The No Kings II rallies on Saturday drew as many as eight million people to express opposition to the Trump administration. The size and breadth of the 2,700 nationwide events makes it hard to summarize. But Prospect reporters Whitney Wimbish, Naomi Bethune, and David Dayen fanned out to bring you a small taste of what was happening.
MANHATTAN – Veterans have been at the forefront of every major social movement, and our era’s resistance to Trump’s fascism is no different. Former service members and their families who attended the No Kings march in New York Saturday morning explained why: They pledged an oath to defend America against all enemies, foreign and domestic, and this time, the enemy lives at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue (and sometimes Mar-a-Lago). Veterans described their anger and heartbreak over the regime’s destruction of the rule of law; they described their fellow veterans as more ready to fight Trump than Americans with no connection to the armed forces might understand.
“My grandfather was a World War II veteran, and he was fighting fascists,” former Army combat medic and Iraq War veteran Jason Hurd told the Prospect. “Most veterans would pick up that mantle and fight against authoritarianism today.”
New York’s No Kings rally drew more than 100,000 people to events across all five boroughs, according to the New York Police Department. In Manhattan, protesters marched roughly two miles from 47th Street to 14th Street, and at one point flooded into Times Square to share the space with a KPop Demon Hunters promotional event that was handing out free ramen. Protesters bopped around to the K-pop music blasting through Midtown. Some were in the inflatable animal costumes that have become an odd symbol of resistance. A guy in a blow-up frog suit held a sign asking, “Do I look like the enemy within?”
The mood was upbeat and adamant, with protesters sending messages of all kinds: direct (“Trump Must Go”), funny (“If We Were Paid Protestors We’d Be Unionized”), and procedural (“Mr. Speaker Swear-In The New Member!?!”). Many were pissed, calling out Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and her immigration thugs, comparing Trump to Marie Antoinette and Hitler, and naming the erasure of DEI initiatives as white supremacy. A woman weaved through the crowd with a homemade noisemaker, a big bottle of Tylenol she shook rhythmically.
Some marchers vented anger at the secretary of defense, Peter Brian Hegseth. One carried a sign bearing the headline “Pete Hegseth’s former sister-in-alleges in affidavit he was abusive to second wife.” The former Fox News employee was also the subject of veterans’ anger, who called him uniquely unqualified for his job and echoed Sen. Tammy Duckworth’s (D-IL) memorable critique that he has “never commanded a unit with more than 200 personnel. Meanwhile, on the civilian side, both organizations he led went into debt. In fact, he so badly mismanaged one of them that they had to bring in a forensic accountant to clean up the mess he had made.”
Speaking with the Prospect before the march, U.S. Navy and U.S. Coast Guard veteran Lene Mees de Tricht said it gave her hope when top military leaders refused to “perform for Whisky Pete” at his made-for-podcast pep rally and instead responded with silence. She likewise found hope in last week’s resignation of Navy Adm. Alvin Holsey, the head of U.S. Southern Command, where persistent summary executions have been carried out on Caribbean fishing boats, accused without evidence of drug trafficking.
Mees de Tricht now serves as deputy director for membership engagement with the progressive veterans’ group Common Defense, and she called it crucial for veterans to protest. The Republican Party has used military veterans to further its own political aims, creating the incorrect perception that all service members and veterans are conservative, she said.
“It’s really critically important for those of us who disagree with that to be seen disagreeing with that. We want to let them know that this is not why I served, this is not in my name and not with our consent,” said Mees de Tricht. “The progressive movement needs to see that we are on their side, we are energetic and we know how to fight this battle.”
It may surprise Americans to know that support for the president among veterans is the lowest it’s ever been, said Naveed Shah, an Army veteran who served in Operation Iraqi Freedom and is now the political director of Common Defense. Fifty-one percent of veterans surveyed in April held favorable opinions of Trump, while 47 percent were unfavorable. The survey also found that a strong majority of veterans oppose active-duty troops performing a parade for Trump’s birthday, firing thousands of health care and benefits workers from the Department of Veterans Affairs, and removing material in books and online regarding the achievements of women and minority groups in the military. The survey found veterans strongly support protections for military veterans who are noncitizens, such as granting citizenship immediately to all who serve.
Morale among service members is abysmal under the Trump administration, Shah said. “The administration is doing everything it seems in their power to make life harder for the average working family, and I think that’s what veterans are going to be out there talking about.” —Whitney Wimbish
WASHINGTON – Instead of so-called “antifa people,” there were impromptu dance parties. Rather than performing anti-American sentiment, thousands waved U.S. flags and toted homemade signs that communicated support for values such as democracy and free speech. Attendees certainly did not act as though they were paid protesters—a conspiracy theory that opponents of the No Kings rallies had been circulating. The passion of the estimated 200,000 participants who rallied near the U.S. Capitol could not be bought: It was a genuine display of frustration, joy, and solidarity.
Spilling down Pennsylvania Avenue, the No Kings rally commenced under a sunny sky. Speaking behind a protective barrier, figures such as Sen. Chris Murphy (D-CT), journalist Mehdi Hasan, American Federation of Teachers president Randi Weingarten, scientist Bill Nye, and Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) highlighted the importance of the Constitution, Republican attacks on essential social services, the power of unionization, Trump’s immigration crackdown and the tyranny of the one percent. Local leaders also took the stage, with co-founder of Free DC Keya Chatterjee and Nee Nee Taylor, executive director of Harriet’s Wildest Dreams, delivering fierce messages about statehood for the District and its citizens.
