{"id":29430,"date":"2025-10-21T01:50:53","date_gmt":"2025-10-21T01:50:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/?p=29430"},"modified":"2025-10-21T01:50:53","modified_gmt":"2025-10-21T01:50:53","slug":"why-the-no-kings-protests-matter","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/?p=29430","title":{"rendered":"Why the \u2018No Kings\u2019 Protests Matter"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n<\/p>\n

This is an edition of The Atlantic Daily, a newsletter that guides you through the biggest stories of the day, helps you discover new ideas, and recommends the best in culture. Sign up for it here.<\/p>\n

Say what you will about Donald Trump\u2019s effect on American civic life as a whole, but he\u2019s done wonders for public participation. Voter turnout in the past few elections has reached record highs, for example. And after Saturday\u2019s \u201cNo Kings\u201d marches, three of the largest one-day demonstrations in American history have taken place during Trump\u2019s two presidencies\u2014not to mention the enormous, extended Black Lives Matter protests of 2020.<\/p>\n

Protests like these won\u2019t immediately change much of anything in the country, but they matter nonetheless. Trump\u2019s authoritarian takeover is unpopular\u2014his approval is deep underwater, rivaled only by his first term for the worst since at least the 1950s\u2014which means that its progress depends on despair and surrender from the majority of Americans who oppose it. The huge and energetic crowds that came out this weekend are an antidote to that. The \u201cNo Kings\u201d slogan is clever because it is broad enough to bring together Trump opponents who disagree on many issues; because the view of the Constitution that it represents is immediately intelligible to almost everyone; and because it\u2019s hard to challenge without endorsing monarchy.<\/p>\n

The protests provide an outlet for citizens who are following the news with apprehension but don\u2019t know what they can do on a daily basis to resist Trump\u2019s policies, and they\u2019re also a way for wavering Trump supporters to jump ship, a warning to allies and would-be allies that they might not be joining the winning team. Mass movements are slow work: It took nearly a decade to get from the Montgomery bus boycott to the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act. The No Kings protests are starting off with much greater public support, and they need only to maintain momentum through the 2026 and 2028 elections in order to turn the protests\u2019 sentiment into concrete votes that could restrain Trump and remove his allies from office.<\/p>\n

I went to observe Saturday\u2019s march in Durham, North Carolina, because I was curious to see what the mood was like and whether the energy would match the first round of No Kings protests in June. Durham is a protest town, and if you cover enough of these demonstrations, you get to recognize the usual attendees. But this was larger than any other gathering I\u2019ve seen, and the participants represented a diverse mix of ages, races, attire, and approaches to sign making, including wry (I like my country neat <\/span>with a glass that reads ICE<\/span> struck through); sincere (These people give me hope<\/span>, with arrows pointing in every direction); and seasonal (a vampire-costumed man with a sign that said, Gerrymandering sucks the life out of democracy<\/span>). Marchers gathered in a park downtown, where speakers addressed them through a seriously insufficient amplification system. No one could hear, and no one seemed to care: They were there for the vibes. Several people told me they just appreciated feeling a sense of togetherness and positivity.<\/p>\n

Estimating total attendance at an event like Saturday\u2019s march, with people in towns and cities all over the country, is tricky. Organizers claimed that nearly 7 million people marched, but the data journalist G. Elliott Morris concluded that the likeliest number was closer to 4.4 million at a minimum\u2014which, according to his counts of other mass protests, would make it the largest single-day protest in the United States since 1970. The action was not limited to big cities and liberal enclaves, either: Smaller towns in red states, such as Billings, Montana (population about 121,000); Richmond, Kentucky (35,000); and Hammond, Louisiana (21,000), saw demonstrations too. Those anecdotal examples echo a report released last week by Harvard Kennedy School researchers who found that protests in 2025 have been \u201clikely the most geographically widespread in US history,\u201d surpassing records set in Trump\u2019s first term and stretching deeper into Trump-supporting counties.<\/p>\n

Ahead of the protests, high-profile Republicans referred to them as \u201cantifa\u201d gatherings, populated by \u201cpaid protesters\u201d from the \u201cterrorist wing\u201d of the Democratic Party. (In reality, one strength of these demonstrations seems to be that they\u2019re not being driven by the shiftless Democratic Party leadership.) Two GOP governors called out the National Guard to prepare for disturbances. Any gathering so large can be unwieldy or a little volatile, yet despite the best efforts of right-wing media to find bad actors, few notable black marks have emerged.<\/p>\n

In the immediate term, none of this really matters politically. Trump still has more than three years left in his term. Republicans control both houses of Congress, and the Supreme Court has consistently sided with the president. But Trump\u2019s movement depends on the impression that it\u2019s unstoppable and victorious. In 2016, he promised that the country would get sick of winning; he then claimed that the election was tainted, even though he triumphed, because he didn\u2019t win the popular vote. Huge protests that demonstrate he is not invincible endanger his political success: They offer people who voted for Trump reluctantly or who have had second thoughts a feeling of camaraderie and hope, and give them a way to feel okay ditching him. That, in turn, might reconstitute the anti-MAGA majority that made itself known in 2018, 2020, and 2022.<\/p>\n

