Meanwhile, Trump spends the weekend at his residence in Mar-a-Lago, Florida, far from the popular clamor. In a Fox News interview broadcast on Friday, before leaving for a MAGA fundraising dinner – priced at a million dollars a plate at his club – the president downplayed the protests: “They say they call me king. I’m not a king.”
The organizers, a coalition of hundreds of groups and associations, expected more than 2,600 actions in cities large and small — an increase from the 1,300 locations registered in April, against Trump and Elon Musk, and the 2,100 in June, in the first “No Kings” event called.
“Large demonstrations like this give confidence to those who were ‘on the bench’ but ready to speak,” commented Democratic Senator Chris Murphy to the Associated Press. Leaders such as Senate Majority Representative Chuck Schumer and independent Bernie Sanders join the cause, seeing it as an antidote to Trump’s policies: from the clampdown on free speech to military operations against immigrants. “There is no greater threat to an authoritarian regime than the patriotic power of the people,” said Ezra Levin, political activist and co-founder of the progressive organization Indivisible, one of the main advocacy groups.
On the Republican side, the reaction was aggressive. Leaders of the GOP (Grand Old Party, as the Republican Party is also known) classify the protesters as marginals, communists and Marxists, blaming them for the government shutdown. “It’s the hate rally for America,” said House Speaker Mike Johnson of Louisiana. “Let’s see who shows up: Antifa types, people who hate capitalism, and Marxists on full display.”
In Lisbon we also heard “No Kings, No Crowns”
In addition to demonstrations in US cities, protest actions against the Trump administration’s policies also took place in several European capitals. In Lisbon, North Americans living in Portugal protested to show the world that the United States “does not have kings”.
A The concentration took place next to the equestrian statue of D. José I, where more than a hundred participants held posters and shouted in chorus: “No kings, no crowns” (Neither kings, nor crowns, in a free translation)
One of the citizens present at the demonstration displayed a poster surrounded by five red carnations, which read “America needs what Portugal knows – Fight for true liberation”.
Gerry Walkney, 71 years old, moved from Setúbal, where he has lived for almost two years, because he is an “avowed democrat” and considers it necessary to have a “great union of Americans” to dethrone the current President who “is terrible in office and has only harmed the country and the world”.
“It is necessary for Congress to do something to remove this President, which has not happened, as Congress has done nothing”, he stressed.
See photos of demonstrations in other European cities: