One week ago tomorrow, leftists gathered across the country for so-called 'No Kings' protests against President Trump. Some of them descended into chaos, unrest, and even death. But those were the awful exceptions to what generally played out as peaceful marches in hundreds of cities and communities. I found the whole messaging and branding to be bizarre and ineffective because Donald Trump is not a king. He is a duly elected president who is taking actions the protesters don't like. He is constrained by the constitution, the courts, the legislature, public opinion, and other factors. In short, not a king.
His response to a question about whether he feels like a monarch was funny and good:
TRUMP ON THE 'NO KINGS' PROTESTS:
— Townhall.com (@townhallcom) June 12, 2025
"I don't feel like a king. I have to go through hell to get stuff approved." 🤣 pic.twitter.com/8hFN5tSjsv
Conservatives have also been roasting the marches on social media:
Have also gotten this one from a few people… pic.twitter.com/LgsdWpQp6Q
— Guy Benson (@guypbenson) June 16, 2025
"No kings," they lectured while praising the leadership of the guy who dined maskless during the Covid surge while telling the rest of us to stay away from family during the holidays and to always wear a mask https://t.co/hQ9jDso4P2 pic.twitter.com/vZxts7SPxq
— Razor (@hale_razor) June 15, 2025
Ridicule and mocking humor is a healthy political impulse. So, frankly, is peaceful protest. My attitude about the 'No Kings' rallies is summed up here:
As long as the ‘No Kings’ marches are peaceful, have at it. Free speech ftw. I find a lot of it incoherent and hypocritical, at best, but so what? Go for it.
— Guy Benson (@guypbenson) June 14, 2025
Also, while many thousands are turning out all across the country today, *many* more voted for POTUS in November.
🇺🇸
Protests are not substitutes for elections. Hundreds of thousands, or maybe millions, of lefties turned out on Saturday. More than 77 million American citizens voted Trump into office in November. The dissenters would be wise to remember that they hardly speak 'for the people,' certainly not all of them. Regardless, political movements need pressure valves to blow off steam. Gathering with placards and chants, then going home, is how it's done. It's free speech and expression. Even when I disagree with it, or think it's ridiculous, overwrought, or misguided, I can admire it as American freedom in action. What I don't respect or admire is violent protest and lawlessness, of which we have seen far too much from the Left. Some of Saturday's marches were marred by violence, but none of that lawlessness -- zero -- took place in one particular state:
Recommended
JUST IN: Florida Department of Law Enforcement reports "ZERO blocked roads. ZERO property damage" during this weekend's protests
— Florida’s Voice (@FLVoiceNews) June 16, 2025
"Florida’s demonstrations stayed peaceful and controlled this weekend. A testament to Florida being the law and order state."
Florida Around, Find Out! https://t.co/C6Wduk4Qqb
— Christina Pushaw 🐊 🇺🇸 (@ChristinaPushaw) June 13, 2025
Free speech plus law and order, for the win. Again, this is how it's done. And it starts from the top. Gov. DeSantis has made clear that free speech is a sacred right in the state of Florida, but law-breaking will not be tolerated. So we saw lots of free speech against Trump over the weekend (kings haven't historically allowed such things to happen, by the way), and no related law-breaking. Bravo. Another element of a thriving free speech culture is responding to bad speech, like this:
This happened today pic.twitter.com/2k73U8eqfV https://t.co/pdzuWbp8rn
— Stephen L. Miller (@redsteeze) June 14, 2025
This is a grotesque and profoundly ignorant thing for anyone to say, especially a sitting member of Congress -- especially from a political party that has recently rediscovered its cynical and selective 'heated rhetoric causes violence' silencing tactic (which they never apply to their own side's rhetoric or actual violence). If they're going to try to link comments like this to horrific violence like this, then they must blame themselves for the assassination attempts against President Trump. They won't, because they don't actually believe any of it. It's a bullying tool that's deployed exclusively against the other side, for their own side's perceived political gain. It's really gross. Speaking of, I'll leave you with Democrats sending the wrong messenger to criticize the US Army's 250th anniversary parade, which ended up being so pleasantly patriotic and stirring that even MSNBC couldn't find anything "malevolent" to nitpick:
1) Having someone who lied about their service put out the video is amazing. 2) Posting this after the event was over knowing full well it was about the military and not about Trump is just so gross. 3) Hating Trump should never be more important than honoring our troops. https://t.co/XWln7l4m7v
— Brittany (@bccover) June 15, 2025
Pro tip: If you spent your entire political career lying about serving in a war, until you got caught, keep every single one of your military-related thoughts to yourself. Forever. You'd think fellow Democrats might tell Blumenthal to take a seat. In reality, they inexplicably and shamelessly awarded him a seat on the Senate Armed Services Committee.
