While Trump enjoyed a military parade, millions attended ‘No Kings' protests
Seattle: Ken Medley thinks Donald Trump won't pay any attention to the 'No Kings' protests held in all 50 US states on Saturday.
He doesn't care. A lifelong Republican voter, Medley is just old enough to remember the civil rights protests that rocked America in the 1960s.
Medley first voted back in 1976 but has been voting Democrat since Barack Obama in 2008. He has no plans to change back, such is his disillusionment with the party of presidents Lincoln, Reagan, Eisenhower and the Bush family.
'I hope it [the protests] raises people's awareness of the violations of our constitution that Trump is committing. Unlike most presidents who stay well within the bounds, he steps across that limit over and over … he just takes them as they don't apply to him, his total disregard for the rules and the processes that make our democracy a republic following the rule of law,' Medley says.
'It's not one particular issue, it's his whole narcissistic approach to the presidency.'
On Saturday, Medley joined tens of thousands of protesters on the streets of Seattle, Washington state, to protest against the president's deportations of migrants, tax policies that will primarily benefit the rich, deployment of the National Guard on the streets of Los Angeles, and more. It was one of many mass demonstrations across the United States, with organisers claiming the protests were attended by millions of Americans in an estimated 2000 cities nationwide.
Across the country in Washington, DC, Trump marked his 79th birthday – and the 250th birthday of the US Army – with a stunning parade of military might through the streets of the capital.
The president surveyed a military parade that would not have looked out of place on the streets of Beijing or Moscow, while protesters waved signs comparing him to a 'faux king' and chanted 'this is what democracy looks like'. The contrast could not have been more stark.
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