(The quote paraphrases the GOP “leader” who is two heartbeats away from the Presidency.) Previously, Trump, GOP politicians and news outlets on “the right” repeatedly claimed that Democrats were “radical left lunatics” who were “demonic.” Many people who plan to protest Trump’s increasingly autocratic ways might actually prefer “demonic” to their new status as “domestic terrorists.” Several leading GOP politicians and Trump administration officials now insist that people participating in the upcoming No Kings Day demonstrations on October 18 are indeed “domestic terrorists,” “Antifa,” “anti-American,” or linked to extremist groups.
House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) referred to No Kings Day as a “Hate America rally,” claiming that it will attract “the Antifa crowd, the pro-Hamas crowd, and the Marxists,” and characterized the event as an outrageous gathering with dangerous intentions. He also said “I’ve had it with these people.” Thus sayeth the man who proclaims that “Jesus is my Lord and Savior” but refuses to reconvene the House of Representatives because of the 218 votes that would force a discharge petition on the Jeffrey Epstein files. (Christian forgiveness for elite pedophiles!)
The Steady State, a group that includes more than 330 former ambassadors, inspectors general, flag officers, Defense and Homeland Security officials, and senior intelligence officers, blasted the Speaker’s remarks. “But Johnson, a constitutional lawyer, knows better,” they said. “Peaceful protest is not only protected under the First Amendment—it is a core democratic right and a cornerstone of American freedom.”
House Majority Whip Tom Emmer (R-Minn.) escalated the rhetoric by labeling the demonstration a “terrorist event” and suggested that Democrats are keeping the government shut down to support “the terrorist wing of their party,” which, according to him, is organizing the No Kings rally, or what he called a “hate-America rally.”
These accusations have been echoed in several press conferences, Fox News appearances, and right-wing media outlets, often linking the peaceful demonstration with violence, anti-government sentiment, and international extremism.
Senior administration officials, including White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller, have promoted the narrative that the No Kings protest organizers are connected to “terrorism” and intend to incite political violence, even as the No Kings group emphasizes its commitment to nonviolent protest.
The administration has reportedly intensified security responses and cited political unrest caused by leftist organizations, using these claims to justify aggressive policing and even federal troop deployments in some cities.
Democrats, protest organizers, and independent commentators have strongly condemned these GOP statements. But the GOP’s accusations are a significant escalation in the rhetoric surrounding the October 18 No Kings Day protests and reflect their intent to equate opposition to the administration with extremism and criminality.
“It’s a free country,” as we used to say as kids in 1950s New Jersey, not quite knowing just what that meant. It does seem less free these days; while it is perfectly legal to brand “others” as “demonic” or as “domestic terrorists,” we are not having the kind of civil democratic discourse that can move the nation forward, and when First Amendment rights are questioned as anti-American, some of those who see themselves as “right” are probably quite wrong.
Even more concerning is that calling peaceful protestors “terrorists” gives a green light to a few armed and angry people who might be inclined to provoke violence themselves. History is a guide here: demonizing unarmed protestors is likely to increase the risks of violence, something that Trump and his advisors are almost surely aware of.
The end game is likely to be Trump’s invocation of the Insurrection Act; Trump could issue yet another executive order, claiming that deployment of the U.S. military is necessary to quell political violence and those “enemies within” that he referred to with the top Generals assembled at Quantico in early October.
The judiciary has almost no guidance from the statute itself in determining the legality of such a declaration, even where it is based on very slim evidence, or even a fiction in the mind of our POTUS (as it is most likely to be). Worse yet, the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court seems to be solidly behind all MAGA movement, including President Trump’s marginally legal (at best) executive orders.
Mr. Chief Justice: as Sen. Bernie Sanders points out, the protestors on No Kings Day are not terrorists, they are fighting for freedom from an increasingly autocratic Trump and his political party. “Thoughts and prayers” that you will restrain those who would make legal that which is morally wrong and distinctively un-American –– protesting autocratic kings has a proud tradition in this nation of ours. Do not dare to call yourself an “originalist” when it comes to Constitutional law if you cannot affirm basic First Amendment rights. The text is clear enough: “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.”
The No Kings Protests set for next Saturday is a coordinated effort aimed at mobilizing Americans to reject authoritarianism and defend democratic norms. If there are in fact “enemies within,” they are clearly not those who are willing to stand up in public for democratic norms, risking the wrath of an increasingly unhinged authoritarian and his cronies.