What I Saw At The Insurrection

I looked everywhere for Mike Johnson at the No Kings rally in the heart of the nation’s Capitol last Saturday. I even wore my Civil Beat press pass so I could ask him questions, one professional to another.

But the House speaker was nowhere to be found. Maybe he took the day off. The government was shut down, of course, and House representatives were on an extended paid recess.

I covered the protest in my role as a journalist and, after a few hours, I wanted to ask Johnson why he’d said the gatherings opposing President Donald Trump were “hate America” rallies. Because all I saw that day were tens of thousands of people of all ages and backgrounds exercising the right to peaceably assemble along with the freedom of speech, press and even religion.

It was, to use the words of Trump about Jan. 6, 2021, a “day of love.”

All that was missing was the right to petition the government for a redress of grievances.

But then, that First Amendment clause was implicit. The D.C. rally, part of an estimated 7 million protesters at more than 2,700 locations in all 50 states and D.C. (according to No Kings), sent a simple message: America does not need a king.

Trump is not a king, but you can be forgiven if you believe he’s acting like one. He wants to mint a commemorative $1 coin with his mug on it. His first foreign visit as president was to a kingdom, Saudi Arabia, and his second was to the United Kingdom. He wants to build an arch, based on the Arc de Triomphe in Paris, across from the Lincoln Memorial — an  “Arc de Trump.”

Ed O’Keefe of CBS News reportedly asked the president who the arch is for, and Trump pointed at himself: “Me.”

The purpose of No Kings is to accuse the president of behaving more like a monarch than an elected official, and it is succeeding in that regard.

One of the first speakers at the D.C. rally, Democratic Sen. Chris Murphy of Connecticut, reminded the huge throng that his state was the first to adopt a written constitution, thus rejecting the English monarchy. The nation, he said, was not “on the verge” of an authoritarian, totalitarian takeover but smack dab in the middle of one.

Murphy then asked rhetorically if that scared people.

“You can handle the truth,” he said, answering his own question and thrilling the crowd.

‘Jesus Was An Immigrant’

I was in D.C. to attend the Society of Professional Journalists MediaFest 2025. I cut out a bit early on Saturday to make my way toward the location of the No Kings rally at Pennsylvania Avenue Northwest and 3rd Street Northwest, an area astride The Mall and not far from the U.S. Capitol.

My CB colleague in D.C., Nick Grube, had shared with me beforehand advice from the National Press Club on reporting in potentially dangerous environments: “If protesters want to shout in your face, don’t get into arguments with them. If police ask you to step back, do not just take one step and look defiant.  Ask them how far back to go.”

Nick also advised that I write his phone number on my arm in case I needed to post bail.

It wasn’t necessary.

My first encounter with security on No Kings day came well before I got to the rally site. Dozens of Metropolitan police, on foot and bicycles, were paralleling a large group of protesters as they marched and chanted toward Pennsylvania Avenues.

“Excuse me,” one officer politely said as he pedaled by me.

“Sorry,” said another.

Then, as the marchers were to turn on to 10th Street, someone fell. The procession halted and the police asked everyone not in the march to clear the street by moving to the sidewalks. Everyone complied as the police surrounded the injured man and someone called an ambulance.

I was momentarily worried that a fight might erupt. Surreally, the man fell on the same block as Ford’s Theatre. (“Sic semper tyrannis,” John Wilkes Booth shouted after assassinating the 16th president.)

But it was all good, the injured man walked it off and the rally soon resumed.

Trump allies may link No Kings participants to the far-left Antifa movement and the “pro-Hamas wing,” essentially deriding them as domestic terrorists. But it’s hard to imagine a masked, hardcore activist in black pausing to let the authorities do their job.

The peaceful display of civil disobedience was also to the credit of No Kings organizers and supporters, all linked over the internet and social media. Most rallies lasted only two hours, something easy to squeeze into a weekend. Most participants took public transportation or walked. People were advised to bring water and snacks and sunblock and hats.

It was also recommended folks wear something yellow to show unity, echoing previous large protests in Hong Kong and Ukraine. But the colors I saw most that day were red, white and blue. These patriots were proud to be American, concerned about the direction of their country and willing to show their faces in public even as federal troops and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials prowl the streets.

The best part of a No Kings rally are the homemade signs. Here are a few that for me captured the mood that day: “Free D.C.” “Detox from Fox.” “Fight truth decay.” “Jesus was an immigrant.” “It’s so bad even I am here.”

It is obvious that many No King attendees are not fans of the 45th and 47th president. The f-word was used liberally, even though there were kids all around, many of them costumed as animals to mock ICE agents.

Johnson told ABC News the next day that he was upset about the rhetoric of protesters, for example, calling Trump a fascist. The rallies, he said, were ironic.

“If President Trump was a king, the government would be open right now,” he said. “If President Trump was a king, they would not have been able to engage in that free speech exercise out on the (National) Mall.”

In fact, Trump has pushed successfully to silence and punish many of his critics — in the courts, in the Congress, in the governors’ mansions, in the universities, in the media. It sometimes seems as if he wants the U.S. to be more like Thailand, where a lèse-majesté law forbids insulting the monarchy.

One could practically predict Trump’s reaction to the No Kings events: He posted an AI-generated video showing him wearing a crown in a fighter jet showering the people with poop.

The Right To Assemble

Insurrection can be defined as an act or instance of revolting against civil authority or an established government. Insurrections are often violent, but there was no violence at No Kings in D.C. Unless I missed it, for example, no one was holding a sign that read, “Hang JD Vance.”

And, while some protesters called for impeachment, Trump has already been impeached in the House twice and yet still occupies 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. He won the electoral college in 2024 and a plurality of the popular vote, and he will remain in the White House (albeit one now missing its East Wing) until his term ends or the 25th Amendment is invoked.

The No Kings rally was all the more remarkable for its disciplined dissent, coming as it did on a long week of stunning news for many worried about the direction of the country:

John Bolton was indicted. Charlie Kirk’s widow accepted the Presidential Medal of Freedom on his behalf. The U.S. Supreme Court indicated it may further erode the Voting Rights Act. The head of U.S. Southern Command stepped down less than a year into his post amidst the administration’s military strikes against alleged drug-smuggling boats in the Caribbean. Kristi Noem posted a TSA video in airports blaming the shutdown on the party that neither controls Congress nor the White House. Dozens of Pentagon reporters walked out of the building and surrendered their press badges, including representatives of Fox News and Newsmax. Admiration for Nazis was expressed by a group of Young Republicans and a congressional staffer. Marc Benioff said he was fine with troops coming to San Francisco (although he later changed his mind). The sentence of George Santos was commuted.

And Speaker Johnson? He’s refused to seat a newly elected Democrat from Arizona whose vote could open the Epstein files.

Something’s different now. And this protest felt more like an insurrection than a political rally.

Will more No Kings rallies succeed in driving Trump from office? Nope. But they are a shining example of what is best about America: the right to speak up.

The D.C. rally closed with Bernie Sanders railing against billionaires Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos and Mark Zuckerberg for sucking up to Trump. The shutdown, the Vermont socialist argued, was all about paying for a trillion-dollar tax cut for the wealthiest among us.

The fate of democracy itself, Sanders warned, is at stake.

“Our experiment,” he said, “is in danger.”

One thing appears certain: The resistance will continue. It’s everywhere and growing: