WASHINGTON — Hundreds of thousands of demonstrators turned out in Washington, D.C. and cities across the nation on Saturday, to protest what they characterize as the increasingly authoritarian actions of the Trump administration.
“We’re here representing normal people — regular, peaceful Americans — who are against what this administration is doing, who are against the occupation of our cities and the disappearing of our neighbors off the streets,” says Jermaine Collins, a 34-year-old veteran of the war in Afghanistan, speaking to Rolling Stone beside a city dump truck, set up to block road access beside the National Gallery of Art.
A rally more than a march, the “No Kings” 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 becomes increasingly eager to directly confront its political opponents using the varied levers of state power — including by using anti-terror tools originally designed to fight foreign extremists against domestic targets, and by deploying the National Guard to major cities under federal authority.
In Washington, squads of roving guardsmen in MultiCam uniforms and body armor carrying M17 pistols and M4 rifles have become a commonplace sight, but on Saturday the law enforcement presence was relatively light and relaxed. A contingent of Metropolitan Police Department bicycle cops — in reserve as a rapid reaction force, their typical role should a protest turn violent — lounged in the shade of the art gallery’s East Wing, mostly napping as protesters gathered nearby beneath a hot autumn sun. There was no sign of the National Guard near the protest site — indeed, there seems to have been a decision to minimize their presence in the areas surrounding Capitol Hill over the weekend.
Nevertheless, the deployment of soldiers to American cities was toward the top of the list of concerns for many who attended the protest.
“It’s horrifying,” says one 68-year-old resident of D.C. 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 the speeches being broadcast from the nearby stage. “We have friends who are in it [the D.C. National Guard]. It’s a waste of time and resources.”
The retiree and his three friends, all of whom asked not to be identified for fear of potential retribution by the American government, spoke to this reporter at length about what they see as a breakdown of politics-as-usual in the U.S. Describing themselves as political moderates, they say they are not optimistic that the Trump administration’s “vindictive lawlessness” — as one described it — could be easily defeated, especially in the current emotionally charged and divisive partisan political environment.
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And yet, they are holding out hope that resistance to the administration will manifest in votes against Republicans at the ballot box during next year’s midterm elections, despite what one called a “pathetic” performance by the Democratic Party.
The reason Trump was reelected is that “underlying the flamboyant rhetoric, there are real issues that need to be addressed,” the 68-year-old says. Democrats need to face that reality, he adds, but it’s also vital to convince voters to reject the MAGA movement and its excesses. “I have to hope that events like today will help make inroads with the independents who were voting ‘Trump’ in the last election.”
Others see protests like “No Kings” as the beginning of a broader movement of national resistance.
“I’ll keep it real simple. This administration is taking the U.S. down a road to authoritarianism,” says Ethan Wilson, a 42-year-old veteran of the war in Iraq, who — along with Collins — was representing a progressive veterans non-profit called “Common Defense.”
“The courts are important. Elections are important. But that’s not probably going to be sufficient to save us,” Wilson believes. “What we need is a major non-violent civil resistance movement in the U.S. that’s capable of building levers of power that can be used against the administration and its supporters — especially the top tier of elites in American society that either actively support the administration or that are going along with it.”
The goal of this, Wilson says, is to pressure elites and institutions to remove their support from what he calls “the emerging regime.”
“Again: Non-violently,” he adds.
Indeed, there were no signs of violence witnessed by Rolling Stone at Washington’s “No Kings” protest. This reporter watched a lone man in a “Make America Great Again” hat and Donald Trump shirt walk through the crowds of protesters unmolested, staring defiantly as the people around him largely ignored his passing.
That wasn’t surprising to Collins, the Afghan vet. “There’s a bunch of regular folks who are out here who’re protesting. It’s not what you’ve been seeing on Fox News and all that. Like, look around. There’s not a bunch of — they framed us as ‘terrorists,’” he says. “So that’s kind of crazy. Naturally, that’s crazy.”
The event in D.C. was one of more than 2,700 similar protests across the country, organizers say. The administration and its allies have flip-flopped between downplaying and ignoring the protests, to describing them as major threats to national security.
