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lisa gilbert
'No Kings' Rallies Against Trump Authoritarianism Could Be 'Largest Protest in US History'
"On October 18 and everyday, we’ll show the world what democracy looks like," said one union leader. "No thrones! No clowns with crowns! No kings, just working people united in power to defend our democracy."
Oct 16, 2025
Amid President Donald Trump's unprecedented and accelerating attacks on US democracy, millions of Americans in every state and beyond are preparing to take to the streets Saturday for a second wave of No Kings rallies.
In what organizers and participants say might be the "largest protest in US history" in a single day, No Kings demonstrations are set to take place in more than 2,500 communities across the nation, from its biggest cities to small towns like Burns, Oregon—population 2,700—and Bryson City, North Carolina, with 1,500 residents.
The first round of No Kings rallies, held on June 14, drew an estimated 4-6 million participants to over 2,100 demonstrations. Organizers say that the October 18 protest could be even bigger, as Americans are more alarmed than ever by the assault on democracy by Trump and Republicans.
"What we’re seeing is truly unprecedented," Lisa Gilbert, co-president of the consumer advocacy group Public Citizen, told Common Dreams. "What we’re seeing from this administration is authoritarian slip. We are seeing them attack judges, attack nonprofits, trying to attack the media, stifle First Amendment protected speech, and arrest sitting members of Congress for doing their oversight of [Immigration and Customs Enforcement]."
"The list, unfortunately, is very long and what we want is what we’ve seen in other countries that have successfully resisted authoritarianism—to hold on to our democracy and to create and protect the checks that we have against that kind of executive overreach," she added. "It’s a lofty goal, but it starts with us exercising our right to peacefully protest."
On October 18th, millions of brave Americans will stand up and peacefully protest against the authoritarian disease metastasizing under Donald Trump.No Thrones. No Crowns. No Kings. @gtconway.bsky.social
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— Home of the Brave (@ofthebraveusa.bsky.social) October 13, 2025 at 5:01 AM
As Republicans including US House Speaker Mike Johnson (La.)—who called Saturday's pro-democracy demonstrations "hate America" rallies—attempt to smear the No Kings movement, organizer Sarah Parker of 50501 and Voices of Florida said during a Thursday press conference that "we have a saying in the South: A hit dog will holler, and I’m hearing a lot of noise from Washington, DC right now."
"And with that said, on October 18 millions of people just like me... are going to take the streets peacefully and say there will be no kings in America," she continued.
"These are everyday Americans coming together to organize," Parker said. "These are faith leaders, teachers, veterans, small business owners who are being impacted by extremely dubious tariffs. These are people that are seeing their friends and family members be kidnapped off the streets. These are everyday Americans that are struggling to put groceries into their fridge, and these are Millennials and Gen Zers who were promised a beautiful and free America."
"They are rising to this moment because they feel… it is their obligation to joyfully and peacefully push back against authoritarianism like the generations that came before us," she added.
We bow to no kings in America. Text NOKINGS to 63033 to find the location of your closest peaceful No Kings protest this Saturday!
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— Stand Up America (@standupamerica.com) October 15, 2025 at 8:32 AM
Jamie Contreras, the executive vice president of Service Employees International Union (SEIU) 32BJ who is also a US Navy veteran and former undocumented immigrant, told the press conference that "America belongs to the people—working people—not to billionaires or a few politicians who think they can rule like kings."
Addressing the Trump administration's designation of leftist protesters as "terrorists" and its ominous threat to take the "same approach" to them as to the alleged drug traffickers it is extrajudicially assassinating on the high seas, Contreras said that "the real threat to this country isn’t peaceful protesters, it’s politicians shutting down our government to protect billionaires and corporate greed."
"What’s ironic to me is, you call peaceful protesters terrorists, but then the [January 6 insurrectionists] patriots," he added. "That’s so ironic and so far from the truth."
Attend "No Kings" to protest the pro-kings.
