Is this a world leader? I’m sorry, but I thought that prime ministers, presidents, or any form of leader was supposed to conduct themselves with decorum and respect. No, apparently, it’s a free-for-all for those who want to be in the big boys’ chair.
We are now 276 days into Trump’s second term as President of the United States of America. Really, only 276? Let’s look at how the ‘No Kings’ protest was born of frustration, fear and defiance.
Trump’s Presidency So Far…
Donald Trump lost his second consecutive term to Joe Biden in 2020, but many Americans still felt the effects of Trump’s presidency. Trump’s Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, a monumental act of progress for women who fought for it back in 1973. How abortion became legal nationally was because it was deemed that women being denied an abortion, a medical treatment, was unconstitutional. It denied the right to life, liberty, and privacy under the 14th Amendment. Now, once again, many women have lost their right to choose their bodily autonomy. Since that decision in 2022, the birth rate has dropped from 2.1% to 1.6%. Younger men and women are now seeking to prevent unwanted pregnancies by having vasectomies, tubal ligation, or not being in relationships at all. However, a lot of women, in predominantly red states, are being denied these services.
Now, nobody thought a convicted felon could possibly win a second term, but he did. America chose a felon over a black woman. However, not all was sweet in the White House. In June of this year, America’s least favourite couple broke up. We are so sorry for you, Trump and Elon. The very public breakup of the on-again, off-again relationship was very messy. From posts on Musk’s platform X, it seems that they fell out over what everyday couples fall out about: money. From appearances, Trump’s large tariff bills on imports and exports are what drove the two billionaires apart. How sad.
That’s not stopped him though,as Trump has signed 210 executive orders in less than a year. In the four years of Biden, he signed 162, and 276 signed in the eight years for Obama. 30% of Trump’s orders have now been challenged in court for him, exceeding his executive powers as President (Hughes, 2025), as his word is not absolute law.
He signed the ‘Big Beautiful Bill’ into law; now a bill with that name can’t be bad at all… can it? In summary, steep cuts to Medicaid are plunging more Americans into financial hardship, and cuts to food benefits are creating more financial insecurity. Boosts to defence and border spending, who is America at war with to justify a $150 billion increase besides itself? $100 billion of that has been designated to ICE, which I will delve into later on to see how well that’s going. However, there has been a clean energy incentive reduction! In a time where climate change is on a tipping point, let’s just throw out incentives for companies to adopt sustainable practices. I’m sure there will be zero consequences for that decision.
Military in Blue States
Over the last few months, we have seen the deployment of the National Guard into blue states, starting with Los Angeles (June 6th), then Washington DC (August 5th), Memphis (September 15th), Portland (September 27th), and now Chicago (October 4th). The reason? Crime management. The Trump administration has started a fear-mongering campaign, stating that citizens are inciting violent riots. I didn’t realise freedom of speech and lawful assembly were quite so terrifying. This has been in collaboration with ICE, as the main target for peaceful demonstration has been the ICE detention centres. It has become a vicious cycle. ICE conduct has been masked, unlawful, violent raids and arrests; the common people respond to this with demonstrations, damning ICE’s conduct. The Trump administration sees bad publicity and names it ‘lawlessness’, ‘riot’, or ‘insurrectionist’.
ICE Violence
A main point of criticism, by the people, against Trump is his actions on immigration. ICE has been making use of that $100 billion budget rise. Videos surfacing on social media and news stations are documenting ICE’s brutality against US citizens. Reverend David Black, of Chicago, was shot in the head with a pepper ball as he demonstrated outside the ICE detention centre. During the June Los Angeles demonstrations, an Australian reporter, Lauren Tomasi, was shot with rubber bullets on a live broadcast. It can be seen in the video as the cameraman pans around to the masked forces, one agent aims directly and purposely at the reporter.
Many citizens are being detained without due process, then allegations of violence against police are thrown at them. A situation like this happened to Debbie Brockman, an employee of WGN-TV in Chicago. She was detained on her way to work when ICE forced her to the ground and arrested her. DHS alleged that she threw something at the agents, which Brockman denied. Several hours later, she was released without charge; she is considering legal action against ICE and DHS because of this incident (James Hill, 2025).
Federal agents have also repeatedly been deploying tear gas against crowds in Chicago, despite there being a court order from federal judge Sara Ellis. An incident, involving 27 CPD officers, on October 4th where ICE agents were confronting civilian crowds. CPD where sent in to de-escalate the situation, instead they were caught in the crossfire as ICE deployed tear gas. A statement from Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson, “I am calling for a full investigation into this incident and into all of the brutality we have seen over the past week… We need ICE out of our city.”
A recent report has emerged regarding ICE’s hiring and training process. The results of this rushed process has been a national embarrassment for the DHS. Some new recruits have reportedly failed to provide fingerprints for mandatory background checks, whilst receiving their six week ICE training. This has led to one recruit being identified at a training facility in Brunswick, Georgia, for having a past conviction of strong-armed robbery and battery with domestic violence. Many other recruits have failed drug tests and have other past convictions, disqualifying them from service in ICE. There is major concern for those who have already slipped through the cracks.
