[[link removed]]

STILL NO KINGS: MILLIONS TO PROTEST TRUMP ON SATURDAY  
[[link removed]]


 

Whitney Curry Wimbish
October 13, 2025
The American Prospect
[[link removed]]

*
[[link removed]]
*
[[link removed]]
*
*
[[link removed]]

_ A coalition of civil rights groups expects the turnout on Oct. 18
will be even bigger than the first nationwide protest held in June,
which by some counts was the largest in U.S. history. _

The No Kings protest in Washington, D.C., on September 6, 2025., No
Kings Protest.jpg Robyn Stevens Brody/Sipa via AP Images

 

Millions of people will take to the streets again this Saturday to
protest the autocratic regime of President Donald Trump, his
government shutdown, and his demolition of Medicare, Medicaid, and
other public programs in service of tax cuts for billionaires. The
protests, under the brand No Kings, have the potential to be the
largest ever in the United States.

As of last Friday, 2,500 events were planned across every state,
Europe, and Canada, No Kings organizers said. They expect that number
to grow. Multiple cities will host anchor events, including Bozeman,
Montana, a college town that rarely makes national news. Other No
Kings anchor protests will be in Atlanta, Boston, Kansas City, New
Orleans, San Francisco, Chicago, and Washington, D.C. The latter two
have been burdened by a persistent federal law enforcement presence
over the past several weeks. 

“If you are cynical, you might not understand the utility of simply
standing together and showing the massive agreement in this moment
around our disdain for a president who believes he is a king,” said
Lisa Gilbert, co-president of the nonprofit Public Citizen and one of
the rally’s organizers.

A goal of the protest is to engage more people to take a stand against
America’s slide into fascism, and Gilbert’s recommendation for
anyone who doesn’t know what to do is to take one extra action
they’ve never done before. Never attended a rally? Go to a rally.
Never called your senators? Call your senators.

“We’ve seen in other countries in the world that the thing that
enabled people to fight back was an activated populace,” Gilbert
said. “That’s what we’re trying to achieve here, just this
groundswell of activation.”

Each event will likely have its own flavor, said Ellen Chapman, a
member of the leadership of Indivisible, a social movement
organization and No Kings partner. She’s a planning committee member
for the protest in Sacramento, which will focus on building long-term
power and passing Proposition 50. That measure would redraw
California’s congressional maps to give Democrats the edge for five
U.S. House seats ahead of the 2026 midterm elections, to counteract
Trump’s efforts to gerrymander districts and preserve the Republican
House majority.

The event in June introduced the idea that “we need a big tent of
opposition,” Chapman said, encouraging community members to
understand that, regardless of other disagreements, “we can all
agree on one thing—that in America we don’t tolerate kings.”
Since then, the group has held small group meetings to continue
discussing how to build grassroots power and what is needed to fight
authoritarianism, including building connections to business leaders,
educators, faith leaders, and veterans, some of whom will speak at
Saturday’s rally.

“We need a big tent of opposition.”

“Previously we have been focused on contacting your elected
officials—those are your windows into power,” Chapman said. Now
the group is showing how to go beyond that and modeling the
possibilities with its choice of speakers. Doing so can “give a
permission structure to people, like, ‘Oh, here’s a person of
faith, I’m a person of faith,’” and take heart that they could
speak up, too.” 

IT’S BEEN FOUR MONTHS SINCE THE LAST NO KINGS PROTESTS, which drew
millions of people to events in every state and across the world on
June 14. Estimates vary for how many people attended; organizers on
Friday put the tally at about three million, a figure they based on
on-the-ground crowd counts. The data journalist G. Elliott Morris
[[link removed]]
estimated far more, putting the total attendance at up to six million,
or nearly two percent of the U.S. population.

Protesters who spoke with the
[[link removed]]_Prospect
_
[[link removed]]that
day
[[link removed]]
said they were there out of anger toward Trump and fear for everyone
his regime is abusing. They objected to Trump’s racist immigration
policies and his torment of Palestinians abroad and at home, including
Columbia University student Mahmoud Khalil. They were outraged by
Trump’s illegal layoffs of federal workers, his cuts to federal
programs, and his big wet kisses to fellow oligarchs.

