We have important news this evening. No Kings Day 2.0 is set for this weekend and it is shaping up to be one of the largest protests in American history. But as excitement builds, those around the White House are spreading falsehoods about the demonstrations, questioning who is “funding them,” and attempting to link the movement to antifa and domestic terrorism. These claims are not only false but dangerous. There is no evidence to support them, and it is essential to debunk these lies and make sure the truth spreads far and wide.
I will be on the ground in Washington, D.C. this weekend, credentialed as a reporter, covering the No Kings Day demonstration in real time. Organizers expect more than 100,000 people to gather in the capital. I will be there to show you exactly what happens and to cut through the noise and misinformation coming from political operatives and partisan media outlets. Please consider subscribing to support my work. Independent reporting takes resources and your support allows me to continue providing accurate, real-time updates directly from the scene.
Subscribe
In recent days, Republican lawmakers have escalated their rhetoric, spreading a new and dangerous lie that Democrats are waiting until the October 18 No Kings rally in Washington to deliver the votes needed to fund the government. This accusation is not just baseless, it is deliberately inflammatory. At a news conference on Capitol Hill, House Majority Whip Tom Emmer claimed, “This is about one thing and one thing alone: to score political points with the terrorist wing of their party, which is set to hold a hate America rally in D.C. next week.”
Speaker Mike Johnson went even further, calling it “a hate America rally,” and asserting that “the antifa crowd, the pro-Hamas crowd, and the Marxists” would gather on the National Mall for “outrageous purposes.”
This morning, Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy repeated the false claim that the demonstrations are “Antifa-linked” and “paid,” once again questioning who is funding them. These talking points are designed to delegitimize dissent and distract from the legitimate grievances fueling the movement.
Demonstrators across the country will take to the streets on October 18 for No Kings Day, a national series of protests against the Trump administration and its growing authoritarian tendencies. The movement began on June 14 in response to the U.S. Army’s 250th anniversary parade in Washington, D.C., which coincided with Trump’s seventy-ninth birthday. That day became a rallying point for millions who reject the idea of concentrated power and the erosion of democratic norms.
According to organizers with the Indivisible project, more than 2,000 No Kings protests are scheduled for Saturday across the United States. Demonstrations are planned in major cities including Los Angeles, Boston, Washington, Chicago, Atlanta, New Orleans, Kansas City, and Bozeman, Montana.
Solidarity rallies are also expected in Canada and Mexico. Organizers estimate more than 10 million people will take part. “On October 18, millions of us are rising again to show the world: America has no kings, and the power belongs to the people,” reads the main page of the No Kings website.
In Washington, protesters will gather in front of the U.S. Capitol building. The crowd will include citizens, activists, and labor groups like the American Federation of Government Employees, which has called on federal workers to participate. “The protest movement has taken on new urgency with the government shutdown that began Oct. 1,” the AFGE said in a statement.
“Shutting down the government is another authoritarian power grab by this administration, which has threatened to lay off masses of federal workers as part of an ongoing quest to gut programs and services it finds objectionable.”
If No Kings Day 2.0 reaches its projected size, it would meet what political scientists call the 3.5 percent rule. Harvard professor Erica Chenoweth and researcher Maria Stephan found that when just 3.5 percent of a population actively participates in sustained, nonviolent protest, those movements almost always succeed in bringing about political change. Nonviolent resistance movements are typically larger, more diverse, and more durable than violent ones, and they often lead to significant shifts in power.
What we are witnessing is not a fringe event. It is a broad, coordinated, and deeply patriotic assertion that America belongs to its people, not to any one man or administration. As misinformation spreads, it becomes even more important to rely on direct reporting, verified facts, and the power of collective action. The attempts to brand millions of peaceful demonstrators as extremists are a reminder of why this movement exists in the first place.
This weekend, the world will watch as millions of Americans stand together to affirm a simple idea: there are no kings in America, and the people will always hold the power.