No Kings is a branded protest campaign that claims to defend the First Amendment and American democracy from what organizers call President Donald Trump\u2019s abuses of power. Their public message says America has no thrones, no crowns, and no kings. Their website language argues the president believes his rule is absolute and promises that participants will not back down against chaos, corruption, and cruelty. They seem to forget that Trump was democratically elected by the American people.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The second national No Kings day unfolded on Saturday, Oct. 18, 2025. Organizers and outlets cited more than 2,500 to 2,700 events across all 50 states, with images and accounts from major cities like New York, Washington, Chicago, Austin, and from overseas in places such as Malm\u00f6, Berlin, and Madrid. Reporters described huge crowds from Los Angeles to New York and smaller marches in towns like Bozeman and Ann Arbor.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Scale was the story. Politico previewed about 2,600 events. NBC reported that organizers claimed nearly 7 million people attended more than 2,700 rallies, which they said topped the first round in June that drew an estimated 5 million across more than 2,100 sites. The New York Police Department said more than 100,000 people demonstrated across the five boroughs and reported zero protest-related arrests.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Supporters framed the day as patriotic. The core message targeted what they called authoritarian behavior, including immigration crackdowns and National Guard deployments. Many linked their presence to civil rights, women\u2019s and LGBTQ rights, health care, and free speech. In Washington, Bill Nye urged the crowd with \u201cNo thrones! No crowns! No kings!\u201d and accused the administration of rejecting \u201cbasic scientific facts.\u201d Sen. Elizabeth Warren told Boston that peaceful mass protest is \u201cdeeply American. That is patriotism.\u201d Sen. Bernie Sanders blasted \u201cthe billionaire class\u201d and said those backers saw \u201chuge increases in their wealth and power\u201d since Trump took office.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
On the streets, participants spoke in moral language. A man in Times Square identified as Ed said, \u201cBecause I\u2019m an American, and I learned from history\u2026 we\u2019re going down a slippery slope\u2026 If we don\u2019t stand up and protest\u2026 we\u2019ll be just another one of what Trump called the s\u2014hole countries.\u201d Another man, Brad, said, \u201cWe have a fascist government in America abetted by a fascist media.\u201d A woman named Nicole tied her attendance to health care fears. \u201cWe can bomb random boats off the coast of Venezuela\u2026 spend all this money on ICE terrorizing people\u2026 It\u2019s disgusting.\u201d A first-time protester in Washington said she came out of \u201cextreme frustration.\u201d Others talked about \u201cdemocracy\u201d being at stake and said they did not recognize the country anymore.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Republican leaders rejected the movement and its branding. Speaker Mike Johnson called it a \u201chate America\u201d rally and predicted he would see \u201cHamas supporters\u201d and \u201cantifa types\u201d alongside \u201cthe Marxists.\u201d The White House economic adviser Kevin Hassett said the protests proved their own contradiction because \u201ceveryone\u2019s letting them protest,\u201d which in his view shows there is \u201cno king.\u201d President Trump said, \u201cI\u2019m not a king,\u201d and the White House responded to questions about the rallies with, \u201cWho cares?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Governors and police announced security measures. New York emphasized peaceful assembly with zero tolerance for lawbreaking. In Virginia and Texas, officials activated Guard support or troopers. In Chicago, organizers said ICE was \u201coccupying our city,\u201d and critics replied that federal officers were carrying out lawful orders.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Not completely violence free<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Most mainline rallies were peaceful. New York reported zero protest arrests. Chicago police said there were no arrests at the city\u2019s No Kings march. There were flashpoints away from the core events. In Broadview, Illinois, four people were arrested near an ICE facility at a protest that was not part of No Kings. In Portland, the daytime \u201cNo Kings 2.0\u201d rallies were calm, but a smaller evening crowd gathered at the ICE building and federal officers used tear gas, pepper balls, and flash bangs to clear access. Photographs showed people coughing through thick gas and several injured, while the larger daytime gatherings crossed bridges and filled parks without serious conflict.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Coverage was heavy and constant. NBC ran a live blog with on the ground reports from Washington, Austin, Chicago, and other cities, plus photo galleries. Politico\u2019s Playbook led the morning with a preview of events in all 50 states and talked about a strategy to \u201cretake the flag.\u201d Fox News interviewed participants in Times Square and quoted administration figures and critics. HuffPost showcased photos nationwide. USA Today explained the movement\u2019s aims and pointed readers to location finders. Regional outlets like OPB described a peaceful day across Oregon that ended with a show of force at the Portland ICE facility.