No Kings, Just Chaos
As Trump’s $45 million military pageant fizzled, millions joined protests, a political assassination shook Minnesota, and Israel launched surprise strikes on Iran.
As Trump’s $45 million military pageant fizzled, millions joined protests, a political assassination shook Minnesota, and Israel launched surprise strikes on Iran. Our editors make sense of a disorienting weekend.
Click here for video of the conversation.
Anne Kim: Let’s start with the military parade, which was ostensibly for the 250th birthday of the army, but also Trump’s 79th birthday as well. It cost at least $45 million, and it was hyped as this huge extravaganza. At the same time, we had a nationwide day of “No Kings” protests, where there were more than 2,000 gatherings nationwide. So I think there’s probably plenty of reason to believe Trump was disappointed and that his parade was upstaged by the protests.
What do you guys think? Matt, you wrote about this right beforehand. What’s your verdict on the impact of the protests versus the parade?
Matthew Cooper: It was low energy, as the president used to say about Jeb Bush. People who thought they were getting a Nuremberg rally were disappointed by what was more of a lackadaisical state fair parade. There was a fair amount of space between each one of these military vehicles. And since they were kind of a monotone green throughout the whole thing, except for the flybys of the Chinooks and the Apaches, it was a fairly sedate affair with fairly low attendance. So I think you’re right to suggest that deep in his dark heart, the president probably found it disappointing.
I think the protests were a rousing success. They were well attended, they were peaceful, they were ubiquitous across the country. So in that sense, for Trump opponents it was a big plus. I have to confess, I thought it would be more of a menacing spectacle than it was. I think in the end, it was more a celebration of the army than him, although he included himself in some of the video asides. But it was less authoritarian in its final delivery than I think those who pictured a Red Square parade or a Pyongyang Kim Jong-un style affair expected. What they got was more sedate and more celebratory of the army than of him.
Anne Kim: I don’t know if you guys saw the viral video of the squeaky tank that was rolling down pretty much silent streets. For me that kind of said it all. Bill and Paul, what do you guys think?
Paul Glastris: I attended a No Kings rally out on the Eastern Shore of Maryland and watched some of the Trump birthday army parade on cable—CNN and Fox. I basically have Matt’s take on it. I would say that from what I’ve read of people who were there, it was enjoyable for people who were there. The soldiers seemed to enjoy doing it.
The thing to remember is the army hated this idea, abhorred this idea. Remember Trump tried to get this to happen in his first term and his defense secretary, Jim Mattis, who was a career army officer, absolutely refused to do it for the reasons that Matt said—he didn’t want an authoritarian spectacle.
That may have been what Trump wanted. It is not what the army delivered. The army delivered a recruitment campaign and a history lesson. They had Sherman tanks from World War II and they had mounted soldiers to reflect World War I and they had drones to reflect today’s equipment. And it was a sedate and staid affair—not a projection of US power, which if that’s what Trump wanted, he didn’t get.
Matthew Cooper: Without the missile launchers you don’t get that Kim Jong-un vibe, and since the Air Force and the Navy have the ICBMs you’re never gonna get the really big ones.
Paul Glastris: That’s right. And on the other hand, there were probably on the order of 5 million people who protested around the country at the No Kings rallies and maybe 50,000 who showed up for the parade in Washington. So that’s 100 to one attendance difference.
From my own experience and reading about these No Kings events, they were all rooted in 1776. They were American flags. They were not transgressive or aggressive. And they were very clever. The signs were—there was a gay pride event at the same time as the No Kings event in Easton, Maryland. And one woman had a sign that said “No Kings, Just Queens.” There was a lot of that kind of fun that people had, often at Trump’s expense. So I think history looking back will not look at this as a particularly great day for Donald Trump and maybe a good day for America.
Bill Scher: I think one of the reasons why the military parade ended up not being as disturbing as anticipated is that so many other disturbing authoritarian things have already happened that are not merely symbolic. And so a few tanks on the street pales in comparison to actually unleashing the national guard on human beings within the United States.
It is also clearly more than leavened by the outpouring of opposition to Trump in the No Kings protests. On that score, I have a long-standing skepticism of rallies and protests that lack specific asks—Occupy Wall Street, Women’s March—things of that nature, because it’s harder to decide what do you do with all this energy and where are you taking it the next day? This arguably has that challenge as well.
I’m probably more favorable to No Kings than these other ones, because there was a real risk of demoralization amongst the progressive diaspora. You saw that depression in the first weeks of the second Trump presidency. And this is a very clear indication that folks are not giving up and want to get back in the arena and fight on. The fact that the No Kings protest so outlapped what Trump had in mind further helps with that morale.
But there is the question of what do you do next? And I don’t claim to have an easy answer for that because there are so many awful things happening all at once, it’s hard to pick one. But more people getting off the sidelines and looking for things to do on net is better than sitting at home.
Matthew Cooper: I think there was a good thread by a former political advance guy about just what a poor job of logistics and advance work it was, which if you’ve covered campaigns, you know, is a fine art. The entrances were a big mess. So actually there were pretty big crowds, but at one point they’re funneled through a single gate, which made everything pretty awful.
And then the people who were coming to the parade, many of them had to cross a hastily constructed bridge over Constitution Avenue, which was not tarped, so that it provided a perfect viewing point. So basically, everybody got up to the bridge and stopped. Maybe they could urge them along a little bit, but then the next group would stop. So this was already awful design made even worse.
There was lots and lots of this. So it was a pleasant reminder that they’re not great at execution. I mean, they’ve engaged at dazzling speed dismantling USAID, Voice of America and other things, but it’s a reminder that they’re not so consistent in their abilities.
Paul Glastris: Plus it rained.
Anne Kim: Yeah, wrecking is what they’re best at. I want to pick up on Bill’s point about the implications of the No Kings protests. Before that, I just want to throw one data point out there about the lack of enthusiasm generally among the American public for this parade. NBC put out a poll finding that 64% of Americans disapproved of the use of government money for this parade. And that was 88% of Democrats, predictably, but also 72% of independents. And of those who approved, it was 65% of Republicans overall, but it was 75% of MAGA and 56% of Republicans. So there’s kind of like this $45 million showcase for the base. So we’ll see if that was a good return on investment.
Paul Glastris: And it’s also worth pointing out, it wasn’t covered by any of the networks. It was on cable. But we haven’t, at least as of last night, seen figures for who watched it. For Donald Trump, it’s all about the TV viewers. And my guess is that wasn’t that good.
Bill Scher: It’s also now just overshadowed by No Kings, overshadowed by what’s happening between Israel and Iran, overshadowed by the political violence in Minnesota. Trump tried in 2024 to say the world’s on fire, Joe Biden’s leading us into World War Three, everything’s utter chaos. “I’m going to restore order and sanity to the globe.” And everything around him is more and more chaos. So a military parade intended to show American force is totally discordant with what’s happening all around him. And so as a news story, it just seems irrelevant.
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