by Gabriel Donnelly
Continuing the momentum from the June 14, 2025 No Kings protests, events and demonstrations were held throughout the United States on October 18. It’s too early for more solid statistics, but the overall consensus is that the turnout for the second set of protests was significantly larger than in the first round. Attendees made clear, through chanting and signage, that they were coming out to support liberal democracy against Trump’s authoritarian aggression. The activity of a mass movement condemning the Trump government signals the weakness of Trumpism and the potential for further development.
While Trump tries to downplay the emergence of this mass movement, the soft-on-Trump left has only sneered at it. That posture can only serve to further disconnect the left from the actual on-the-ground struggle against Trumpism, the preeminent threat to the working class of this time.
In the week leading up to No Kings 2, the Speaker of the House, Mike Johnson, said that the event would be attended by “the antifa crowd, the pro-Hamas crowd, and the Marxists …. It’s an outrageous gathering for outrageous purposes. All this has gotta come to an end.” Trump posted AI-generated videos mocking the events, including one in which he literally spewed shit over the country and on the protesters.
While it is too early for solid demographic data, one thing is clear from anecdotal observation of the crowds: these events were multi-generational affairs. Whole families attended, with grandparents and grandchildren alongside each other in opposition to the Trumpist regime. The right has made a big deal out of the “grayness” of these events—the large share of older people who attend. They are probably overstating it, but it is undoubtable that No Kings has drawn a lot of older, white retirees onto the streets.
Image captured from slutashia video.
Strangely, the right thinks that this makes the events toothless, when in fact it indicates that segments of a normally rather quiet group have been mobilized. Their mobilization has been present throughout the second Trump administration. The protesters who disrupted Republican town halls, and agitated outside of Senator Chuck Schumer’s home for a more aggressive footing against Trumpism, were, strikingly, older.
The Mass Movement vs. “the Left”
On the soft-on-Trump left—which calls itself “the Left”—the No Kings protests have been characterized as “liberal parades.” Much is made of corny protest signs at these events, and the fact that the values that they are fighting for are explicitly values of liberal-democratic government, i.e., the rule of law, precedent, respect for the Constitutional order, etc. “The Left” sneers, and asks “why aren’t they pushing our line?”
It’s pretty indisputable that a few of the signs are pretty embarrassing. But in any mass movement, we will see the embarrassing or out-of-touch. It takes all kinds. What “the Left” is refusing to recognize, which this mass mobilization does, is that a vigorous defense of liberal democracy is desperately needed when we see it under attack.
Representatives of the left who did attend these events were either pushing their lines or selling literature about their pet issues. What they were not doing is directly dialoguing with people or even attempting to understand why they were there. This refusal to engage with what is being fought for is suicidal. “The Left” has stuck its head in the sand, or, even worse, directly played footsie with Trumpism for nearly a decade now.
What is needed is something of a Truth-and-Reconciliation Commission for “the Left.” Accountability and acknowledgement of where people went wrong has to be hashed out and done so publicly. The struggling masses recognize that the Trumpist assault on democracy, workers’ rights, Black people, immigrants, and the queer community are existential threats, but the loudest exponents of a supposedly revolutionary, pro-worker philosophy dismiss their concerns. “The Left” does not think that it has any interest in defending “liberalism,” but it will be forced to reckon with that dismissal when its websites are shut down and its doors are kicked in. Maybe repression on that scale would cause some of them to open their eyes.
No Kings 2 in New York City and the Police Response
On Saturday evening, after the protests had ended, the New York Police Department (NYPD) tweeted this:
The majority of the No Kings protests have dispersed at this time and all traffic closures have been lifted.
We had more than 100,000 people across all five boroughs peacefully exercising their first amendment rights and the NYPD made zero protest-related arrests.
It is stunning how much the NYPD put their finger on the scale here. It didn’t need to include the second sentence of the statement at all. So its inclusion was deliberate: this statement is a direct challenge to Trump’s encroachment on the authority and autonomy of cities. The NYPD is no friend of freedom of speech or the right to protest, but it is also not a fan of ICE or occupying-army troops cutting in on its territory. So it highlighted the peaceful operation of things in New York, to signal that “things are in hand.” It is confronting the myth that Trump has been constructing, of chaos-strewn cities crying out for executive overreach.
No Kings 2 march at 7th Avenue and 16th Street, Manhattan, New York City, October 18. Photo by Dean Moses.
There is no common cause between the NYPD and the forces of humanity and justice. Nor should we rush to stand up for the blood-drenched war criminal John Bolton, who was recently targeted with an indictment from the Trumpist Justice Department for getting on Trump’s bad side. But we should closely observe the tensions between pre-existing, institutional authorities, conservative or otherwise, and the precedent-destroying wrecking ball of fascist national takeover.
The NYPD was willing to challenge Trump’s myth-making because it recognizes that he is not popular enough to steamroll over every threat to his unitary power. The lie of fascist power is that the fascists are the strongest in the room, but they are only ever as strong as they appear. Trump fears No Kings because it gives the lie to his “overwhelming support.” The importance of puncturing that lie cannot be overstated. Colleges, big business, the military, and other institutions all have rushed to placate Trump in recent months because, by their calculation, Trumpism is on the ascendancy. By undermining this supposed strength, the masses prevent more concessions and further overestimation of Trump’s power. That is a start.
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