“No Kings!”—The Protest Movement Trump Can’t Ignore

The no Kings protest across the United States this weekend, hundreds of thousands of people, no, make that millions of people marched under a simple slogan, no Kings. From Times Square to Portland, from Atlanta to Boise, demonstrators filled city streets to denounce what they see as President Trump's slide toward authoritarianism. According to the Associated Press, rallies were held in more than 2,600 locations nationwide and even outside the United States and embassies abroad. The protests were loud but peaceful, more street festival than riot, with marching bands, inflatable costumes, and families signing a giant replica of the Constitution. One protester told the Times, we're not just angry, we're defending democracy. Republican leaders dismissed the events as hate America rallies. The White House response a terse who cares? And when asked about the king label, Trump told Fox News, I'm not a king. But history shows that tyrants rarely fall because they're unpopular, only when citizens organize, persist, and make a country ungovernable. And while mass resistance is rising, Trump's approval remains between 40 and 43%, a stubborn base strong enough with gerrymandered districts, the Senate imbalance and the Electoral College to keep him and his party in power for years to come. If an estimated 5 million people march, and it's hard to get the exact numbers for these protests, but let's assume 5 million people march, that's roughly 2% of eligible U.S. voters, still short of the 3.5% threshold that history shows is needed for non violent movements to prevail. More on that in a moment. So what's the real message from there's no kings today? There are millions and millions of Americans who are fed up with Donald Trump. Not any one policy, but the idea that he wants to act like a king, a dictator. And they're saying we have had enough and we're going to speak out loudly. Let's dig a little bit deeper here. Now, I was fortunate enough to attend one of these rallies, and I have to say I was not there as a journalist. I'm an, I'm a communications and personal development expert. I don't hold myself out as a journalist here. I was there simply as an American. Now, those of you who've seen this show before know anything about me, I consider myself a sane, sensible centrist. I'm not somebody, I don't know if I've ever even been to a political protest in my life. I'm too. I'm not a young man, but I'm too young for the Vietnam War protest. So that's just not my shtick. But But I just felt that I really couldn't sit back as I see our country destroyed by this wannabe dictator, the great orange one. When we see the US Military attacking our own citizens on US soil, when we see various courts ignored by a dictator who says legal rulings don't apply to me, when we see the separation of powers disregarded on a daily basis, when we see the Department of Justice turned into a mobster's enforcement racket, it's just too much. I want to share with you a few scenes from yesterday. This was one of the things I saw. Let me see if I can make that full screen here for you. Okay. I was struck by how funny so many of the signs were. Could someone explain which crimes get you deported and which ones get you elected president? It's so confusing. That was a good one. Trump is the worst president since Trump. And here I am at the rally, a little more casually dressed than you normally see me, and I was struck by just how many. I was about a dozen miles away from Mar a Lago, which is ground zero for Magaworld here in South Florida. So here I am. I'll just go give you some crowd shots, some flavor here. I'm just walking down the sidewalk. Everyone mild mannered, quite pleasant, jovial. There are people of every, every race, every ethnicity. Now here's some. It's going to sound odd for me to say this for a moment, but bear with me and I'll tell you why. I was frankly struck by, by how many affluent looking, wealthy looking, older white people were there. Now, if you listen to the White House and the Trump administration, they will essentially tell you the only people against them are dark skinned criminals from third world countries. That's essentially the message of the White House. And no, here I am in one of the most affluent counties in the country, one of the most affluent places in the world, where I happen to be in Palm Beach County, Florida. And there were dozens of rallies like these in the county. So for those of you not familiar with south Florida, it's a little bit different. You think of Miami and maybe Palm Beach. Well, there are 150 little towns in all of south Florida. None of them are really that big. None of them have more than a few hundred thousand. So you've got all these towns. Each county of the three counties has about 50, 50 towns. A huge percentage of them had rallies. I'm in a one of these smaller towns right next to Palm Beach Island. And still, I have to guess, there were 10,000 people on the streets just in my little community here in South Florida, and