‘No Kings': Millions to Protest Trump's ‘Dictator-Style Birthday Parade'
The 'No Kings' protests have been imagined as a peaceful uprising to counter President Trump throwing himself a military parade on his birthday (which is also Flag Day and the 250th anniversary of the Army). Trump is organizing spectacle befitting a tin-pot tyrant, including a procession of tanks, Howitzers, mobile rocket launchers and other war machines rolling through the streets of Washington, D.C., as military aircraft, including Apache helicopters, soar overhead.
Protest organizers have billed June 14 as a 'nationwide day of defiance,' during which Americans across the country stand up to 'reject authoritarianism' and reclaim patriotism in the name of democracy. 'The flag doesn't belong to President Trump. It belongs to us,' the protest website declares.
Trump has menaced demonstrators planning to show up at his military procession: 'If any protester wants to come out, they will be met with very big force,' he said Tuesday. Anticipating such a reaction, protest organizers specifically decided not to target the Trump parade route; there is not even a No Kings event planned in D.C. They envision, instead, demonstrators 'showing up everywhere [Trump] isn't — to say no thrones, no crowns, no kings.'
Turnout at the nationwide demonstrations is expected to surpass the April 5 'Hands Off' protests, which drew more than 3 million protesters to oppose the Trump government, then dominated by Elon Musk, who was imposing draconian cuts on federal services through the so-called Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE.
'We've been planning the No Kings day' for months, says Ezra Levin, a cofounder of the progressive grassroots giant Indivisible, which is a key partner in a protest coalition that includes grassroots groups like 50501, civil rights organizations like the American Civil Liberties Union, and many labor and environmental groups. Outside of a few anchor events — a large event is planned in Philadelphia, for example — the No Kings protests are organized on a viral, distributed basis, with locals in each community calling the shots. By last week, the number of planned events had already surpassed the April total.
Now that Trump has ordered troops into the streets of Los Angeles — to crack down on Americans exercising their First Amendment rights by protesting actions by Immigration and Customs Enforcement — the reasons to demonstrate just got a lot more concrete. With the 'egregious overreach' in Los Angeles 'inflaming tensions,' Levin says, 'suddenly all the numbers started skyrocketing.'
The volatile situation in the Los Angeles area was provoked by ICE agents expanding arrests of community members at job sites, including at downtown garment factories and a Home Depot. Tensions were also inflamed by reports of ICE taking law-abiding individuals who showed up to mandatory check-ins with immigration officials into custody, and then locking them in the basement of a federal building.Speaking Monday with Rolling Stone, Levin described 1,800 planned No Kings events, roughly 500 more than the total for April. These include protests across America — from Nome, Alaska, to San Juan, Puerto Rico (map: here) — as well as solidarity actions around the globe. 'I can guarantee you there will be millions of people out on No Kings day,' he says.
The planning for the No Kings protest began when Trump started touting his 'dictator-style birthday parade,' Levin recalls. 'We didn't want to cede the narrative to him; we didn't want to allow him to portray himself as all-powerful.' The idea was to mass-mobilize Americans of all walks of life — in big cities and small towns and rural communities — as a counter-weight to Trump's authoritarian ambitions. (Trump's birthday bash is wildly unpopular; a new poll finds the military parade is opposed by 3 out of 4 Americans, including a majority of Republicans.)
The federal escalation in Southern California is rocket fuel for the protest mission. 'In the context of his escalation in L.A., it takes on greater import,' Levin says. 'You need to have a visible demonstration that Americans are against authoritarian overreach.'
Organizers want to turn out protesters who are ideologically diverse and geographically dispersed. 'It needs to be everywhere, so that the contrast of what Trump is doing is as clear as possible,' says Levin, a former congressional staffer. 'This guy stands for himself and his cronies. And the American people aren't going to stand for it.'
The L.A. protests have been combustible, marked by clashes between demonstrators and the city's notoriously brutal cops and sheriff deputies, as well as with paramilitary forces from the Department of Homeland Security. The authorities have been launching tear gas attacks and firing less-lethal projectiles into crowds, and agitators have been filmed throwing rocks and debris at law enforcement.
Levin insists that No Kings will be a show of nonviolent resistance, adding that Trump's ugly show of force — including deploying National Guard troops and Marines in Los Angeles over the governor's objections — must be met with a combination of mass turnout and immaculate vibes. 'When they crack down on peaceful protests, what you need is overwhelmingly large, peaceful protests. That's the way you respond to the authoritarian playbook.'
'We need non-violence in the streets,' he continues. 'The alternative is giving the authoritarian the excuse that he wants to crack down on yet more peaceful protesters outside of L.A.'
With emotions running hot, that puts a special burden on protest organizers — most of whom are self-appointed volunteers. No Kings organizers are providing trainings this week for local protest marshals — emphasizing public safety and de-escalation. 'We need to have everybody in the right mindset,' Levin says, explaining that the protests are a 'strategic play to demonstrate exactly how outside the norm this administration is.'
Events this large can take on a life of their own. 'Some people are going to join in because they heard it was the cool place to be,' Levin says. 'It's incumbent on those who are more engaged to act as leaders and to operate under the umbrella of non-violence, because the alternative is playing directly into Trump's hands.'