Censorship of the Media
We all know that Trump doesn’t like being criticised – personally or professionally. His main target for censorship has been comedy talk show hosts. The first to be hit was Stephen Colbert and his Late Show. The show is set to end in 2026 after ten years on air. Many other celebrities are outraged at the obvious infringement of freedom of speech by the Trump administration. Additionally, the parent company, Paramount, paid the White House $16 million in a settlement over a Kamala Harris interview. Despite the dismay, The Late Show and Colbert received an Emmy for the Best Talk Series. Ironic that the show is now cancelled, even with the host and team receiving a standing ovation at the Emmy’s for their win.
The next hit was Jimmy Kimmel after his comments in September on the murder of right-wing activist Charlie Kirk. Outrage from the public was imminent with mass cancellation of Disney+ subscriptions. Trump welcomed Kimmel’s suspension and made comments that some TV networks should have their licenses taken away for negative coverage of the President (e.g. himself).
It’s not just talk shows taking the hits from Trump, there has now been a mass walk out of journalists from the Pentagon. This is after the Trump administration and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth aimed to place new restrictions on what they could be reported on. The agreement would only allow reporters to release stories that have been approved by an appropriate authorizing official, even if the content was unclassified. Hegseth’s new regime was met with a swift walk out as 40-50 reporters all packed up their offices and handed in their badges at 4pm.
No Kings Day
Leading up to the day, we have had smaller acts of demonstration. Some sculptures have been emerging on the National Mall. First, the friendship statue of Donald Trump and Jeffrey Epstein! A main topic point, as Trump swore, during his campaign, that he would release the Epstein files. Now he says they don’t exist. The second is an ice sculpture of the word ‘Democracy’ melting on the sidewalk. The imagery is lost on no one.
The people didn’t give Trump what he wanted. He stoked violence and bordered on civil war, but they responded with a peaceful and constitutionally protected right to free assembly, and he didn’t like that one bit.
The No Kings protest is a demonstration against Trump and his administration. An effort for the people to voice their discontent with the presidential overreach and corruption. Attendance on June 14th was estimated at five million across the US and ten other countries. October 18th broke that with 2700 demonstrations across all fifty states and fifteen other countries. Over seven million people were marching in solidarity with America. Three took place here in the UK in Bristol, Southampton and London.
Trump and Republicans tried to portray protestors as violent and that people should remain home for their safety. Some officials and news outlets even implied that people had been paid to be part of the protest and incite violence. From live broadcasts and first hand social media coverage, the demonstrations were actually peaceful and looked fun. People dressed up in inflatable suits, one leading figure to come out of the recent protests is the frog. Starting as just one man, the frog has been seen ‘intimidating’ ICE agents outside a detention centre in Portland. Others have now joined the effort, dawning green frog suits around the world. Some of my favorite signs that I’ve seen:
- No King since 1776
- Stop pretending your racism is patriotism
- You can’t cherry pick the constitution like you do the Bible
- Could someone explain which crimes get you deported and which crimes get you elected president?
- No Kings Only Queens
- I’m not a paid protestor I hate him (Trump) for free
- History has its eyes on you (a Hamilton reference)
Another inflatable suit that I found hilarious was an alien with a sign saying, “Never mind don’t take me to your leader.”
A heartfelt X message came out from NYPD at the end of the day reading, “The majority of the No Kings protests have dispersed at this time, and all traffic closures have been lifted. We had more than 100,000 people across all five boroughs peacefully exercising their first amendment rights and the NYPD made zero protest-related arrests.”
The civil events that took place did not live up to the Republicans fearmongering expectations. Their response to double down on these protesters were silly and clearly showed they didn’t know what they were doing. Surprisingly a lot of the news outlets were asking why there were a lot of older white people there? The type of people who you would usually associate with Republicans dominated the media footage.
Trump’s reaction to these events was to post AI generated images and videos on X. One video was of Trump flying a fighter jet, wearing a crown, poop bombing crowds of protestors. Again, back to my first statement, where is the decorum? An image also shows Trump and Vice president JD Vance sitting side by side on thrones wearing crowns again. Earlier in the week, Trump stated that he is not a king and he doesn’t understand why people are protesting him as a king. Judging by the content posted, he sure does love a crown to glorify himself.
My Condolences to America
The No Kings protest is now the largest one-day demonstration in US history. Two hundred and fifty years after they claimed their independence from a mad king, they are in the same fight again. However, the people have used the one power no one can take, their voices. Trump will continue to publicly embarrass himself, but the people will march with dignity, in solidarity and in respect for the mutual struggles they face.
References
Hughes, S. A. (2025, June 4). Harvard Kennedy School. Retrieved from Explainer: Executive orders as a governing tool: https://www.hks.harvard.edu/faculty-research/policy-topics/democracy-governance/explainer-executive-orders-governing-tool
James Hill, T. J. (2025, October 17). abd News. Retrieved from ‘Profoundly concerned’: Judge orders ICE official to testify after Chicago tear-gassing incident: https://abcnews.go.com/US/profoundly-concerned-judge-orders-ice-official-testify-after/story?id=126585221
Editor: Tamima Islam