No Kings Draws 8 Million; Large Gathering on STX

M.A. Dworkin

St. Croix - The No Kings protests, also known as No Dictators or No Tyrants, which in reality are anti-Trump protests, drew more than 8 million people nationwide at over 3,300 rallies from Maine to California. The Trump protests also spilled over U.S. borders into European cities including Amsterdam, Madrid and Rome.

The first No Kings nationwide protest day was June 2025 organized on President Trump’s 79th birthday which coincided with a military parade he ordered in Washington, D.C. That first protest march drew several million, and the second such protest in October 2025 drew an estimated 7 million.

Just as Trump is devotedly followed by tens of millions in his “Make America Great Again” (MAGA) movement, he is bitterly disliked by a similar number in opposing movements throughout the U.S.

“Since the last time we marched, this Administration has dragged us deeper into war,” said Naveed Shah of Common Defense, a veterans association connected to the No Kings movement. “At home, we’ve watched citizens killed in the streets by militarized forces. We’ve seen families torn apart and immigrant communities targeted. All of it done in the nature of one man trying to rule like a king.”

This year the protest focused on the policies of the second Trump Administration, including authoritarianism, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) operations, U.S. federal government shutdowns, and the current war in Iran that is being carried out by the combined U.S.-Israeli military forces.

While the mood was generally upbeat and the marches were largely peaceful with no reported arrests, the third No Kings protests were an unmistakable display of political force that could very well reverberate into the 2026 midterm elections that conceivably could bring the Democrats back into power in the House and the Senate. Such victories would not only upset Trump’s various agendas, but also could bring impeachment proceedings against the 45th President. 

The White House, once again, dismissed the protests as a meaningless waste of time and labeled them “Trump Derangement Therapy Sessions.” Still, a march down President Donald Trump Boulevard toward his Mar-a-Lago estate in West Palm Beach, Florida, where the President was spending the weekend, may have given Trump some food for thought about the coming November midterms, even though police turned back the demonstrators before they, supposedly, got close enough to be seen or heard. 

In St. Croix, the hundred-fifty strong, gathered at the Christiansted Aloy “Wenty” Nielsen Bypass, displayed their undying solidarity with the nationwide No Kings movement. Protest signs displayed slogans: 1776 - We Said No to Kings, and other signs hoisted proudly: No Wars Liars! and Freedom Not Fear, Truth Not Lies, Love Not Hate! 

“Am I opposed to the war, absolutely!” one protestor exclaimed. “And he said when he ran that there would be no wars and then all of our young men and women are being sent over there.”

Trump and the Republican party at one time during his election campaign hailed him and his Vice-President JD Vance as the “candidates of peace” and the “pro-peace ticket.” Vance wrote an op-ed piece in the Wall Street Journal titled: “Trump’s Best Foreign Policy? Not Starting Any Wars.” 

In his election night victory speech in November 2024, the President-elect told his supporters: “I’m not going to start a war. I’m going to stop wars.” Two months later in his inaugural address, he tried to establish himself as a global peacemaker.

“We will measure our success not only by the battles we win but also by the wars that we end - and perhaps most importantly, the wars we never got into,” proclaimed Trump.

And so goes the game of politics. Promise anything to get elected. Deliver the sad truths when in office.

“It has been said that politics is the second oldest profession. I have learned that it bears a striking resemblance to the first,” stated Ronald Reagen, 40th U.S. President, during a speech at Hillsdale College in Michigan.