On Wednesday, Senator Ted Cruz (R-Texas) said he wanted to introduce legislation allowing the Department of Justice to pursue prosecutions of the funders and organizers of “No Kings” under the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations, or RICO, Act.
“Follow the money. Cut off the money,” Cruz told Fox News. “You look at this ‘No Kings’ rally — there’s considerable evidence that George Soros and his network is behind funding these rallies, which may well turn into riots.”
“This is the authoritarian playbook,” says Brandon Wolf, the national press secretary for the LGBTQ rights non-profit Human Rights Campaign, one of the organizers of the “No Kings” rally. “They rely not just on division and chaos, but intimidation – because they’re the minority in this country. Not only is Donald Trump wildly unpopular, but the vast majority of people in this country don’t support dictatorships. They don’t support tyranny.”
“We don’t have a country if we don’t have the First Amendment, and people absolutely should exercise their freedom to peaceably assemble and petition their government,” Wolf says. “No matter what bluster comes out of the White House or their enablers, that is a fundamentally American freedom.”
Nevertheless, Cruz’s threats are part of a larger pattern in which the Trump administration has shown a willingness to go after protesters. In September, the president signed an executive order that labeled the leaderless anti-fascist collective movement known as Antifa a “Domestic Terrorist Organization.”
On Thursday, federal prosecutors secured a grand jury indictment against members of a supposed “Antifa Cell” on charges of providing “material support to terrorism,” related to an incident at an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) facility in Alvarado, Texas on July 4. In that incident, a group of individuals dressed in black raided the ICE facility, shooting fireworks and vandalizing property, according to the U.S. government, in an attack that amounted to an “ambush” and “attempted murder of federal officers.”
It is believed to be the first time that terrorism charges have been applied to alleged followers of the anti-fascist movement. Protests against ICE officers and facilities and supposed rampant crime have formed the basis for a number of unprecedented enforcement actions taken by the Trump administration — including the deployment of the military to Los Angeles, the National Guard to Washington, D.C., and a planned deployment of federalized National Guard members to Chicago.
A temporary restraining order blocking that deployment was upheld by the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals on Thursday, which in its ruling specifically noted that “Political opposition is not rebellion,” arguing that the evidence did not support the president federalizing troops over the objections of local authorities.
“A protest does not become a rebellion merely because the protesters advocate for myriad legal or policy 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 carry firearms as the law currently allows,” the court wrote, adding, “Nor does a protest become a rebellion merely because of sporadic and isolated incidents of unlawful activity or even violence committed by rogue participants in the protest.”
Back at the protest in D.C. on Saturday, certainly there was little indication of open rebellion afoot. But there was plenty of carefully considered outrage.
“I am an immigrant. I wasn’t born in this country. So that means I have the love for this country that immigrants have. It’s a different type of love, in a way, because you realize what your life could have been like, had you not had this opportunity,” says Nancy, a 57-year-old attorney from Maryland who — like many of the people with whom Rolling Stone spoke — asked not to be identified using her full name. “I’ve been here all my life. My dad was American, my mom was from South America. I think this country’s really important, and I think it’s worth fighting for.”
“I’m an attorney and I believe in the rule of law,” she adds. “The rule of law is what differentiates a free people. And so I’m really, really concerned about the abrogation of the rule of law — and how easily it’s happening. How almost without thought, we’re getting numb to whatever breaches are occurring.”
For the most part, the large-scale protest had the atmosphere of a block party, filled with lively supporters of myriad causes in evidence. Regardless of someone’s motivations or politics, organizers say, the most important thing anyone can do to defend the rights that they believe to be under threat is simply show up.
“Regardless of the lengths to which this administration is willing to go to quell dissent in this country, it is still our obligation to show up and defend our most fundamental freedoms,” says Wolf. “You can’t tell what this administration is going to do from one day to the next. They’ve shown a willingness to back down when they face immense public pressure before. Oftentimes, it’s bluster and there’s not a whole lot of bite behind the bark. And sometimes there is.”
“But I will just say that, throughout American history and across the world, courageous people have stood up in the face of harrowing circumstances and defended freedom,” Wolf adds, “and they’ve been on the right side of history when it was written.”
From Rolling Stone US