Conditions have only grown worse since then. Trump and his attack dogs
have continued to rip up the United States and the rule of law, with
National Guard deployments to states that don’t want them,
persecution of his enemies, including the recent lawfare against
former FBI director James Comey and New York Attorney General Letitia
James, and ongoing racist immigration raids that have locked up 59,762
[[link removed]] people in squalid
detention sites
[[link removed]],
the most in U.S. history. At least 18 people have died in
[[link removed]]
Trump’s gulags this year, also the most in U.S. history. Some have
died by suicide. The vast majority of the prisoners have no criminal
convictions.

Conditions have only grown worse since the last No Kings protests in
June.

Trump has extended his destruction all over the globe. He has cut
billions in humanitarian aid to starving people, leaving children
screaming for food
[[link removed]]
before they die; murdered Venezuelans and Colombians
[[link removed]], likely civilians, in
an illegal Caribbean Sea bombing campaign; and bailed out
Argentina’s clownish libertarian leader Javier Milei to the tune of
at least $20 billion.

Meanwhile, Trump is gorging on crypto and enriching himself further
with overpriced garbage, like his $250 perfume called Victory, $375
quilted vests, $1,200 deck chairs, and $18 beer koozies that say
“Trump 2028.” He’s spending his time falling asleep
[[link removed]]
at events while his face goes slack on one side
[[link removed]],
paving over the historic Rose Garden, and building a $200 million
ballroom while working Americans struggle to feed themselves and their
families
[[link removed]].
These are just some of the horrors organizers said make Saturday’s
mass protests necessary.

Republicans have begun to frame the protests as “hate America
rallies [[link removed]],” and
claim that they will be paid for by nefarious forces
[[link removed]]. The Trump
administration has set in motion plans to investigate Indivisible and
other liberal organizations
[[link removed]]
in an attempt to crush dissent.

Activists from around the country said the stakes are rising by the
day and the need for mass collective action has only grown. “We’re
hoping for a day where people come together and find courage for
what’s to come, to know they can say no to all this in a safe and
nonviolent way and that they’re not alone,” Chapman said. 

ORGANIZERS AND ACTIVISTS HAVE SPENT THE LAST FOUR MONTHS preparing for
Saturday, including preparing volunteers with safety and de-escalation
training. All hosts must attend mandatory training sessions, and more
people will serve as safety marshals.

No Kings organizers emphasized that the day of mass protests will be
nonviolent, and they acknowledged that some may be fearful of coming
out to march given Trump’s hateful rhetoric against anti-fascists,
increased immigration raids, and the shooting death of Arthur
“Afa” Folasa Ah Loo at a June No Kings march in Salt Lake City.
Other No Kings protests were marred by counter-protesters brandishing
firearms
[[link removed]].

One safety lead, Thadd Selden, started volunteering with No Kings in
Sacramento after he went to the June rally as an attendee, the first
protest he’d been to since anti-Iraq War protests in Washington,
D.C. in the early 2000s. Ten thousand people came out to the earlier
Sacramento protest. Selden said more are expected next weekend. About
40 safety personnel will be stationed throughout the crowd in
high-visibility vests, looking for disturbances and ready to help with
any emergency, including medical issues such as heat stroke or falls,
he said.

Selden said the most important thing for attendees to do is to be
aware of their surroundings and the people around them, and suggested
watching No Kings de-escalation trainings, such as the Zoom session on
October 15 [[link removed]]. “The biggest
thing is pay attention, stay calm, and go to the safety people,” he
said, if attendees see any disturbances.

“We’re expecting it to be a very positive event,” Selden said.
“If you spend most of your time doomscrolling, it’s very easy to
get overwhelmed by the news. Being among people who care about the
same things and who are passionate about it is very energizing.”

===

Whitney Curry Wimbish is a staff writer at The American Prospect. She
previously worked for the Financial Times newsletters division, The
Cambodia Daily in Phnom Penh, and the Herald News in New Jersey.

* No Kings Day; Protest ICE; Protest Trump;
[[link removed]]

*
[[link removed]]
*
[[link removed]]
*
*
[[link removed]]

 

 

 

INTERPRET THE WORLD AND CHANGE IT

 

 

Submit via web
[[link removed]]

Submit via email
Frequently asked questions
[[link removed]]
Manage subscription
[[link removed]]
Visit xxxxxx.org
[[link removed]]

Twitter [[link removed]]

Facebook [[link removed]]

 




[link removed]

To unsubscribe, click the following link:
[link removed]