Washington DC—They came by the 10,000s dressed as frogs, unicorns, squirrels, cats, and ordinary citizens. Many wore yellow as a sign of unity and joy while some wore pussy-hats, a throwback to the historic Women’s March held on January 21, 2017. On that day nearly a million stood strong together against Donald Trump’s closed-society agenda, far eclipsing his meekly attended inauguration the day before.
And now in 2025, 8 years later, people power rose again to oppose the Trump threat to democracy. The people handily rejected his authoritarian agenda and his chipping and chopping away the republic’s foundations. Institutions had unexpectedly buckled one after another, falling like dominos to his compliance demands issued over the first 9 months of his Project 2025 road map. Law firms, universities, corporations, the press, and the congressional party members of Trump himself had ceded their power and capitulated to the unitary leader. And it was this stunning collective, betrayal by nearly every venerable institution that should have remained intact, that wakened the people to take action, making them realize that they were the last column standing in the republic.
The people arrived by foot walking across bridges, by metro trains, and buses, asserting their right to demonstrate as provided in the First Amendment. They came by the thousands, then ten-thousands, and then more kept arriving. And despite a barrage of earlier labels from MAGA party leaders, they thronged through DC in resolved defiance to assert their power.
And on Saturday October 18, the last column of resistance stood loyally and firmly in place. One could hear and feel the building crescendo of the people as they marched and as their chants and their drum beats echoed from the glass and concrete high rise buildings as they passed. The opposition was led by lines of people carrying “No Kings” and Abolish-ICE banners. Many people dressed in animal costumes to mock a president and his cabinet who had governed like a king with courtiers: the people had their say and they were keenly awake and they had risen to reject his authoritarianism.
And it was a scene repeated in major metropolitan cities across the country—and while a final number of those rallying and marching will not ever be accurately counted, it was estimated to be in the millions. New York, Philadelphia, Baltimore, Washington DC, Los Angeles, Chicago, all saw massive protests. Many smaller cities also held rallies. Rallies were also reported worldwide in sympathy for Americans patriotically standing in for the remnants of their republic.
There were 2600 locations hosting No Kings rallies and marches across the country, according to Indivisible Co-founders and No Kings organizers Ezra Levin and Leah Greenberg. Levin said that the events would be peaceful and that was what authorities did not want. He argued that authoritarian regimes gain more power over people when the people react violently to oppression. The ‘No Kings’ rallies strategy was peaceful, joyful resistance.
“The number one thing any authoritarian regime fears is broad-based, ideological, diverse, geopolitically dispersed, mass people power,” said Levin earlier in the week. And it was apparent that was what they were there to do Saturday.
And that’s what No Kings have given the regime; what it didn’t want: joyful, peaceful, perfect resistance. And that’s pretty hard to do when you’re placing hundreds of thousands of people in the same place, but easier to do when they’re all going in the same direction.
All week leading up to the No Kings rallies MAGA leaders tried to discredit the citizens who were planning to attend the nation wide action. U.S. House Speaker Mike Johnson attempted to cast the No Kings participants exercising their First Amendment rights as “Antifa people,” and “Pro-Hamas,” and a “hate America rally” crowd. U.S. House Representative Tom Emmer (R-MN.) labeled them “the terrorist wing of the Democratic party.” Many others from across the MAGA echo chamber intoned similar messages. Those messages drove the resistance even further. Those labels failed.
But the No Kings protests were not violent or anti-American. To the contrary they carried American flags, symbolic of their commitment to a democratic republic. They danced and celebrated and carried signs with comical slogans supporting a functioning government for the people, not an indefinitely shut down government, closed by reason to serve the political whims of those in power. They wore animal cartoon costumes to poke fun at the idea that MAGA leaders were casting them as reprobates standing against American principles with rights to be respected and honored.
Many Factors Lead To Historic No Kings Rally
The last four months have seen a blitz of authoritarian measures taken by Trump to consolidate power. This has led to a near perfect storm in resistance campaigns across the region as ordinary citizens mobilized for actions. For instance, public servants are nonpartisan and are focused on their federal service and don’t take part in condemnations of their agency leadership. However, since the DOGE takeovers and shutdowns of many government agencies, many federal employees have spoken out against their government leadership and rallied outside their agencies.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has been deployed in paramilitary fashion, roughly rounding up immigrants legally in the U.S. The roundups are so haphazard that 170 American citizens have also been swept up. The roundups are being captured on video and shared by guerrilla journalists. This has inflamed tensions in cities (almost entirely in blue States) and resulted in blowback against ICE.
National Guard deployments to cities claimed by Trump to be crime infested has also increased tension and mobilized citizen groups to monitor and record their activities. The National Guard deployments are being challenged in the U.S. District Courts.
Another symbol of an authoritarian regime is to use the military against its people as Trump has threatened to do. Even though the Posse Comitatus Act forbids it, it is something that is possible if Trump declares another emergency (he has already declared 9 emergencies since his inauguration, the most of any president).
The government shutdown has shut virtually most agencies and placed nearly 200,000 federal employees on indefinite furlough. This was caused as a result of House Speaker Mike Johnson failing to call the House into session to negotiate a Fiscal Year 2026 spending bill.
The Trump takeovers and shutdowns of many government agencies and removal of vast amounts of information from government databases is also fresh on the minds of many and spurred federal employee resistance actions outside of those agencies. Many furloughed employees have taken part in the ‘No Kings’ action.
Adjacent Activities Support No Kings Rallies
The first ’No Kings’ rally of June 14 was held on Trump’s birthday with a military parade he threw for himself which resulted in an embarrassment to the self-described “dictator.” Squeaky 1950s era tanks and Soldiers carrying drones welcomed Trump and he was not impressed or amused. In the prelude to the first ‘No Kings’ actions in June, hundreds of participants from Visibility Brigades and We of Action gathered at DC-MD-VA bridges to display ‘No Kings’ messages with giant letters to passing motorists.
On The day before Saturday’s rally, We of Action and Visibility Brigades once again displayed ’No Kings’ messages on area bridges, enticing many honks of support from passing motorists.
Historic No Kings Rallies Shook Regime Power Grip
As the afternoon social media wave gave way to evening news reports it was clear the numbers of participants far exceeded organizers’ estimates. Over 7 million joined in the historic march, the largest turnout for a protest against government policies in the country’s history. The fear-mongering, disparaging remarks of Speaker Mike Johnson of the week before, portraying the protesters as “radical” and “far-left of the Democrat party” including “Marxists,” and Antifa advocates,” devolved to nothing. To the contrary, the No Kings rallies in DC and nationwide were patriotic, joyful, non-violent, a needed relief for stressed citizens battling for their republic, and to put it simply, fun.
Participants gathered by the hundreds at the Department of Labor, led by the Georgetown contingent of Tesla Takedowns and danced while scores of bored secret service and police looked on idly. Groups of costumed caricatures danced to poke fun at the regime and its siege of major metropolitan centers. Citizens from every walk, including some conservatives disillusioned by Trump’s Project 2025 agenda, joined in a celebratory atmosphere. Over 200,000 lined Pennsylvania carrying signs of wit and comical slogans poking fun at Trump and his cabinet.
Speakers told of the anti-constitutional wrongs the regime was committing in furtherance of its own power and denounced them. They spoke of the promise of people power in fighting authoritarianism. There were no acts of property damage reported by No Kings participants and therefore there were no arrests, (There were some reports of opposition protesters arrested for brandishing firearms or running their cars through rallies.)
On Kings Day, people power had found its footing and gained much needed confidence for the challenges to come. They showed the institutions that had faltered how to stand up to a bully and his authoritarian regime.
