Demonstrators will once again take to the streets for “No Kings Day,” a nationwide series of protests against the Trump administration, on Oct. 18.
While protests against President Trump have not been uncommon since his first term, “No Kings Day” kicked off on June 14. These gatherings were organized in response to the U.S. Army’s 250th anniversary military parade in Washington, D.C., which coincided with Trump’s 79th birthday.
Across the country, 2,000 “No Kings” protests are scheduled for next Saturday, according to a post from the Indivisible project. There are plans in major cities like Los Angeles; Boston; Washington; Chicago; Atlanta; New Orleans; Kansas City, Mo.; and Bozeman, Mont. Planned protests stretch into Canada and as far south as Madrid, a town in Mexico.
“On October 18, millions of us are rising again to show the world: America has no kings, and the power belongs to the people,” reads the main page on the “No Kings” website.
The protest in Washington will be held in front of the U.S. Capitol building, and is expected to draw out thousands of demonstrators.
Beyond members of the general public frustrated at the current administration, the American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE) urged federal employee members to participate in the protests as well.
“The protest movement has taken on new urgency with the government shutdown that began Oct. 1,” AFGE stated on Oct. 6. “Shutting down the government is another authoritarian power grab by this administration, which has threatened to lay off mass numbers of furloughed federal workers as part of an ongoing quest to gut federal programs and services the administration finds objectionable.”
Spread across more than 900 local unions, AFGE represents over 820,000 workers in almost every federal agency and in the government, its website states.
House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) slammed the “No Kings Day” protests in an interview on Fox News on Friday, when he said he’s “a very patient guy, but I’ve had it with these people.”
“The theory we have right now [is] they have a ‘Hate America’ rally that’s scheduled for Oct. 18 on the National Mall,” Johnson said. “It’s all the pro-Hamas wing and the antifa people, they’re all coming out.”
On Thursday, actor Robert De Niro called on Americans to take part in the upcoming “No Kings Day,” referring to the American Revolution as the “original No Kings.”
“We’ve had two and a half centuries of democracy since then, often challenging, sometimes messy, always essential,” De Niro said in a video shared on Indivisible’s Instagram page. “And we fought in two world wars to preserve it. Now we have a would-be king who wants to take it away, King Donald I. F‑‑‑ that!”
The first “No Kings Day” notably did not have a demonstration held in Washington.
“Instead of allowing this birthday parade to be the center of gravity, we will make action everywhere else the story of America that day: people coming together in communities across the country to reject strongman politics and corruption,” organizers previously stated.
Instead, organizers encouraged demonstrators local to the D.C. area to head to the flagship march in Philadelphia or to a local protest in Virginia or Maryland.
