Millions of Americans turned out Saturday at more than 2,500 “No Kings” rallies across the U.S. to protest what participants called President Donald Trump’s increasingly authoritarian governance. Organizers estimated that nearly 7 million people participated, about 2 million more than at the first “No Kings” protests in June.
Who said what
“By all accounts,” the “demographically mixed” and intergenerational demonstrations were “largely festive, often featuring inflatable characters and marchers dressed in costumes,” Reuters said. “Little, if any, lawlessness was reported.” Trump’s Republican Party “disparaged the demonstrations as ‘Hate America’ rallies, but in many places the events looked more like a street party,” The Associated Press said.
“They’re referring to me as a king — I’m not a king,” Trump told Fox News in an interview that “aired early Friday, before he departed for a $1 million-per-plate MAGA Inc. fundraiser” at his Mar-a-Lago club, the AP said. On Saturday, the BBC said, Trump “shared several AI-generated videos” depicting him “wearing a crown, including one where he was flying a jet that dumped what appeared to be human waste on the protesters.”
Many demonstrators said they were “meeting such hyperbole with humor,” the AP said. “So much of what we’ve seen from this administration has been so unserious and silly that we have to respond with the same energy,” said Glen Kalbaugh, a Washington protester in a wizard hat. House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) told ABC’s “This Week” Sunday that while the protests appeared to be a “violent-free, free speech exercise,” some of the signs and speeches had “hateful messages” and “pretty violent rhetoric, calling out the president” in ways that did not seem very “pro-American.”
What next?
America has a “long, proud history of peaceful protest” but also an “equally long, though less inspiring, history of politicians convincing themselves that some dark and sinister force is driving those protests,” The Washington Post said in an editorial. Democrats “dismissed the tea party movement in 2009” and were “punished with a generational rebuke in the 2010 midterms,” and “Trump and his supporters might consider whether they are making the same mistake ahead of 2026.”
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Peter has worked as a news and culture writer and editor at The Week since the site's launch in 2008. He covers politics, world affairs, religion and cultural currents. His journalism career began as a copy editor at a financial newswire and has included editorial positions at The New York Times Magazine, Facts on File, and Oregon State University.