More from Rolling Stone
Trump Announces Plan to Honor a Bunch of Confederate Military Leaders
'This Is an Emergency': Kathleen Hanna on Uniting to Fight Against ICE Raids and Fascism
Noem Asked for Troops to Be Authorized to Arrest 'Lawbreakers': Report
Best of Rolling Stone
The Useful Idiots New Guide to the Most Stoned Moments of the 2020 Presidential Campaign
Anatomy of a Fake News Scandal
The Radical Crusade of Mike Pence
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
a minute ago
- Yahoo
Wisconsin court commissioner resigns after dispute over immigration warrant
MADISON, Wis. (AP) — A Wisconsin court commissioner has resigned from his job after he asked to see an immigration arrest warrant, the latest conflict between judges and President Donald Trump's administration over the Republican's sweeping immigration crackdown. Peter Navis, who worked as a Walworth County Court Commissioner for four years, resigned from his position last month, county clerk Michelle Jacobs said Thursday. She declined to comment further because it is a personnel matter. The incident that cost Navis his job happened on July 15. It was first reported on Thursday by the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. The blowup in Navis' courtroom comes after Milwaukee County Circuit Judge Hannah Dugan was charged in May with obstructing federal officers and attempting to hide a person to avoid arrest. Authorities said Dugan tried to help a man who is in the country illegally evade U.S. immigration agents who wanted to arrest him in her courthouse. Dugan is seeking to have the charges against her dropped, arguing that she was acting in her official capacity as a judge and therefore is immune to prosecution. A ruling on that motion by U.S. District Judge Lynn Adelman is pending. Navis was presiding in his courtroom that day in the case of Enrrique Onan Zamora Castro, of Milwaukee, who faced a misdemeanor charge of operating a vehicle without a valid driver's license for the second time in three years. A court transcript shows that Navis objected to sheriff's deputies attempting to detain Castro on behalf of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE, without a valid federal warrant. 'In my courtroom, a person cannot be detained without lawful authority,' Navis said in the transcript. The prosecutor, Assistant District Attorney Andrew Herrmann, said Navis had no right to see the warrant, according to the transcript. Herrmann did not respond to a voicemail seeking comment. According to the transcript, Navis said, 'I've been instructed by the judges of this county to require warrants before individuals are detained in my courtroom.' None of the four Walworth County judges returned emails seeking comment. Walworth County Clerk of Courts Michele Jacobs said deputies routinely arrest people on warrants in the courthouse. Walworth County Sheriff Dave Gerber and ICE officials did not respond to email messages seeking comment. Walworth County, home to about 100,000 people, is in south-central Wisconsin along the Illinois border. Trump won the county with about 60% of the vote in November. Solve the daily Crossword
Yahoo
a minute ago
- Yahoo
"South Park" Somehow Went Even Harder In On Trump, And This Time It's Raunchier
South Park returned on Wednesday to hit President Donald Trump below the belt with multiple depictions of his 'teeny tiny' penis. Warning: Spoilers below. The episode also skewered tech CEOs and government leaders for bribing Trump with golden 'gifts,' again depicted Trump's bedroom lover as none other than Satan himself, and reduced Vice President JD Vance to a miniature sidekick who offers to bring his boss a 'cumrag.' Related: That 'cumrag,' tragically, turns out to be longtime South Park fan-favorite character Towelie. Much of the episode focuses not on Trump, but on Randy Marsh ― Stan's dad ― and his marijuana farm, which struggles after his workers are hauled off in a federal raid. He sends Towelie to D.C. to lobby Trump for marijuana reclassification. Towelie finds the city overrun with military troops, as Trump has called in the National Guard, just as he has done in real life in a move critics have dismissed as a 'stunt.' Related: Towelie also finds a statue of Thomas Jefferson in the Capitol is now a statue of Trump, with a very small penis. Likewise, the statue of Abraham Lincoln at the Lincoln Memorial is also a statue of Trump, again with a tiny penis. When Towelie reaches the White House to meet Trump, an aide warns visitors to 'avoid staring directly into his penis.' There, Towelie joins a line of CEOs and officials who offer Trump 'gifts' and assure him that his penis isn't small. Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, for example, brings the president a gold-plated VR headset. Related: Trump dismisses him as 'a little bitch.' Apple CEO Tim Cook shows up to give Trump a small sculpture ― something he did for real earlier this month. Trump takes the gift and goes to his bedroom, where he promptly tears off all his clothes and hops into bed with Satan. 'Hey Satan! Look at what some dipshit tech CEO gave me,' he tells Satan. 'I was thinking maybe we could try to shove it up your ass.' Towelie is there to lobby Trump to reclassify marijuana, but ends up as a gift to Trump instead. By the end of the episode, Satan finds Towelie in a White House bathroom, covered in white stains, begging for help. 'Please,' Towelie pleads with Satan. 'I wanna get out of here.' 'So do I,' Satan replies. 'But there is no escape from this place.' Related: South Park has so far been biweekly since returning last month, and that pattern will continue ― at least for now ― as the next episode is set to air Sept. 3 on Comedy Central. This article originally appeared on HuffPost. Also in In the News: Also in In the News: Also in In the News:
Axios
3 minutes ago
- Axios
What historians say is at risk if Trump expands his culture war beyond Smithsonian
