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WHY THE NEXT “NO KINGS” COULD BE THE BIGGEST ONE YET  
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Katie Herchenroeder
January 28, 2026
Mother Jones
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_ “My goal here is a unified, strong opposition party to the
regime,” Ezra Levin, co-founder of Indivisible, said ahead of the
March 28 protests. _

No Kings banner on a fence, Meg
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EZRA LEVIN, the co-founder and co-executive director of Indivisible,
one of the many groups behind the nationwide “No Kings” protests,
describes himself as “a cynical political organizer.” But still,
Monday night got to him. 

That evening, just days after federal agents shot and killed
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Alex Pretti in Minneapolis, Indivisible and other groups, which
included the ACLU, put together a “Know Your Rights” training on
how to document violent incidents by Immigration and Customs
Enforcement and Customs and Border Protection in response to the
violent occupation of Minneapolis and around the country. According to
the coalition, over 200,000 viewers attended the Monday “Eyes on
ICE” training [[link removed]], the first
in a series of trainings dedicated to protesters’ First Amendment
rights. These people, Levin told me, “saw secret police force
assault and murder fellow Americans, and one natural response you
could imagine would be people could do what the regime wants them to
do, which is to be quiet and go home and not show up.” 

“But instead,” he continued, “we have, by several orders of
magnitude, the largest number of people ever to attend a training to
learn how to do exactly what Renée Good and Alex Pretti were
doing.”

It’s against this backdrop anger that another round of “No
Kings” protests is being planned for March 28, with a flagship event
in the Twin Cities. Levin expects the next “No Kings” protest to
see the largest turnout.

I caught up with Levin on why this moment demands such pre-planned big
tentpole events like “No Kings,” the agility it takes to respond
to violence from the federal government with rapid mobilizations, and
more below.

WHEN WE SPOKE ON FRIDAY, WE TALKED ABOUT THE “NO KINGS” COALITION
BEING ABLE TO MOBILIZE IF FEDERAL AGENTS SHOT AND KILLED ANOTHER
PERSON. THE NEXT DAY, ALEX PRETTI WAS KILLED. WHAT HAPPENED NEXT
INTERNALLY?

We had talked about this on Friday, Katie, because it was entirely
predictable. We all saw what the regime was doing. They’re using
violence to intimidate and bully the population into submission. The
murder is heinous. The slander that followed is really chilling
because it is a very clear message to foot soldiers of the regime that
it does not matter how many people are taping you. It doesn’t matter
how clearly what you’re engaging in is illegal. It does not matter
how heinous your crime is. The response of the top levels of this
regime will be the circle of bandwagons, call your victim a terrorist,
and protect you from all consequences.

In response to these murders, we had 147,000 people register for the
“Eyes on ICE” training planned for Monday, and these are mostly
not Minnesotans. These 147,000 people saw secret police force assault
and murder fellow Americans, and one natural response you could
imagine would be that people could do what the regime wants them to
do, which is to be quiet and go home and not show up. But instead, we
have, by several orders of magnitude, the largest number of people
ever to attend a training to learn how to do exactly what Renee Good
and Alex Pretti were doing. [A press release from the coalition behind
the training said that the number of viewers ended up totalling over
200,000.]

HOW DID THAT GET PUT TOGETHER SO QUICKLY? 

We’re not starting from zero. I think it’s the same way that we
were able to, in 48 hours, put together 1,200 protests for “ICE Out
for Good” in the wake of Renée Good’s murder, where it took us
six weeks leading up to Hands Off protests in April of last year to
put together 1,300 events. The point of these mass mobilizations and
this broad national coalition building through “No Kings” is, yes,
in part, to pull off big one-day protests. And those are important.
But they’re not the whole shebang. It’s not all about just a
one-day protest. We are developing organizational capacity that allows
us to pull off historic levels of engagement in between these tentpole
events. The “No Kings” coalition is not just Indivisible, not just
5051, or MoveOn, or Working Families Party, or ACLU. We’ve all been
working together now for over a year to figure out how we can organize
collectively, bringing all of our skill sets and all of our tools to
tackle the same problem. Indivisible would be the wrong group to hold
a Know Your Rights training. We don’t have a lot of First Amendment
lawyers on staff. But the ACLU does. 