this is a wealthy community, these were not communists. These were people who are the big winners in our modern economy. So they're not complaining against capitalism. They're not saying, we want to be like Venezuela. No, these are people who are successful, successful capitalists, people who are winners in our system. And that's what's, that's what I found gratifying, frankly. Let's put this in some historical perspective. So there have been a lot of studies by academics who have shown that what you really need to topple a tyrannical government is 3.5% of the voting population to really be out protesting in the streets. And I think even the most ambitious positive no Kings advocates are not contending that many people were out there. It was perhaps 2%, but it was much bigger than the no Kings Day in June. I think a lot of individuals believe that they simply have no choice. I'll be honest with you. I thought about going to the one last June, and it was right down the street where I was living at the time in Delray Beach, Florida. And I didn't go in part because the day before, the governor of Florida basically said, if you run over a protester, we're not going to find you guilty of any crime. I'm paraphrasing, but that is essentially the message. The governor of Florida, who is trying to be sort of a mini Trump and out demagogue other Republicans hoping for that day when there is no Trump and he can take over, thought he'd be a really tough guy and basically gave a green light and saying, you want to run over a protester, we're not going to come after. So for that very reason, I said to myself, you know, look, I've got a young child, a family. I'm not going to risk it because there are a lot of deranged Trump supporters everywhere, but certainly in the state I live in. But this past weekend, I thought, you know what? I just can't stay quiet any longer. And I think a lot of people felt like that. That's why you saw the crowds surging. Dinah writes that in Idaho, of all places, they had a rally. You think of Idaho, that's a very Republican district. But a lot of, a lot of Republicans are saying, look, I might like some tax cuts, but I'm not really in favor of completely eviscerating the Constitution the way this guy's doing it on a daily basis. Diana also writes in with some other comments. Let me share those. Majority was the lower class in the area. Okay, so you had some, some poor people there. There is a real mix. There's no doubt about it. And that is what it's going to take. Here's where these protests are going to be incredibly useful, is if the elections are stolen next year. If we have 2020 congressional elections and the Trump administration decides to send ICE or the National Guard or the Navy to certain key swing states in just enough precincts, and they're all of a sudden scaring people and throwing people to the ground, saying, hey, you look like an immigrant. Let me throw you to the ground. Voters are going to go home. They're going to say, look, I care about our country, but I don't want to get my skull cracked. So they're going to stay at home. So it's going to be relatively easy just with what Trump is doing already. Using military, using ice, using National Guard to intimidate people in key districts, swing districts, to sway the 2026 election. And if he does, in fact, keep the House and the Senate, and he should keep the Senate regardless, that means he can further consolidate his power. So then there's going to be a real decision to be made by the Democratic Party, by centrists everywhere, by never Trump Republicans, if they genuinely believe that the election was unfairly held and that a strong majority of voters who cast their vote for congressional races in 2026, that their, their votes did not count, that in a fair election, the Democrats would have taken back in the House, but it was denied. At that point, you're going to really need to see the protest surge. They're going to need to be roughly twice as big as they were yesterday. But that's not that big of a jump. So we'll see. To those of you new to this show, this is not a political commentary show. I'm here as a business person. I've been helping business people my entire career. Billionaire fund managers, CEOs of publicly traded companies, startup founders on how to communicate more effectively in the private sector, publicly traded companies, government officials, owners of professional baseball teams, beauty pageants. That's my experience. Plus prime ministers and Nobel Peace Prize winners. But these days, you can't really talk about business news and economic news and technology news and culture news without talking about what's happening in D.C. because that's the downside. That's why democracies don't really like authoritarian governments. The authoritarian government tries to control every aspect of business and technology and culture. So my hand is kind of forced. I hope I can get back to the day where I can do an entire show about top business stories and never even have to mention the great orange one.