Later on, I had the chance to talk with Taylor and Alex Dodds, co-founder of Free DC. At a busy area dotted with “action tents” run by local organizations, Dodds and Taylor explained how the fight for D.C.’s sovereignty held a critical place in the No Kings protest.
It was an ideal moment to engage people in organizing efforts, said Dodds. “At a rally like this, there’s so much energy, and people are so fired up, which is amazing … we want to make sure it lasts beyond today. So you have to get connected to organizations, and we’ve had tons of great conversations today, helping people understand how we use this power that we’re seeing today.”
Taylor reinforced this point, adding that No Kings provided an opportunity to show the importance of doing more than just protest. “What are we going to do after we talk to the people? We have to motivate them, we have to organize, we have to strategize, and we have to win.”
As I wove my way through the crowd, I ran into a group wearing Metro DC Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) shirts. The chapter’s treasurer, Dieter Lehmann Morales, spoke to me about his chapter’s decision to attend the No Kings rally: “It’s important for us to stay in solidarity, still put our faces out there in the community and show that even though we’re not on the same page politically all the time, we’re still in agreement that this is unacceptable.”
Although Morales expressed some disappointment with how the event ended (after Sanders spoke, there was no “call to action” from the event’s organizers), he offered a personal reflection on the power of the political moment we find ourselves in. “We still have a chance of turning this around in this very dire moment. I’m always very forward-facing in my outlook, and this is just more motivation to do something about what’s really going on.”
Many of the attendees that I spoke to were inspired by the No Kings theme, communicating messages of hope and commitment to continuing advocacy efforts. Elena, a student with a passion for political science who was in town touring colleges, told me that she wishes that people don’t wait much longer to take action. “I hope that for everyone out there that it doesn’t happen to you, for you to get up and do something about it. Don’t wait for it to come to you.”
For months now, D.C. has been burdened with tension and uncertainty, as it finds itself the target of the Trump administration’s aggressive political revenge scheme. This aura has been compounded by the standstill in Congress and the government shutdown’s effects on the people of D.C., and it left me feeling as though the positive energy of No Kings had been sucked up into the atmosphere.
Passing by older folks sitting on benches and curbs clutching signs, multiple people wearing blow-up animal costumes, and young adults making plans to catch the Metro, two women caught my eye. Making their way along the sidewalk, they picked up the trash others had left behind, smiling and chatting. When I asked how they were feeling in the wake of the protest, Nina, who had a splash of metallic freckles across her nose, said despite the fact that the event was very positive, “it almost feels like it’s not enough.” As a mother, Nina expressed fears about the world her daughter is to grow up in. “I’m always trying to show her what it’s like to be a good citizen in this country. But now, it’s like, what is going to be left for her?” —Naomi Bethune
PALM SPRINGS, CALIFORNIA – It’s hard to get a read on the population of this desert destination. Officially, the 2025 estimate was 45,590, but few live here year-round, and even in the somewhat more temperate month of October, the LGBT-friendly city has not yet roared back to life from the summer shutdown. So having two No Kings rallies with thousands of attendees in the same day is a real accomplishment, putting a significant chunk of the town in the streets.
The late-afternoon rally had speakers and a more formal structure; the morning event on the street corners where a shopping center faces the Saguaro Hotel was just a visibility, where the game was to generate the loudest honked horn possible. (The semitruck with no cab was the booming victor.) The horns yielded cheers, signs were waved, and people with something new in common greeted one another.
The big moments were when the streetlights changed, a kickoff for the procession of inflatables. The fact that this No Kings protest took place two weeks from Halloween was a bit of good fortune, as cities across America were well stocked with what have become avatars for opposition to Trump. In Palm Springs, we had a zoo: a handful of chickens, an elephant, a seahorse, a squid, a koala bear, a unicorn, a frog, etc. With each change of the traffic light, there would be a chicken run, a bear prance, an elephant walk, hands outstretched. It was sunny and about 90 on Saturday; wearing a self-roasting inflatable suit deserved hazard pay.
This trend began in Portland, as frogs descended on the ICE holding facility in the city; at that city’s rally on Saturday, a frog brigade marched in unison. Like artisan pickles and flannel work shirts, it has spread from the Pacific Northwest, as dozens of cities reported other inflatable animals.
It’s easy to criticize the proliferation of dress-up as taking the moment unseriously, as devolving resistance against a would-be dictator into a costume contest. But mass mobilization requires giving people a reason to fight, whatever that may be. That includes laughing in the face of autocracy. The role of the jester goes back hundreds of years. And it’s necessary to attract people to mass movement politics with something beyond the drudgery of civic duty. The one moment that people believed Trump could be vanquished last year was the very beginning of the Harris-Walz campaign, when the operative word was relief from the sinking ship of a Biden re-election. Joy is a prerequisite of politics, not an optional extra.
Mass movements don’t lead with ideas or policy platforms as much as they do with a sense of belonging, a sense of choosing a side. You can motivate people off the couch by alarming them. But you can also do it by promising something fun and hopeful and the complete opposite of the grim procession of insults that characterizes MAGA culture. It’s not going to change the nation without persuading people that the opposition really does have better ideas for the country than intimidation and anger and cruelty. But you have to get people through the door. Why not with something fun? —David Dayen