WHAT DOES THE NUMBER OF RSVPS FOR THE TRAINING THIS WEEK COMMUNICATE
TO YOU? 

The attendance tells me that there’s real demand for this. Look, a
lot of us have been paying attention to the fascist threat for a long
time. This has been what we eat, sleep, and breathe for a while. Also,
we recognize that most people are not like us. Most people are not
paying attention to the demise of American democracy on a daily basis.
A successful movement depends on welcoming new people and meeting
people where they are and accepting them when, whatever that moment
is, whatever that event is, brings them into the movement—accepting
them at that point and not saying ‘Where have you been up until
now.’ 

What it tells me is that there are a lot of people who, for the last
year, may have been upset about what was happening, may have opposed
what was happening, but may have not been actively engaged in pushing
back at the level that we’re seeing in the Twin Cities, who are now
going through the process of imagining a situation in which their own
personal constitutional rights are under threat. They are working
through what they personally will do in that moment to defend
themselves and their community. That is crazy powerful. That is an
inflection point.

“When it comes to actually defending your community, you should not
be looking to some talking head on TV. You should be gathering
community with your neighbors and figuring it out yourself, because
nobody’s going to save you but you. “

IT’S DIFFERENT TO GO UP TO A GROUP OF ICE AGENTS ON THE STREETS IN
NEW YORK, WHERE THERE ARE 50 PEOPLE WITHIN SPITTING DISTANCE, VERSUS
PLACES LIKE TUCSON, ARIZONA. HOW DO THESE TRAININGS ADDRESS HOW TO
ENCOUNTER FEDERAL IMMIGRATION AGENTS IN DIFFERENT TOWNS AND CITIES?

I think with the news being as inescapable as it is, it’s easy to
imagine this coming to your own community. I think one of the really
important lessons that we should be learning from the Twin Cities is
that the opposition is not nationalized; it is very much localized.
And the single best thing that you can do in this moment—we’ve
been preaching this for 14 months—is not be alone. Refuse to be
alone and to join in a community where you are geographically, because
the challenges and opportunities available to you are based on your
geography or based on what your community actually looks like. 

This is a movement that is being led and directed at the local level,
and I think that’s why it’s been so successful. There’s no email
list at the national level that is sending in a direction. When it
comes to actually defending your community, you should not be looking
to some talking head on TV. You should be gathering community with
your neighbors and figuring it out yourself, because nobody’s going
to save you but you. 

THE COALITION THAT INDIVISIBLE IS A PART OF IS LAUNCHING ANOTHER
NATIONAL MOBILIZATION: “NO KINGS” 3 FOR MARCH 28. HOW DO THE
“EYES ON ICE” TRAININGS THAT Y’ALL ANNOUNCED AND NO KINGS 3
COMPLEMENT ONE ANOTHER, AND HOW ARE THEY UNIQUE?

Each “No Kings” has had a different focus, responding to the
moment. “No Kings” one was an effort to provide a stark narrative
contrast to Trump’s version of reality. He was throwing himself a
ridiculous military birthday parade for himself, as authoritarians do.
We wanted to make clear that he was small and weak and that the people
were against him. The second “No Kings” was largely in response to
sending the National Guard to invade and occupy American cities. 

I think the third “No Kings” is a response to the secret police
force that’s terrorizing American communities. I reserve the right
to say that this is in response to whatever more recent atrocity the
regime commits. It’s lashing out quite a bit, so we’ll see.
They’re still constructing more detention camps. They’re still
acquiring weapons. They’re still picking out target cities to occupy
and terrorize. So, I would expect to see more, unfortunately, of the
darkness that we saw in the Twin Cities over the last several weeks.
But I’d also expect to see more of the kind of righteous,
non-violent, organized opposition that we saw in the Twin Cities,
too. 

