After Massive No Kings Protests, Trump Insults Americans and Asserts ‘Unquestioned Power’ to Deploy Troops Domestically
The No Kings rallies against President Donald Trump’s power grab Saturday likely marked the country’s biggest single-day protest ever.
Between 5 and 6.5 million people attended one of the more than 2,700 events around the U.S., according to an estimate from independent data journalist G. Elliott Morris based on crowd-sourced data. The 6.5 million upper end of Morris’ estimate would represent nearly 2% of the U.S. population.
The No Kings movement, a network of progressive organizations fighting against Trump’s agenda that helped organize the rallies, itself estimated that over 7 million people rose up.
These are rough calculations, but combined with aerial footage of massive crowds in several cities, it’s clear that a huge number of people took to the streets and exercised their fundamental rights this weekend.
They did so through inflatable animal costumes, music, American flags, signs galore and, in the case of the rally in Washington, D.C., a massive copy of the preamble of the Constitution, which was signed by protesters and carried down Pennsylvania Avenue.
People polled at the D.C. rally said their top motivations for attending were Trump, his immigration policies and voting, according to survey data collected by a team led by Dana Fisher, an American University sociologist.
Though respondents were predominantly politically left leaning, almost 10% of those polled said they were moderate or slightly right.
In response to the massive demonstrations, Trump attacked Americans and made more extreme assertions of power — and his allies in Congress continued to defend him.
As some No Kings protests were ongoing, Trump Saturday posted an AI-generated video of himself wearing a crown and dropping payloads of excrement on protesters from a “King Trump” fighter jet.
After laughing in response to a question about it, House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) defended the video Monday. The speaker claimed it was “satire” and said Trump was “probably the most effective person who has ever used social media.”
During an interview with Fox News Sunday, Trump also claimed he had “unquestioned power” to invoke the Insurrection Act — one of the president’s most extreme emergency powers. It authorizes the president to deploy military forces domestically to suppress rebellion or domestic violence. Legal experts have long warned it is ripe for abuse.
“Don’t forget, and I haven’t used it. But don’t forget, I can use the Insurrection Act. 50% of the presidents, almost, have used that. And remember, that’s unquestioned power,” Trump said after noting that his recent military deployments in Democratic-led cities have been met with a “legal force.”
“I choose not to. But I’m met constantly by fake politicians,” Trump said of invoking the act. “These cities have to be safe. Our cities that are Democrat-run — exclusively, just about — are unsafe cities. They’re a disaster, and I’m going to save the cities.”
While the Insurrection Act has been invoked several times, 18 past presidents — 40% — have used it. Past use of the act also wouldn’t justify his use of it in the present.
After falsely claiming that he had a “right” to unilaterally cut congressionally approved funding because of the government shutdown, Trump also signaled that he would expand his military takeover of American cities to San Francisco over the objections of California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D).
Johnson and other Republican lawmakers Monday continued to paint the mass anti-Trump protest as a “hate America rally.”
“The truth is, the marxist, radicals and Islamists the Democratic Party promoted this weekend — they cannot handle the truth,” Rep. Chip Roy (R-Texas) said Monday. “The truth is that there is a king and that king is Jesus. And the president has been willing to say it.”
Other GOP lawmakers vowed to open probes to find out which groups helped organize the massive rallies, even though the No Kings movement’s website lists dozens of its partner organizations.
“I think it is extremely important that we look at who is funding these protests,” Sen. Joni Ernst (R-Iowa) said on Fox News. “We have to get to the bottom of this.”
Before the weekend protests, multiple law enforcement agencies, on Trump’s orders, were preparing to investigate and prosecute people or left-leaning groups holding views disfavored by the president. Groups under potential investigation include Indivisible, a progressive nonprofit that’s a core organizer of No Kings events, Reuters reported.
The No Kings movement is set to hold a mass call Tuesday at 8 p.m. ET to discuss what comes next.
This story has been updated to reflect that crowd-sourced data indicates that the Oct. 18 No Kings demonstrations were likely the largest single-day protest ever if Earth Day events in the 1970s are excluded. The estimated number of demonstrators was also rounded down from between 5 and 8 million to between 5 and 6.5 million.