WASHINGTON — Hundreds of thousands of protesters flocked to Washington. DC and cities across the country on Saturday, to protest what they characterize as the Trump administration’s increasingly authoritarian actions.
“We are here representing normal people – normal, peaceful Americans – who are against what this administration is doing, who are against the occupation of our cities and our neighbors being taken off the streets,” says Jermaine Collins, a 34-year-old Afghanistan war veteran, speaking to rolling stone next to a city dump truck, set up to block access to the road next to the National Gallery of Art.
A rally more than a march, the “no kings“The protest centered on a stage set up on Pennsylvania Avenue with the U.S. Capitol in the background. The event comes as the Trump administration is increasingly willing to directly confront its political opponents using the various levers of state power, including the use of counterterrorism tools originally designed to fight foreign extremists against domestic targets, and through deployment the National Guard to main cities under federal authority.
In Washington, squads of traveling guards in MultiCam uniforms and body armor carrying M17 pistols and M4 rifles have become a common viewbut on Saturday the police presence was relatively light and relaxed. A contingent of bicycle cops from the Metropolitan Police Department (on standby as a quick reaction force, their typical role in case a protest turned violent) rested in the shade of the art gallery’s east wing, mostly napping as protesters gathered nearby under a warm fall sun. There were no signs of the National Guard near the protest site; in fact, there appears to have been a decision to minimize their presence in the areas surrounding the Capitol over the weekend.
However, the deployment of soldiers to American cities topped the list of concerns for many who attended the protest.
“It’s horrible,” says a 68-year-old D.C. resident holding a “Freedom of the Press” sign. He had gathered with a handful of friends in the shade of a tree in Union Square to listen to speeches being broadcast from a nearby stage. “We have friends who are in this [the D.C. National Guard]. “It is a waste of time and resources.”
The retiree and his three friends, who asked not to be identified for fear of possible retaliation from the U.S. government, spoke at length with this reporter about what they see as a collapse of politics as usual in the U.S. Describing themselves as political moderates, they say they are not optimistic that the Trump administration’s “vengeful anarchy,” as one described it, can be easily defeated, esp. in today’s divisive and emotionally charged partisan political environment.
And yet they remain hopeful that resistance to the administration will manifest in anti-Republican votes at the polls during next year’s midterm elections, despite what one called a “pathetic” performance by the Democratic Party.
The reason Trump was re-elected is because “behind the outlandish rhetoric, there are real issues that need to be addressed,” the 68-year-old says. Democrats must face that reality, he adds, but it is also vital to convince voters to reject the MAGA movement and its excesses. “I am hopeful that events like today will help make progress with independents who voted for ‘Trump’ in the last election.”
others see protests as “No Kings” as the beginning of a broader national resistance movement.
“I’ll keep it very simple. “This administration is taking America down the path of authoritarianism,” says Ethan Wilson, a 42-year-old Iraq War veteran who, along with Collins, represented a progressive veterans nonprofit called “Common Defense.”
“Courts are important. Elections are important. But that probably won’t be enough to save us,” Wilson believes. “What we need is a large nonviolent civil resistance movement in the United States that is capable of building levers of power that can be used against the administration and its supporters, especially the upper echelon of elites in American society who actively support or accompany the administration.”
The goal of this, Wilson says, is to pressure elites and institutions to withdraw their support for what he calls “the emerging regime.”
“Again: non-violently,” he adds.
In fact, there were no signs of violence witnessed by rolling stone at the “No Kings” protest in Washington. This journalist observed a lone man wearing a “Make America Great Again” cap and donald trump The T-shirt walks through the crowd of protesters unmolested, staring defiantly as the people around him largely ignore his passing.
That didn’t surprise Collins, the Afghan veterinarian. “There’s a bunch of regular people here protesting. It’s not what you’ve been seeing on Fox News and all that. Look around you. There aren’t many, they branded us ‘terrorists,'” he says. “So that’s a little crazy. Of course, it’s crazy.”
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The D.C. event was one of more than 2,700 similar protests across the country, organizers say. The administration and its allies have oscillated between downplaying and ignoring the protests and describing them as major threats to national security.
