The No Kings rallies originated in opposition to Trump’s second presidency, specifically protesting his self-aggrandizing and dictator-like behavior. No Kings was successful as Trump, despite being inaugurated twice to serve as President of the so-called United States, is widely despised for his ego-centric, crass, and reprehensible behavior; the same behavior that has attracted many of his most loyal followers, citizens and Republican politicians alike. No Kings was also successful in attracting many people to show up to the rallies, as the first iteration of these rallies were held across the country, in big and small cities/towns, on a late Saturday morning/early afternoon in June.

Conveniently held on a weekend when many people who don’t work weekends are planning to be out and about anyway, the only way the No Kings actions could be more convenient is if they provided assured safety, anonymity, and more convenient parking. Since the first action on June 14th, 2025, No Kings has held 2 other mass actions, one on October 18th, 2025 and the most recent rally on March 28th, 2026, with each rally larger than the previous, and with attendance across thousands of cities and millions of participants.

The No Kings rallies are popular as the rallies generally provide high visibility and a fun, mostly family friendly atmosphere, with only isolated incidents of violence against protesters reported; though it should be noted that these incidents could occur at any time that large groups of people gather regardless of the context of the gathering.

People can attend these rallies and feel good that they are “doing something” even when they do nothing beyond attending the rallies to support the calls to action that No Kings are supposed to elicit. And it IS GOOD that massive amounts of people are showing up to protest the violence of the current administration as it does show the powers that be, as well as other countries, that we will not simply submit to a totalitarian ruler.

It has also inspired large mass actions by allies in other countries. The power of mass actions and the power of the people is necessary and important in opposing injustice of all kinds. It is also important for people to connect with their families, friends, and community members, and to be seen opposing the violence and violent rhetoric inflicted on everyday U.S. Citizens, immigrants, refugees, and the global population at large.

No Kings rallies also offer the opportunity for people to find local, statewide, and national organizations to support and get involved with; they act as a potential entry point for people who have no experience getting involved in political and/or social justice causes. We need everyone and all tactics in order to create the just communities, leaders, and nation that we all envision and strive towards.

Concerns About Tactics & “Controlled Opposition”

However, the No Kings rallies can be disruptive towards progressive left-leaning organizers and activists who are also working toward the same goals/demands of anti-authoritarianism, justice for immigrants, opposition to the assault on Iran, as well as other calls to justice for all people (including but not limited to: racial justice, opposition to police cruelty, opposition to criminalization of homelessness, disability rights, and reproductive, LGBTQ+, and women’s rights), through their own tactics that may conflict with No Kings definition of “lawful” and “nonviolent” direct action. By denouncing a diversity of oppositional tactics, and labeling anything that they don’t approve of as “illegal,” “unsafe,” and/or “violent,” they force attendees and No Kings supporters to passively protest the systems through the scheduled rallies only without actively encouraging further mobilization, actions, education, self-reflection, or active community defense while leaving many communities who are actively under attack by the current administration behind.

No Kings claims that their core principle is a commitment to nonviolent action, however, their definition of nonviolence often means non-disruptive and non-oppositional. And while it is understandable that they would not tolerate MAGA rhetoric, there have been anecdotal reports of people being harassed by organizers for promoting a free Palestine with organizers threatening to call the police on protesters who they view as disruptive and not upholding their principles of de-escalation and undefined nonviolence.

Additionally, these rallies are not always accessible to those who use mobility devices, and are not universally considered to be safe for People of Color, the disabled and, queer and trans folks. While most organizers and activists will agree that a nonviolent approach to other individuals is a near universal hope and expectation, there should also be a dedication to keeping one another safe from harm and an understanding that tolerance of intolerance supports intolerance. Instead they use the police to force compliance of their peers, while we know from history that many marginalized communities including the enslaved, women, disabled people, immigrants, and the LGBTQ+ community did not achieve rights through peaceful, lawful compliance, but through fighting for our lives.

By using police against people who align with their core principles but not their tactics they are controlling the narrative of the opposition party, leading to fracturing and alienating revolutionary leadership and change, as well as the potential for sustainability, unification, and mass organizing outside of the No Kings rallies. This method of organizing has been referred to as “Controlled Opposition,” as the No Kings organizers control the narrative and actions of the people they seek to engage, in order to appeal to both a broader audience and to the Democratic Party/left leaning ruling class.

And while this approach has been effective in controlling the narrative of Democratic opposition by appealing to those least impacted by the violence of the current administration and their agents, historically, it does not lead to material changes for those most impacted/vulnerable to political violence. Case in point, these were the same tactics that were used to oppose the first Trump presidency, by which the largest success was getting Biden elected to office. However, once Biden was in office the mass calls to action lessened, organizing for substantive change significantly decreased, and the centrist Democratic status quo was re-instated, which was detrimental in the mid-term elections in which Republicans re-assumed legislative control while also controlling the Supreme Court.

By controlling the narrative of opposition and actions, with only passive calls to action outside of mass actions that are conveniently scheduled to appeal to middle and upper class left of center Democrats, the No Kings organizers and others who have mass appeal through controlled opposition with no plans for sustainability, these actions fall short of substantive social and political changes, including the changes they passively oppose. Additionally, they leave behind many vulnerable U.S. Citizens who are also being targeted by the current administration, when they could easily expand the No Kings platform and massive amounts of followers to mobilize around queer and trans rights, reproductive rights, and racial justice, all groups of people who have been recently stripped of rights by the actions of elected officials and the Supreme Court.

