On Saturday, Oct. 18, approximately 7 million people gathered at over 2700 locations across the United States to participate in the “No Kings” protests. Multiple events were held in each of the 50 states, and anyone within the area was free to come and participate. The protests themselves were held to oppose the idea of thrones, crowns and, of course, kings in America. Every participant was there to protest the ongoing actions having been made by President Donald Trump, who now—after the protests have occurred—has an approval rating of 37 percent; the lowest of any president in history. The organization believes that many of Trump’s decisions are disguised power grabs for himself, thus inspiring the massive rallies.
One of the protests took place in Madison, the capital of Wisconsin. This demonstration hosted many speakers, including an extremely notable figure: Mark Pocan. Pocan is a representative of Wisconsin for the 2nd district, which encompasses most of southern Wisconsin. Pocan also appeared at three other Wisconsin protests in the cities of Janesville, New Glarus and Sun Prairie. Similarly to many of the other speakers at the protest, Pocan spoke against Trump and his actions, proclaiming, “America was founded by people trying to escape the rule of kings, and now we have a ruler who wants to be king.” Pocan spoke to the thousands who had gathered and marched in Madison, all of whom shouted in agreement with the sentiments he and the other speakers gave.
The protests on Saturday may sound familiar, as earlier this year the first set of No Kings protests occurred on June 14, purposefully planned on the same day as Trump’s 79th birthday. Those 2,100 protests had roughly 5 million people appear to protest the aforementioned actions taken by Trump, along with the reluctant behavior from the Democratic Party. These protests generated a massive response online, but also a response from some of the politicians they were directed at. Regarding the protests earlier this year, Trump had this to say about them: “For those people that want to protest, they’re going to be met with very big force.”
Following the second round of protests, Trump has once again given a response on them after they occurred. Trump has posted multiple artificially generated videos, which depict him getting crowned with a sword, and him using a jet to drop what appears to be fecal matter on protestors. The latter of the two videos garnered backlash from singer and songwriter Kenny Loggins, as the video itself used the song “Danger Zone” written by Loggins. Loggins is attempting to have the video removed, stating that “Too many people are trying to tear us apart, and we need to find new ways to come together.”
Overall, the protests have been heavily publicized online and have seen massive responses from all sides, and with them occurring in every state—even other countries—it’s safe to say that there will be more to report on in the coming weeks after the full effect of the protests has been recorded.