Across the U.S. more than 5 million people participated in anti-Trump “No Kings Day” protests on June 14, the largest demonstration of opposition to the twice-impeached convicted felon since he returned to the White House in January. The protests, organized in some 2,100 locations across America, came soon after Trump federalized 4,000 National Guard troops and deployed 700 Marines to Los Angeles to suppress mostly peaceful, but angry protests that caused some property destruction in response to militarized ICE deportation raids targeting California factories, farms and courts.
The No Kings protest was timed to coincide with Trump’s military parade in Washington, D.C. ostensibly celebrating both the U.S. Army’s 250th anniversary and the president’s 79th birthday. Trump’s North Korea-style parade drew far fewer attendees than expected, in stark contrast to the enthusiastic crowds that flooded the streets of both big cities and small towns. While the horrifying political assassination of a Minnesota Democratic state legislator and her husband that day didn’t deter the protests, it served as a reminder of Donald Trump and the Republican party’s dangerous embrace and endorsement of political violence.
The Trump regime’s militarized response to the protests in Los Angeles has raised fear that the administration could soon follow through on their repeated threat to invoke the Insurrection Act and impose martial law that would suspend constitutional rights. Between The Lines’ Scott Harris spoke with Sasha Abramsky, The Nation magazine’s Western correspondent and author, who contrasts the “No Kings Day” protests with Trump’s military parade, while considering what strategies and tactics democracy defenders may need to adopt to prevent the establishment of a fascist police state.
SASHA ABRAMSKY: Trump’s whole “schtick” is that he has this overwhelming mandate that there is an inevitability to all of his authoritarian politics, and that protest is futile. And that’s absolute nonsense. He never had an overwhelming majority. He got a tiny electoral majority. The public has never overwhelmingly supported his key policies, be it on immigration, be it on tariffs, being it on rolling back climate change, or be it on attacking the rights of one group after another group, after another group in the United States.
And I think what we saw this weekend was a classic example of an emperor having no clothes. That this is a guy who has blustered his way, somehow improbably into a second term in the White House, but actually the American public is recoiling from what he’s doing. He’s going to do tremendous damage. There’s no doubt about that. But in terms of him fundamentally re-imagining what America is and what the American spirit is, it’s just not happening. The majority of Americans are firmly against what he’s doing and a huge minority are willing to come out into the streets to protest what he’s doing.
SCOTT HARRIS: Sasha, we’ve witnessed the arrest of the mayor of Newark, New Jersey, as well as a congressional representative, as well as the throwing to the floor U.S. Sen. Alex Padilla of California, as well as handcuffing him at a press event of Kristi Noem, the Homeland Security secretary. One thing that was notable beyond the horrible treatment of a sitting U.S. senator was that Kristi Noem at the podium said earlier on that same day that the troops were in Los Angeles to liberate the city from socialists governing the city and the state. Kristi Noem may have just unintentionally revealed the goal as well as the intention of why those troops are there. I hope she’s just an idiot. But basically liberating the city or the state of California from socialists is what’s going on here?
SASHA ABRAMSKY: There is no doubt that Kristi Noem is an idiot. I mean, she says the stupidest stuff on air all the time. On the other hand, Trump’s administration from Trump on down is stocked full of people who say inflammatory stupid things. So she’s not exactly an outlier there.
But I do think she revealed the end game here. The end game is that they view Democratic-led cities and states as being politically illegitimate, and they now have a language in place that says that if you are a political representative from those states, you somehow need to be removed, that your people need to be liberated from you.
Well, that’s extraordinarily dangerous because again, it completely undermines the concept of democracy to say, “Well, we don’t like the political leadership in this state, so we’re going to liberate the citizenry by sending in the Army.” I mean, there is no way you square that with American democracy.
But the second thing is it leads down a pathway of violence.
SCOTT HARRIS: Well said. Thank you, Sasha. When you think about other countries and how they’ve successfully defended democracy, what do you think we as people here in this country need to consider beyond holding a placard on a Saturday afternoon? Do we need to seriously put attention on civil disobedience and economic actions such as a general strike that may be more effective in thwarting where Donald Trump wants to go in terms of imposing a fascist America?
SASHA ABRAMSKY: I think common sense dictates that simply waving a placard — it may feel good and it may in some small way do good — but simply waving a placard doesn’t in the end slow down an authoritarian juggernaut. Look, the most effective movements in history have been non-violence, civil disobedient movements — Martin Luther King, Gandhi and so on. You have to say at some point, well, this is so awful. We’ve got to work out ways to slow this juggernaut down.
You mentioned a general strike. Look, trade unions are some of the most powerful economic forces even in this country where few in the private sector are unionized. Enough people are members of trade unions, so they have tremendous clout in the economy. So yes, we should be thinking about ways to use the economic clout of progressive organizations.
Or consumer boycotts are another example. The most effective consumer boycott in the last few months has been people all over the world saying, thanks, but no thanks. We don’t want to buy Teslas because we don’t want to be associated with Elon Musk and we don’t want to enrich Elon Musk. Well, that’s powerful.
So yes, we should be thinking about ways we can slow this juggernaut down, because again, if we don’t respond to the emergency at the moment, we’re going to lose our democracy. Trump is making that abundantly clear. He’s screaming from the rooftops that he wants the U.S. military involved in domestic politics. He’s screaming from the rooftops that he doesn’t respect due process. He’s screaming from the rooftops that he doesn’t respect the role of the courts when they oppose him. Again, that’s authoritarianism, not democracy and we have to work out a politics that responds to that authoritarianism.
For more information, visit Sasha Abramsky’s website at sashaabramsky.com. Sasha Abramsky’s latest book is titled, Chaos Comes Calling: The Battle Against the Far-Right Takeover of Small Town America.
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