LGBTQ+ Rights & Legal Concerns

Three days after the largest attendance of the No Kings rallies, Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson was the lone dissenting voice of the court as the majority, including the 2 other liberal judges, argued in support of a challenge to Colorado’s laws prohibiting conversion therapy ruling the law unconstitutional as they concluded that “talk therapy” is protected speech under the First Amendment (CHILES v. SALAZAR). And while on the surface it may seem as though the court truly was acting in the best interests of preservation of First Amendment rights, they fail to consider the cruel nature of conversion therapy, especially when treating minors, and how every professional medical, psychological, pediatric, and sociological association, as well as the standard of care, condemns the practice of conversion therapy. Additionally, the ruling fails to recognize that speech is heavily regulated in most professional settings, with the same threat to a person’s job should they violate the rules regulating allowable speech.

This ruling is just one of many legal attacks on the LGBTQ+ community over the last 10 years, including under the Biden administration, that have escalated since 2025, and which include: rescinding legal gender markers on passports, birth certificates, and ID cards; pushes by right wing groups to label transgender people as terrorists; attacking trans healthcare for minors (U.S. v. Skrmetti (2025)); educational policies that sought to protect trans minors have been overturned and educators are now forced to out trans kids to their parents; attacking trans people, minors and adults, participation in sports; and bathroom bills in 21 states that restrict bathroom usage by trans people. Additionally, the attacks on all other groups of people intersect with the LGBTQ+ community, yet mobilizing and protecting the LGBTQ+ community is not a meaningful nor explicit part of the No Kings platform.

Foreign Policy, Iran & Palestine

While the No Kings events are extremely successful in mobilizing people to show up for 3-4 hours on a Saturday afternoon, the movement falls short of actual substantial changes in policy as they are not directly challenging the ruling class nor Democrats in power to actively and vocally oppose ICE violence and the bombing in Iran. They are not pressuring politicians towards justice by doing the deep work needed in Trump supporting communities nor elevating leaders who support real progressive change. Would No Kings have the popularity, following and platform that they have if the President was a respectable Democrat who continued ICE violence/deportations/cruel detainment centers but more quietly, and who continued the assault on the Iranian people?

No Kings claim opposition to the assault on Iran, but have no plan for addressing widespread Islamophobia or any examination of how the US war against Iran is directly related to the wars waged by Israel, backed by the U.S., in Palestine and Lebanon, especially considering that the recent military violence against Iran by the U.S. followed an initial bombing of Iran by Israel. Logic would follow that if the No Kings rallies were truly in opposition to the violence the US is committing against Iran, then they would also be opposing U.S. backed violence committed by Israel in Palestine, Lebanon and Iran.

After the March rallies, Trump escalated the attacks on Iran, including threatening to obliterate the entirety of Iran “overnight.” Many Iranians responded to Trump’s threat by taking to the streets in protest and assembling human chains across many of the bridges that Trump threatened to obliterate. Despite the claim by No Kings to opposition to the war in Iran, there were no mass calls by No Kings for protesters to take to the streets in support of the people of Iran in response to the doomsday threats against the entire Iranian civilization.

Immigration, ICE & Long-Term Organizing

No Kings also claim opposition to the ICE raids on immigrant communities, but do not recognize that the detentions and deportations have steadily escalated even under Democratic presidents; with marked differences in the increased level of ICE violence under the current administration which has led to deadly consequences for detainees and protesters. They claim to support immigrants and DACA recipients, yet do not do the necessary political education and engagement to support long term social change that is necessary in order to combat anti-immigrant and anti-Hispanic beliefs in the U.S.

And while it is necessary and beneficial to oppose unjust immigration policies and practices, and to show support for immigrant communities, it is hard to see their long-term vision for actual social and political change. This makes it hard to trust that there will be a long term plan for continuing support for immigrant communities should the Democrats assume control of the Executive Branch in the next election.

Final Reflection: Beyond Visibility Toward Transformation

The stakes have never been higher, especially considering the most recent SCOTUS ruling decimating progress in redrawing voter maps in majority Black states imposing legal limitations on the Voting Rights Act, which is why it is essential to critically examine the systems, organizations, and strategies that we are supporting in the name of social/political change.

While I hope that people continue to show up to the No Kings rallies, I also hope that more people get involved in the less exciting, messier, and mostly invisible work that needs to be done in order to truly challenge and change the conditions that allowed for the current administration to come into power. It is important to recognize that social/political change happens with much of the work done in the background, by people who do not have name recognition, status, or visibility.

Resistance work needs to go beyond platitudes, beyond online trainings and book clubs, and beyond personal comfort zones. We need to center the communities that are under attack, with leadership from those most vulnerable to the violence of this administration. We also need to critically engage in what and who we are supporting and how we are showing up for the communities we care about.

Doing the work requires self-reflection of our own internalized biases and informational deficits, political education that transforms theory to practice, and a willingness to sit with both the urgency to act as well as the need to be deliberate and intentional in our actions in order to not cause harm to ourselves or our communities. This is “the work” that is often referenced in left-leaning circles, the less visible, less attractive, and deeply internal work needed to actually change, challenge, and confront the core cultural issues within the United States that have existed beyond two Trump presidencies but are harder to ignore and accept in the current moment.

We all have work to do, and I hope that we come out of this era of cruelty on a truly justice centered trajectory. All we have is one another, and we can all do better.