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Supporters say they are standing up for the Constitution and basic rights. They describe the protests as a patriotic defense of democracy. They insist it is a \u201cpeaceful movement\u201d and point to handmade signs as proof of grassroots energy. Organizers Ezra Levin and Leah Greenberg said, \u201cToday, millions of Americans stood together to reject authoritarianism,\u201d and called the day the largest single day of nationwide demonstrations in U.S. history.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But the funding and coordination reveal a different picture. The campaign is powered by a sprawling nonprofit and union network. Accounts tied to the coalition describe 200 to 265 groups, including 501(c)(3) charities, 501(c)(4) political nonprofits, and labor unions, sharing toolkits that call on participants to \u201cstand against the Trump administration\u201d and \u201cfight Trump\u2019s authoritarian takeover.\u201d At the center sits George Soros\u2019s Open Society Foundations. Soros has given more than 32 billion dollars to OSF. The Open Society Action Fund awarded 3 million dollars to Indivisible, a primary No Kings organizer, as part of roughly 7.6 million dollars directed into the organizing infrastructure. Leah Greenberg previously worked for Tom Perriello, who later led OSF, which shows how leadership and money overlap.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Critics say this is a shadow political machine disguised as charity. Jennica Pounds argued the network is \u201can empire of tax-exempt organizations doing the Democratic Party\u2019s work on the taxpayer\u2019s dime,\u201d using outrage on immigration and Israel to \u201crage-bait America.\u201d The coalition also integrated a \u201cPalestine Contingent\u201d and labor factions like \u201cUAW Labor for Palestine,\u201d ensuring anti-Israel slogans and speakers appeared inside No Kings events. From this perspective, the movement takes a broad banner like No Kings and fills it with anti-American and socialist messaging that has little to do with constitutional limits and everything to do with power.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Trump allies want transparency and accountability. The president called for investigations into the funding network and told the Justice Department to examine potential RICO issues. Sen. Ted Cruz said Republicans are committed to countering a network of left wing violence. Speaker Johnson warned that these rallies are designed to demoralize the nation and undermine unity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n ————<\/p>\n\n\n\n People have the right to protest. That is not in dispute. The Oct. 18 protests were massive, mostly peaceful, and heavily covered. Supporters used patriotic symbols to frame their cause. Critics saw a coordinated spectacle, scripted by professionals and financed by Soros aligned groups that push anti American and socialist narratives. When you pull back from the handmade signs and the costumes, the numbers and the grants tell the clearer story. A billionaire funded web of nonprofits and unions designed the day, set the talking points, and used millions of people as messengers. That is why, even while acknowledging their rights, many Americans see a movement that looks less like citizen action and more like a stage show. In that sense, the slogan says No Kings, but the strings point to one throne that sits far from the ballot box.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" No Kings is a branded protest campaign that claims to defend the First Amendment and American democracy from what organizers call President Donald Trump\u2019s abuses of power. Their public message says America has no thrones, no crowns, and no kings. Their website language argues the president believes his rule is absolute and promises that participants will not back down against chaos, corruption, and cruelty. They seem to forget that Trump was democratically elected by the American people. The second national […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":6622,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6,8,13,20,21,22],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6621","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-democrats","category-elections","category-individual-liberty","category-propaganda","category-threat-to-america","category-trump"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/nakedpolitics.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/protestasdfsdf.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nakedpolitics.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6621","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nakedpolitics.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nakedpolitics.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nakedpolitics.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nakedpolitics.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6621"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/nakedpolitics.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6621\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6623,"href":"https:\/\/nakedpolitics.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6621\/revisions\/6623"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nakedpolitics.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/6622"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nakedpolitics.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6621"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nakedpolitics.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6621"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nakedpolitics.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6621"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}What supporters claim vs. what the machine built<\/h4>\n\n\n\n