I’m incredibly proud of “No Kings” and also, protests are a
tactic. Tactics should fit into a strategy. Strategy should be
designed to achieve your goal. Our goal is to safeguard democracy and
protect our communities from an authoritarian threat that’s seeking
to submit it to power for good. Our strategy is mass, non-violent,
organized people power. “No Kings” three is in the tactic within
that strategy. “Eyes on ICE” training is a tactic within that
strategy. Rapid response, mass mobilizations like “ICE Out For
Good” are a tactic within that strategy. Pushing Democrats to unify
and fight back against DHS funding is a tactic within that strategy.
We need a multiplicity of tactics. 

“What I found over the last 14 months is that the framework that
many of these Democratic leaders have is not a framework built for
this moment.”

SO ON FRIDAY, WE ALSO TALKED ABOUT DEMOCRATIC LEADERSHIP—HAKEEM
JEFFRIES, CHUCK SCHUMER—NOT MEETING THIS MOMENT. SINCE THE KILLING
OF ALEX PRETTI, LEADING SENATE DEMOCRATS HAVE THREATENED TO BLOCK THE
DHS FUNDING BILL; SOME DEMOCRATS ARE MENTIONING DIFFERENT REFORMS,
ETC. IT’S A DIFFERENT SITUATION THAN IT WAS ON FRIDAY. WHAT DO YOU
MAKE OF THAT?

My goal here is a unified, strong opposition party to the regime. That
is what I would like to build. I think there is a real disconnect
between some Democrats who dominate leadership in both the House and
the Senate, and rank-and-file Democrats around the country who want to
see a real fight back against the regime. What I found over the last
14 months is that the framework that many of these Democratic leaders
have is not a framework built for this moment. The framework goes
something like: second term presidents decline in popularity over
time; that naturally leads to the opposition party winning seats in
the midterms; our role is to not rock the boat too much; communicate
as much as we can about people’s top concern, which is always the
economy; and then allow political gravity to run its course so that we
win in the midterms. I understand that framework. I understand how it
could make sense for a certain kind of political era. I do not believe
that the political era we’re in, and that’s not where the people
on the ground believe we are. 

We believe instead in what the anti-authoritarian experts call an
“authoritarian breakthrough moment,” a moment where an
authoritarian regime tries to consolidate power as quickly as possible
through attacks on pillars of democracy, not just through the
legislature, not through just executive functions, but media, law
firms, and universities, etc. And it builds up a force across the
country in order to ultimately subvert elections and prevent any kind
of threat to their continued political power. And if that’s your
framework, you’re not waiting for the Midterms and you’re not
trying to avoid attention. You are looking for every piece of leverage
you have to excite the public to the dangers that are coming, so that
you can successfully push back against the authoritarian escalation. 

I’m happy that they are fighting back now, and I’m not convinced
that without sustained, overwhelming pressure and a threat to their
continued grip on power within the Democratic ranks, they will
continue to fight.

RIGHT, IT WAS NICE TO SEE FROM DEMS. BUT YOU’RE NOT SLEEPING WITH
BOTH EYES CLOSED, READY TO REST.

I’m old enough to remember last November when we were winning
popular support for the shutdown fight. People wanted Republicans to
give on the health care subsidies, and suddenly the Senate Democrats
surrendered. Those are the same Senate Democrats. We got the same
party. They’re responding to the news of the day, and when the news
of the day moves on, they’ll respond to that. The question is: Is it
the grassroots opposition that is driving the news of the day, or is
it something else? 

_This interview has been edited for length and clarity.   _

_Katie Herchenroeder_
[[link removed]]_ is a
contributing writer at Mother Jones covering breaking news, gender
inequity, and violence against women. She was previously an editorial
fellow here, and her work can also be seen in Vanity Fair, Vice, the
New Republic, and other publications. She is based in Brooklyn. Reach
her at [email protected]_
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* Indivisible
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* Immigration and Customs Enforcement
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