The Far Left’s Choreographed, Vacuous ‘No Kings’ Movement

The notion that the weekend’s “grassroots” protests were organic is a joke.

Try to follow the reasoning that an average, uninitiated individual might cycle through to understand the so-called No Kings movement that took center stage over the weekend. The person might say something like: Excuse me, but I already understand that the US has never been a monarchy, that we are a constitutional republic that elects rather than selects or anoints its leaders, so we do not have kings in this country. Why, then, are we supposed to be all hot and bothered about a subject that was settled by a war 250 years ago? I thought Trump became president by winning the electoral vote as prescribed by the US Constitution — plus the popular vote, right?

As has been the case with most of these staged protests, a huge majority of the supposed anti-Trump activists were old, lily-white people looking like they were reliving their hippie days of the 1960s. As radio talk show host Hugh Hewitt observed on Fox News, it looked like a giant water aerobics class. Some of their signs were mildly amusing – e.g. “Cleanup on Aisle 47,” “I prefer my ICE crushed,” “No Faux-King Way,” “Hey MAGA, Go Fact Yourself,” and “Alexa, change the president.” Many of the marchers were undoubtedly provided with their signs and were paid for their staged outrage by George Soros’ Open Society Foundations and affiliated quasi-Marxist organizations. As Liberty Nation’s Sarah Cowgill observed, “Thousands upon thousands of coordinated propaganda blasts went out, full of links to left-wing fundraising websites such as ActBlue, Inequality Media, ActionNetwork.Org, and ProtectVoting.Org, where you could provide soft drinks and pizza to the yahoos doing the protesting dirty work.”

Is No Kings the Best They Could Come Up With?

If the No Kings choreographers expect to appeal to ordinary Americans, couldn’t they come up with a name that speaks to their actual concerns, like, say, the cost of living or foreign wars? Once again, the left has selected a title for an astroturf movement masquerading as a grassroots coalition that leaves normal people with a whole lot more questions than answers. Remember the whirlwind “Fighting Oligarchy” tour by Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY)? Take that same average person and ask him what oligarchy means, and you will likely get a blank stare.

A decade of protests and violence against Trump and his supporters have produced exactly the opposite result than that desired by the millions afflicted with Trump Derangement Syndrome (the clinical name for that mental health disorder is TDS). Protests like No Kings and Fighting Oligarchy are the remnants of the impeachments, concocted scandals, legal warfare, violent uprisings, and even attempts at assassination that have not just failed, but resulted in Trump being elected president twice – and the one loss to Biden in between was close. Powerless leftists who saw their advocates sent packing in the last election have thrown the kitchen sink at Trump, but have been unable to stop him and are left with few options beyond parading around the streets objecting to anything they can think of. It’s like the old adage about lawyers on how to conduct a trial: “If you have the facts, slam the facts. If you have the law, slam the law. If you have neither, slam the table.” Of course, precious few cases have been won by a lawyer slamming the table.

Speaker of the House Mike Johnson (R-LA) provided the essential conservative perspective by rebranding the demonstrations as “hate America rall[ies]” that would draw “the pro-Hamas wing” of the left and “the Antifa people.” The down-and-outers, at least 31 of whom were arrested in various locations, spent much of their Saturday effectively slamming the table with their orchestrated placards, much like the Women’s March following Trump’s first inauguration. But they are unlikely to move the needle at all, especially since they are attacking so many issues at the same time. The success of movements generally hinges on identifying a specific grievance. Civil rights and anti-war movements, among others, had genuine impact because they rallied concerned people around a defined issue. But No Kings and Fighting Oligarchy are aimed not at issues, but at a single despised individual who was duly elected to the highest office in the land.

What we did not see during this day of rage was any recognition of the historic Middle East peace deal brokered by the president – or any of the seven other conflicts he tamped down across the globe. We might have thought those who screamed for an end to the “genocide” in Gaza would, if not openly celebrate, at least give grudging credit to Trump’s masterful performance on the world stage. But of course they did not, preferring instead to move on to other issues about which they can loudly complain.

The Real King

The ugly truth is that it was actually Joe Biden who behaved like a king. He issued a de facto jihad against Trump and his supporters during a dark, ominous speech at the very site where the Constitution was ratified. He ordered or tacitly approved top-down censorship, cancel culture, transgender fixation, unadulterated racialism, transparent weaponization of the Justice Department, attempts to bankrupt Trump’s business, and four different efforts to imprison Trump and throw away the key. Biden henchmen raided Trump’s home, put him on trial, and created a toxic political environment that led to two attempts at assassination. But there were none of the No Kings-style protests on the right, even though conservatives had many good reasons to feel profoundly threatened.

Donald Trump is a towering figure who has undoubtedly tested the limits of his power, as most Presidents do. Biden tried and failed repeatedly to cancel student loan debt before the 2024 election. Franklin D. Roosevelt tried and failed to pack the Supreme Court. John Adams advanced, then retreated from the Alien and Sedition Acts that punished speech he found objectionable. Like presidents past, Trump has sometimes prevailed, sometimes not, with an audacious agenda he clearly articulated during his historic 2024 presidential campaign. When the best his enemies can do is march around chanting all manner of noxious, hate-filled slogans, it reveals the utter bankruptcy of a movement and a party at war with reality.