Politics & Policy A White House official told Axios that President Trump intends to expand his review of American museums for "woke" ideology beyond the Smithsonian Institution. Why it matters: The size and scope of Trump's inquiries represents an unprecedented level of museum oversight in the nearly 250 years of American democracy, historians say. It also represents an escalation of the president's attack on cultural institutions. Here's what historians and curators fear could happen if Trump reframes museums through his perspective. What exactly does the president have in mind? Trump said that the "Smithsonian is OUT OF CONTROL" on Truth Social earlier this week. He then directed his attorneys to conduct a comprehensive review of the museum system, similar to the process officials have conducted at colleges and universities. What they're saying:"President Trump will explore all options and avenues to get the Woke out of the Smithsonian and hold them accountable," a White House official told Axios. "He will start with the Smithsonian and then go from there," they continued. Reality check: The Smithsonian is not a federal agency under control of the president, according to the institution. It's an independent institution, governed by a Board of Regents, which is composed of seventeen members, including the Vice President. Trump has no authority over private museums. Yes, but: The president could freeze the federal funding that some private museums receive, the way he has for schools that don't align with his anti-diversity views on education. What does Trump's perception of American history look like? Trump claims that there has been a "widespread effort to rewrite our Nation's history" over the past decade. He insists that these efforts "undermine" America's achievements by casting its founding principles as "inherently racist, sexist, oppressive, or otherwise irredeemably flawed." Historians say the administration's singular, sanitized approach to the past, focusing solely on America's positive moments misses out on the nuance of American history and excludes the lived experiences of Black, Indigenous, Latino, and LGBTQ+ people. Friction point:"That is anti-democratic," Beth English, executive director of the Organization of American Historians told Axios, referring to the administration's push to stifle and sanitize information, debate and historical facts. "It's not education, right?" English questioned. "It begins to kind of veer into the space of indoctrination, selecting, sort of a selective memory of what is and isn't going to be part of our national story." Why is Trump's push to install political appointees to review museums problematic? Curators said distilling history into accurate, engaging examples that the public can understand requires a level of expertise that an untrained political appointee likely lacks. The majority of curators at national museums have PhDs, or have been trained in museum studies through rigorous degree programs and research. "It's not like people are creating exhibitions to tell a story, to win a political agenda," Omar Eaton-Martinez, former board president of the Association of African American Museums said. "People are actually curating exhibitions based on scholarship that is supported by evidence," he continued. Don't museums reframe and reevaluate history all the time? Historians say museums expanding their collections isn't evidence of nefarious behavior, but rather, it's simply how the static nature of history grows. Zoom out: Collections have increasingly included the perspectives of sociologists, psychologists and other social scientists over the past few decades, in addition to more thorough reviews of census records, genealogy, oral histories, archeology, objects, and images. "We're constantly building on prior scholarship to help ask more nuanced questions about a topic," Sarah Weicksel, executive director of the American Historical Association said. "We're always peeling back the layers of the onion, so to speak." Black, Indigenous and Latin scholars have been digging into their respective histories for centuries, and those experiences have been recognized and incorporated into museums in recent decades. That includes history that was once ignored, such as the burning of records in thriving Black neighborhoods such as the massacres in Tulsa, Oklahoma or Rosewood, Florida; the forced removal of Indigenous nations from one part of America to another during the " trail of tears"; and urban renewal projects to upgrade cities that ultimately gentrify communities of color. What funding and programs has Trump already taken aim at? The Trump administration has taken aggressive action to reduce the staffing and funding available for the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS,) the National Endowment for the Humanities, and the National Endowment for the Arts. Stunning stat: IMLS's acting director testified in court that the administration cancelled roughly 92% of the agency's Grants to States. Only 100 grants remain out of the original 1,200 managed by the institute prior to Trump's executive order. The president also attempted to fire Kim Sajet, the director of the Smithsonian's National Portrait Gallery, earlier this year due to her support of diversity initiatives, despite not having the authority to do so. The Smithsonian has legal authority over personnel decisions, but Sajet eventually decided to step down in the weeks following Trump's announcement. What other times has an American museum pivoted after political influence? An exorbitant amount of debate goes into exhibit decision-making, so museums have already determined the best way to display potential controversies. When museums modify exhibits, it's typically due to public pressure, and has never been under significant force from the president. Case in point: The Smithsonian's 90s exhibit on Enola Gay, the B-29 bomber that dropped the atomic bomb, sparked opposition from veterans and members of Congress on how to interpret the bomb's dropping and America's role in World War II. The bottom line:"These kinds of controversies exist frequently, and that's a good thing, because public debate about the nation's past is healthy," James Grossman, former executive director of the American Historical Association told Axios. "But the President of the United States has no business telling museums what to exhibit, telling teachers what to teach, and has no business telling Americans what to think," Grossman continued.
