The much-hyped “No Kings” protests against President Donald Trump’s so-called “authoritarian policies” unfolded in cities across the country on Saturday. Despite rainy weather in some areas, Democrats turned out carrying signs like “We the People Want Democracy” and “No Kings in America,” aiming to express their opposition to Trump 2.0.
Assigned to cover the protests, I checked in periodically throughout the day for any developments of note. Each time, I saw photos of modestly sized crowds gathered peacefully. There was nothing particularly remarkable or newsworthy about the events.
Ahead of the well-funded protests scheduled to take place at roughly 2,000 locations across the U.S., Trump remarked, “I don’t feel like a king. I have to go through hell to get stuff approved.” Given the Democrats’ unprecedented reliance on highly partisan district court judges to block—or at least delay—the implementation of his agenda, he had a point. The entire premise of the protests feels manufactured.
For his part, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) praised “all the patriots who will be participating” on Friday evening. He reminded them, “In 1776, brave Americans took on and defeated the most powerful despot [King George III] in the world. In 2025, we will do the same.”
A U.S. senator urging supporters to “take on” and “defeat” a sitting president sounds, at the very least, a bit insurrectionary to me.
His Democratic colleagues were also delivering incendiary messages in the lead-up to the protests. During a House Oversight Committee hearing on Thursday, an irate Rep. Melanie Stansbury (D-NM) used her allotted time not to question the sanctuary state governors who had come to testify, but to rail against Trump—likening him to a “mad king”—and to promote the “No Kings” protests.
Despite the buildup surrounding what was billed as the largest mass protest against Trump to date, by 5 p.m. ET, there was nothing out of the ordinary to report. To be fair, the protests faced some pretty stiff competition for viewers’ attention. First, the Israeli airstrikes on Iran dominated the news cycle. Then, just as participants were gathering on Saturday morning, news broke of the murders of a Minnesota state representative and her husband, as well as the attempted murders of a state senator and his wife—allegedly by a man impersonating a police officer—eclipsing all other coverage.
Although the suspect remains at large, police have identified him. After discovering a stack of “No Kings” protest flyers in his vehicle, Minnesota state officials urged residents to avoid the demonstrations out of safety concerns.
Public attention was further diverted by the evening’s military parade in Washington, D.C., held to celebrate the 250th anniversary of the U.S. Army—the very event that prompted organizers to schedule the protests for that date. (It also happens to be Trump’s 79th birthday.)
Obviously, the Left is not too pleased by the parade. Here’s what The New York Times had to say about it:
Organizers have characterized the Washington parade — the largest display of military power in the nation’s capital in decades — not as a celebration of the armed forces but as a theatrical “display of dominance” akin to military marches hosted by dictators abroad.
HotAir’s John Sexton pointed out, “It’s not just dictators that hold military parades. In fact, there’s a military parade happening in the UK today as well. Trump got the idea for holding this parade from a visit to France during his first term.”
In any case, organizers of the “No Kings” protests include Indivisible, the American Civil Liberties Union, the Service Employees International Union, and 50501. A full list can be viewed here.
Fox News contributor Asra Nomani, founder of The Pearl Project, a nonprofit journalism initiative, conducted an investigation into the Democratic Party’s role in funding the protests. Nomani found that 70 DNC affiliates across 21 states were involved in organizing the protests.
Although it’s unclear what precisely the Democrats’ day of defiance accomplished for the party, event organizers and participants will likely point to Saturday’s protests as a tremendous success.
Update: 8 p.m. ET: Joseph R. Checklick Jr., 21, “deliberately accelerated his SUV into a crowd of “No Kings” anti-Trump protesters in Culpeper, Virginia, striking at least one person,” according to Culpeper police.
Elizabeth writes commentary for Legal Insurrection and The Washington Examiner. She is an academy fellow at The Heritage Foundation. Please follow Elizabeth on LinkedIn or X.
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