Opposition to Donald Trump’s authoritarian drift takes to the streets of more than 2,600 cities and towns in the United States in a new day of protests under the motto ‘No Kings’. It is the second mobilization of this movement, which calls to “fight together against the dictatorship” and hopes to bring together millions of people throughout the country. The main cities of the East Coast have opened the day with massive protests in New York and Washington DC, where various citizen organizations have gathered near the Capitol to denounce Trump’s policies. The event also includes the intervention of Democratic senators Bernie Sanders y Chris Murphy.
The first edition of the demonstrations, held on June 14, already achieved massive mobilization. Since then, Trump has accelerated political changes aimed at strengthening his control over the Administration and pointing out his ideological adversaries. Among its latest measures, the immigration raidshe federal troop deployment in cities like Los Angeles, Chicago or Washington DC and the Government operational closurewhich keeps thousands of civil servants without pay, have unleashed a wave of indignation in the country.
Protesters at ‘No Kings’ protests in Washington DC / Stefani Reynolds | Bloomberg
“Why This country does not belong to kings, dictators or tyrants. It belongs to We the People: the people who care, who show their face and who fight for dignity, for an affordable life and for a real opportunity,” the organizers express from their website, in which they call for peaceful demonstrations. From the republican wing have strongly criticized this day as a anti patriotic event. “They are going to gather Marxists, socialists, antifa defenders, anarchists and the pro-Hamas wing of the far-left Democratic Party,” declared the speaker of the House of Representatives, the Republican Mike Johnson.
A peaceful call
Many protesters wear American flags and yellow clothing, a color used in other peaceful movements such as the 2019 Hong Kong protests. There are also animal costumes to keep the atmosphere relaxed.
The name of the movement “No Kings” alludes to the perception that the president acts like a monarch and remember that the United States was founded in 1776 on the rejection of the absolute power of a sovereign.”They say I behave like a king. I’m not a king“Trump, who spends the day at his private mansion in Mar-a-Lago, Florida, without an official agenda, said in an interview with Fox Business.
The protests bring together a wide variety of claimsfrom opposition to immigration raids and cuts in healthcare to rejection of the militarization of cities or the modifications of electoral districts that seek to ensure a Republican victory in next year’s midterm elections.