These protests also send a message to universities, corporate executives, and other institutions that have been tempted to align themselves with Trump for expediency, reminding them that the immediate political incentives aren\u2019t permanent. (Some public figures may already be learning that the backlash to aligning with Trump\u2019s policies can outweigh the benefits: After telling The New York Times that he believed Trump should send National Guard troops into San Francisco, the Salesforce founder Marc Benioff faced a week of condemnation from the city\u2019s leaders and other tech moguls; he eventually issued an apology.) The protests also remind Republicans in Congress who want to win reelection in 2026 that binding themselves to Trump could be a losing choice.<\/p>\n

Maybe that\u2019s why these protests seem to be getting under the White House\u2019s skin so much. Trump largely shrugged off the June marches, but this weekend he lashed out in ways that seemed determined to prove the protesters\u2019 point. He threatened to invoke the Insurrection Act to send troops to San Francisco, saying he has \u201cunquestioned power\u201d to do so. (He does not.) He also posted a bizarre animated video in which he flies in a fighter jet labeled King Trump<\/span>, wearing a crown\u2014not beating the rap!\u2014and dumping excrement on protesters. And the vice presidency might not be worth \u201ca warm bucket of piss,\u201d as one previous holder said, but surely J. D. Vance has better things to do than beef online with a 23-year-old Democratic influencer. Trump and his allies seem to grasp what Saturday revealed: The protests are popular, and the president is not.<\/p>\n

Related:<\/p>\n

Here are four new stories from The Atlantic:<\/strong><\/p>\n

Today\u2019s News<\/strong><\/p>\n

    \n
  1. A federal appeals court said it would allow President Donald Trump to deploy the National Guard to Portland for now, overturning a lower court\u2019s order that had previously blocked him from doing so.<\/li>\n
  2. French authorities are searching for four suspects who carried out a jewel heist at the Louvre Museum yesterday that lasted less than 10 minutes, stealing several royal pieces and prompting the museum to close.<\/li>\n
  3. Trump said yesterday that the Gaza cease-fire remains in place even after Israel launched strikes in Rafah early yesterday following allegations that Hamas violated the agreement. The U.S. envoys Jared Kushner and Steve Witkoff met with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu today as Hamas and Israel traded accusations over breaking the truce.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    Dispatches<\/strong><\/p>\n

    Explore all of our newsletters here.<\/em><\/p>\n

    Evening Read<\/strong><\/p>\n

    Photo-illustration by Jonelle Afurong \/ The Atlantic. Source: Harold M. Lambert.<\/p>\n

    The Great Ghosting Paradox<\/p>\n

    By Anna Holmes<\/p>\n

    Culturally, ghosting is a paradox. It can be something you brush off even as it lives rent-free in your head. It\u2019s still considered rude, and people on both sides tend to feel bad about it, albeit in different ways. It\u2019s also extremely common: 90 percent of respondents to one 2021 study reported that they had ghosted someone. Last month, the New York Times columnist Maureen Dowd bemoaned the fact that online dating has become a \u201cdigital derecho, with oh so many ways\u201d to \u201cmake and drop connections.\u201d<\/p>\n

    But perhaps ghosting\u2014or being ghosted\u2014doesn\u2019t need to be so upsetting.<\/p>\n

    Read the full article.<\/p>\n

    More From The Atlantic<\/em><\/p>\n

    Culture Break<\/p>\n

    Photo-illustration by Jonelle Afurong \/ The Atlantic. Source: Ronald Martinez \/ Getty.<\/p>\n

    Explore. Shohei Ohtani just played perhaps the greatest game in the history of baseball, Peter Wehner writes.<\/p>\n

    Watch. Sabrina Carpenter\u2019s Saturday Night Live appearance (streaming on Peacock) played off of her reputation as a provocateur, Paula Mej\u00eda writes.<\/p>\n

    Play our daily crossword.<\/p>\n

    Rafaela Jinich contributed to this newsletter.<\/p>\n

    When you buy a book using a link in this newsletter, we receive a commission. Thank you for supporting <\/em>The Atlantic.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    This is an edition of The Atlantic Daily, a newsletter that guides you through the biggest stories of the day, helps you discover new ideas, and recommends the best in culture. Sign up for it here. Say what you will about Donald Trump\u2019s effect on American civic life as a whole, but he\u2019s done wonders<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":29431,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[55],"tags":[2040,5552,494],"class_list":{"0":"post-29430","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-social-issues","8":"tag-kings","9":"tag-matter","10":"tag-protests"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29430","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=29430"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29430\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/29431"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=29430"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=29430"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=29430"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}