'No Kings': A turning point for the resistance?

The "No Kings" movement "may have been the biggest day of demonstrations in American history"

(Image credit: Getty Images)

published 23 June 2025

The anti-Trump resistance finally "has reawakened," said Michelle Goldberg in The New York Times. Millions of disgusted Americans poured into the streets across 2,100 cities and towns under the "No Kings" banner to protest President Donald Trump's authoritarian administration. Even reliably conservative locales like Coeur d'Alene, Idaho, and the Villages retirement community in Florida saw thousands of demonstrators. With Trump sending in soldiers and Marines to occupy Los Angeles and staging a military parade in Washington, D.C., to honor himself, the weary resignation that followed his re-election is giving way to outrage. "No Kings" feels like "a potential turning point." In fact, it "may have been the biggest day of demonstrations in American history," said Will Neal in The Daily Beast. Data journalist G. Elliott Morris estimates 4 to 6 million people came out to show their opposition to Trump's toxic, "far-right" policies. Overall, the number of protests and rallies against the Trump administration—15,000 in total—has increased threefold since this same period in 2017. A "mounting backlash" against Trump is gathering momentum.

Democrats may be angry, said Jonathan Turley in The Hill, but their absurd "democracy is dying" message has grown stale. It's the same platform that they ran on last November—and lost. In reality, Congress continues to perform its constitutional duties, and "courts have both ruled in favor of and against the Trump administration." Democrats, meanwhile, have no message other than Trump hatred, which is why the party continues to poll terribly. The "No Kings" mantra is the Democrats' desperate attempt to implant their frustrated rage in the "public psyche."

"The backlash to Trump is real," said Steve Benen in MSNBC.com, and special election results prove it. Several days before "No Kings" day, Democrat Amanda Clinton won an Oklahoma House seat "in a 69-point landslide." The seat was in a Democratic district that Kamala Harris carried by 19 points, and the 50-point swing surpassed all expectations. Overall, Democrats have over-performed in 29 special elections this year, running 16.4 points ahead of the 2024 election results. Republicans are alarmed, which is why White House communications director Steven Cheung called the massive "No Kings" protests "a complete and utter failure with minuscule attendance." When the Trump administration tells "Americans not to believe their own eyes," you know that "the prevailing political winds" are changing.