'No Kings' Rallies Attract Millions

Resistance to Trump's one-man-rule.

More than five million Americans have participated in No Kings rallies against the shift to an unconstitutional, absolute monarchy by a U.S. president who is usurping the powers of Congress and defying federal courts. It was the second major demonstration of 2025 in a burgeoning resistance movement. Attendance dwarfed the sparsely attended military parade in Washington for the would-be king's birthday.

In the little town of Pittsboro, NC, with a population of less than 5,000, an estimated 1,200 showed up. I was one of them. Professional photographer Ed Lallo captured a dramatic moment from the rally:

Lallo’s slideshow of the local event is here. His full portfolio website is here.

Military veterans were invited to come forward at our rally. Many did. The Pledge of Allegiance was recited. A foreign service officer and neighbor originally from TN spoke of the military sacrifices of his peers fighting for freedom abroad and the danger to democracy from the would-be king's behavior.

The rallies reminded Americans of the history and principles they believed in before too many bowed and voted for the dictator. Historically, Americans haven’t favored absolute monarchy but limited government in a system of checks and balances as well as a presidency that is accountable to the people.

Lots of speakers at these rallies talked about Trump's imperial presidency.

Pittsboro, NC No Kings Rally, June 14, 2025

This protest lifted the spirits of those concerned by Trump's push for dictatorship. Networks and alliances were expanded. If Trump's economy falters, I anticipate progressives will come roaring back to electoral victories in 2026 and 2028.

https://www.facebook.com/share/r/18ujZJiGbd/?mibextid=D5vuiz

Previous:

Does protesting work? Since the last mass demonstration, Elon Musk has resigned from DOGE, Trump has (for the first time) criticized Vladimir Putin’s actions in Ukraine, suffered dozens of legal setbacks in the courts, and changed his mind again and again about tariffs. Republican senators are wavering in their support for the “big beautiful bill” and the TACO meme has spread wildly, suggesting “Trump Always Chickens Out.”

Let’s take Donald Trump’s assertion that there are 21 million undocumented immigrants in the U.S. at face value, even though there’s little evidence for it, plus roughly six million children who, under birthright citizenship, are considered legal. Trump wants to revoke their citizenship.

He thinks 27 million should be deported. In the 48 months of his presidency, he would need to deport 562,500 every single month, or more than 18,750 PER DAY, including the six million children of immigrants who are citizens.

He is way behind — the White House claimed to deport 140,000 by April 2025. His rabid anti-immigrant advisor, Stephen Miller, recently upped the daily arrest quota to 3,000 per day.

To engage in truly mass deportations, Trump has called out the National Guard, the Marines, and says he will call out the Army, in violation of the Posse Comitatus Act of 1878. It bans federal military personnel from enforcing U.S. domestic policies or waging war against the American people.

If Trump is allowed to do this, he will transform the United States into a full-fledged police state, infringing on the rights of citizens, eliminating the right to due process, the right to court hearings, and judicial review, as well as birthright citizenship for immigrants. The U.S. Supreme Court must stop him from shredding the Constitution. It is scheduled to make at least one critical decision on immigration before the end of June.

Currently, Trump’s posse can decide who is an immigrant based on accent, dark skin, a foreign-sounding name, speaking or writing dissenting opinions, participating in demonstrations, tattoos, clothing, or people simply found in the wrong place at the wrong time. They can be thrown into vans, disappear, and quite possibly deported to foreign prisons. Immigration agents have even lurked at schools seeking out immigrant children.

Agents are raiding restaurants to snatch busboys and Home Depots to grab stock clerks, bullying seamstresses and ganging up on graduate students. Is this a matter of national security?

Mass deportation will cost more than a trillion dollars, reduce social security contributions, destroy businesses short on workers, and negatively impact economic growth overall.

This is insanity.

Trump Politicizes Military, Makes It a Hyper-Partisan Ally

At Fort Bragg in North Carolina, President Trump held a hyper-partisan campaign rally, employing extremist rhetoric. “Generations of army heroes did not shed their blood on distant shores only to watch our country be destroyed by invasion and third-world lawlessness,” he declared. “What you’re witnessing in California is a full-blown assault on peace, on public order and national sovereignty, carried out by rioters bearing foreign flags,” Trump said. He promised to “liberate Los Angeles.”

Trump accused California’s Democratic officials of collaborating with foreigners in “an occupation of the city by criminal invaders.” Two days later, California’s Senior Senator, Alex Padilla, was manhandled and handcuffed when he attempted to ask questions of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem at a press conference in LA.

“If this is how this administration responds to a senator with a question … you can only imagine what they’re doing to farmworkers, to cooks, to day laborers,” Padilla said after the confrontation. “We will hold this administration accountable.”

A Second Civil War?

History Professor Timothy Snyder, an expert in European authoritarianism, sees Trump’s actions as steps toward a second civil war, with the military, or a faction of it, called up to wage war against American citizens. “Deploying the armed forces in cities risks US soldiers killing US civilians. It also risks that provocateurs, including foreign ones, including allies of Trump, will try to kill an American soldier to provoke a disaster,” Snyder warned.

“In Trump’s speech (text), the existence of the United States is placed in doubt. We are not a country but a divided society in which some of us deserve punishment by others,” Snyder wrote on Substack. “In Trump’s speech, America did not exist, except as a cult to him personally.” He claimed personal responsibility for giving across-the-board military raises, though it only occurs legally through an act of Congress. “This is the way a dictator speaks to a palace guard, or a fascist to a paramilitary,” Snyder observed.

When A President Federalizes the National Guard

Trump has called out the National Guard and sent Marines to Los Angeles against the wishes of state and local officials in California, allegedly to quell riots. This is of dubious legality, as CA. Gov Gavin Newsom explained. Local officials say the unrest has been contained to a small area of a few blocks, and national help is not needed. Trump and Fox News are claiming Los Angeles is “aflame,” a war zone.

The last time the National Guard was called out against the wishes of state and local officials was by President Lyndon Johnson in Selma, AL, in 1965, to protect civil rights protestors. What happened when Lyndon Johnson federalized the National Guard (NPR). My uncle, Mac Secrest, was there as a conciliator, and he disarmed potential conflict with humor.