At Rallies Big and Small, Millions Tell Trump He Has Lost His Way
At the “No Kings” protest in upstate Catskill, NY, no one said they hated America.
They did say they were disappointment in the current management team.
There were a lot of homemade signs spelling out human rights appeals and opposing dictatorship among the 400 souls who showed up. There was a lot of friendliness and singing, and just one speech by the local state senator basically thanking people for turning out to send a message of disagreement to Donald Trump.
But it was a far cry from the vision that Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) had offered an interviewer: “They call it the ‘No Kings’ rally. We call it the ‘Hate America’ rally. [It will have] all the Marxists collected, all the Antifa people, the [Black Lives Matter] remnants, the pro-Hamas wing of the Democrat Party, and they’re going to be out here screaming and wailing.” White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt had suggested that the Democratic Party’s “main constituency” more generally is “made up of Hamas terrorists, illegal aliens and violent criminals. That is who the Democrat Party is catering to.”
Nope. These were the same people we see at the local supermarket or neighborhood celebrations, proudly declaring that they value free speech over Trump administration censorship, cooperation with police rather than confrontation with ICE, respect for one another rather than ridicule and abasement based on identity and background.
A couple of people joked darkly about awaiting a check from Antifa. Another small group was saying sarcastically that they feel much better about the Justice system now that Trump has commuted the sentence of convicted fraudster and former congressman George Santos. Another offered me a small American Flag because, well, it is not a sign of hatred, but patriotism.
Around the country millions turned out to tell the president, his appointees, and the Republican majority in Congress that they are unhappy about prices, inflation and ineffective economic plans, including tariffs, that they are furious about tactics being used in mass deportations and the deployment of troops to city streets, that Trump is running in open disregard for the law.
They wanted to tell Trump he has lost his way and is not representing millions who took time to show up in the streets while Trump went to Mar-a-Lago.
They were upset that power is considered more important that morality, as signs said.
No Kings was hosting a lot of individual concerns that Trump is brandishing as control. Even on the courthouse block of Catskill, NY, the voices of song carried a message of undivided resistance to the Trump program, to adoption of Project 2025 goals, to mass firings, war behavior dressed as peace effort and the constancy of grift and partisanship to pass as governance.
