200 national guard troops to Portland, arguing Donald Trump’s characterization of the peaceful city as “war ravaged” is “pure fiction”.Oregon’s governor, Tina Kotek, said at a news conference that she had been notified by the Pentagon that the US president had seized control of the state’s reservists, claiming authority granted to him to suppress “rebellion” or lawlessness.“When the president and I spoke yesterday,” Kotek said, “I told him in very plain language that there is no insurrection, or threat to public safety that necessitates military intervention in Portland.”A Pentagon memorandum dated Sunday and signed by the defense secretary, Pete Hegseth, obtained by the Washington Post, said: “200 members of the Oregon National Guard will be called into Federal service effective immediately for a period of 60 days.”Trump’s action, in asserting federal control of the state’s national guard troops, is clearly “unlawful”, Oregon’s attorney general, Dan Rayfield, said, given that it was not taken in response to a foreign invasion or mass anarchy, but one small protest by dozens of activists outside a single Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) field office in Portland.“Let’s be clear, local law enforcement has this under control,” Kotek, said. “We have free speech demonstrations that are happening near one federal facility. Portland police is actively engaged in managing those, with the federal folks a the facility, and when people cross the line, there’s unlawful activity, people are being held accountable.”The state’s lawsuit notes that the president’s false claims about the Ice facility being “under siege”, and life for Portland resident being “like living in Hell”, appear to be based on a single Fox News report broadcast earlier this month, which mixed social media video from a conservative journalist of the current protest with video of much larger protests in 2020, in another part of the city.“The problem is the president is using social media to inform his views,” the attorney general said, either because he was trying to mislead the public intentionally, or is “relying on social media gossip” about the actual conditions in a US city.Kotek added that she had tried to inform Trump, during a phone conversation on Saturday, that he had been badly misled about current conditions in Portland, which is once again a vibrant and peaceful city a half-decade on from the pandemic-era racial justice protests.skip past newsletter promotionafter newsletter promotion“What I said to the president is: ‘I don’t understand what information you have.’ When he says to me that the federal courthouse is under attack, that is absolutely not true,” Kotek said. Video featured in the recent Fox News report on Portland did show images of a 2020 protest outside the federal courthouse in downtown Portland that were wrongly described as recorded during the current anti-Ice protest.“Some demonstrations happening at one federal facility, that are being managed on a regular basis by local law enforcement, if that is the only issue he’s brining up, he has been given bad information,” Kotek said.“We cannot be looking at footage from 2020 and assume that that is the case today in Portland.” More