On Wednesday, Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) said he wanted to introduce legislation that would allow the Department of Justice to prosecute “No Kings” financiers and organizers under the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO).
“Follow the money. Cut the money.” Cruz told Fox News. “If you look at this ‘No Kings’ rally, there is considerable evidence that George Soros and his network are behind the financing of these demonstrations, which may well turn into riots.”
“This is the authoritarian playbook,” says Brandon Wolf, national press secretary for the Human Rights Campaign, a nonprofit that advocates for LGBTQ rights, and one of the organizers of the “No Kings” rally. “Not only do they rely on division and chaos, but they also rely on intimidation, because they are the minority in this country. Not only is Donald Trump wildly unpopular, but the vast majority of people in this country do not support dictatorships. They do not support tyranny.”
“We don’t have a country if we don’t have the First Amendment, and people should absolutely exercise their freedom to peacefully assemble and petition their government,” Wolf says. “No matter what bluster comes out of the White House or its enablers, that is a fundamental American freedom.”
However, Cruz’s threats are part of a broader pattern in which the Trump administration has shown a willingness to go after protesters. In September, the president signed a executive order which labeled the leaderless collective anti-fascist movement known as Antifa a “Domestic Terrorist Organization.”
On Thursday, federal prosecutors obtained a grand jury indictment against members of an alleged “Antifa cell” on charges of providing “material support to terrorism,” related to an incident at an Immigration and Customs Enforcement office (ICE) in Alvarado, Texas, on the 4th of July. In that incident, a group of individuals dressed in black stormed ICE facilities, setting off fireworks and destroying property, according to the US government, in an attack that amounted to an “ambush” and an “attempted assassination of federal agents.”
It is believed to be the first time that terrorism charges have been brought against alleged followers of the anti-fascist movement. Protests against ICE officers and facilities and alleged rampant crime have formed the basis for a series of unprecedented coercive actions taken by the Trump administration, including the deployment of the military to Los Angeles, the National Guard to Washington, DC, and a planned deployment of federalized National Guard members to Chicago.
A temporary restraining order blocking that deployment was upheld Thursday by the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals, which in its ruling specifically noted that “political opposition is not rebellion,” arguing that the evidence did not support the president federalizing troops despite the objections of local authorities.
“A protest does not become a rebellion simply because protesters advocate for myriad legal or political changes, are well organized, call for significant changes to the structure of the U.S. government, use civil disobedience as a form of protest, or exercise their Second Amendment right to bear firearms as currently permitted by law,” the court wrote, adding: “Nor does a protest become becomes a rebellion simply due to sporadic and isolated incidents of illegal activity or even violence committed by dishonest protest participants.
At Saturday’s protest in DC, there were certainly few signs of open rebellion ahead. But there was a lot of carefully considered outrage.
“I’m an immigrant. I wasn’t born in this country. That means I have the love for this country that immigrants have. It’s a different kind of love, in a way, because you realize what your life could have been like if you hadn’t had this opportunity,” says Nancy, a 57-year-old Maryland lawyer who, like many of the people she meets, rolling stone spoke and asked not to be identified by her full name. “I’ve been here my whole life. My dad was American, my mom was from South America. I think this country is really important and I think it’s worth fighting for.”
“I am a lawyer and I believe in the rule of law,” she adds. “The rule of law is what sets a free people apart. And that’s why I’m really concerned about the abrogation of the rule of law… and how easily it’s happening. How almost without thinking about it, we’re becoming desensitized to any violation that’s happening.”
For the most part, the large-scale protest had the atmosphere of a block party, filled with enthusiastic supporters of countless causes in evidence. Regardless of someone’s motivations or politics, organizers say, the most important thing anyone can do to defend the rights they believe are threatened is to simply show up.
“Regardless of the lengths this administration is willing to go to quell dissent in this country, it remains our obligation to show up and defend our most fundamental freedoms,” Wolf says. “You can’t know what this administration is going to do from one day to the next. They have shown a willingness to back down when faced with immense public pressure. Often, it’s grandstanding and there isn’t much bite behind the bark. And sometimes there is.”
“But I will just say that throughout American history and around the world, brave people have stood up in the face of heartbreaking circumstances and defended freedom,” Wolf adds, “and they have been on the right side of history when it was written.”