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— Mark Jacob (@markjacob.bsky.social) October 14, 2025 at 5:18 AM
The federal government shut down at the beginning of the month, and as Democrats and Republicans continued to spar over the GOP's healthcare cuts, Johnson warned this week that it could be the longest shutdown ever.
Indivisible co-founder Leah Greenberg told the press conference: "Republicans are blaming and smearing millions of Americans who are peacefully protesting because they have run out of excuses for their own failures. Republicans understand that Americans are blaming them for the shutdown, Americans are blaming them for out-of-control healthcare prices, and a rising affordability crisis."
Greenberg continued:
They are blaming them for the fear and chaos gripping the country. They are panicking and they are flailing and they are searching for anything, literally anything, to distract from their governing failures. And in their desperation they have decided to go with smearing millions of Americans who are coming out to peacefully, directly assert our rights. It is both ridiculous and outrageous. It is ridiculous because it is transparently false, it is outrageous because it is an attack on the First Amendment and on all of our right to free speech.
Parker said Republicans "are refusing to accept the fact that the American people are pissed, by the millions. They are refusing to accept the fact that their actions are harming our beloved country. They are refusing to look in the mirror and accept the fact that they are destroying America."
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— Physicians for a Healthy Democracy (@physiciandemocracy.medsky.social) October 13, 2025 at 4:39 PM
ACLU chief political and advocacy officer Deidre Schifeling said during the press conference that "President Trump and his allies are abusing their power and attempting to scare their own citizens away from exercising our rights and freedoms."
"What we have seen so far is as troubling as it is illegal," Schifeling continued. "The Trump administration has directed ICE to kidnap people including journalists and students off the street, ripping them from their families and deporting them without due process."
"Their allies are attempting to undermine fair elections at President Trump’s direction by redistricting voting maps and further gerrymandering states," she noted. "And they are attempting to limit our First Amendment rights and use the federal government to attack political rivals, stifle dissent, and undermine checks and balances on presidential power."
"The Trump administration has even deployed armed agents and troops into American cities, including my home of Washington, DC, turning our streets into militarized zones and threatening to do so again to quash Saturday’s protests," she said.
"You have to ask: Why are they so afraid of their own citizens?" Schifeling said. "Well, they know that their agenda of selling fear, division, misinformation, lawbreaking, and violence is deeply unpopular. Millions of Americans will peacefully protest on Saturday to tell the Trump administration that we are a country of equals, we are a country of laws that apply to everyone, of due process, and of democracy."
"We will not be silenced," she added. "If we stop exercising our rights, our First Amendment freedom of speech out of fear, we forfeit our power in advance. The best way to protect our freedom is to act free."
Sanders: Saturday, millions of people are going to come out on a No Kings day. Speaker Johnson said this is a hate America rally because people are coming out expressing their concerns.. It’s not a hate America rally, it's a love America rally.
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— Acyn (@acyn.bsky.social) October 15, 2025 at 7:40 PM
Gilbert told Common Dreams: "I think we can turn this around. I think we wouldn’t be doing this if we couldn’t. We are still in a democracy today, we’re having this free and fair conversation right now, you and I… and we have a set of protections we can exercise and we need to remind people what democracy is supposed to look like."
As Contreras said, "When working people stand together, no king, no billionaires, no politicians can stop us."
"On October 18 and everyday, we’ll show the world what democracy looks like," he added. "No thrones! No clowns with crowns! No kings, just working people united in power to defend our democracy."
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'Blatant Extortion': Healthcare for Millions Hangs in the Balance as GOP Plows Toward Shutdown
“Congressional Republicans would rather risk a government shutdown than reverse course and preserve healthcare tax credits millions rely on," said one critic.
Sep 26, 2025
As the White House threatens mass layoffs of federal workers in the event of a looming GOP government shutdown, healthcare and consumer advocates warned Friday that millions of Americans would either lose insurance coverage or see their premiums spike—and some critics say that's exactly what Republicans want.
On Wednesday, the White House Office of Management and Budget directed federal agencies to prepare to fire large numbers of employees if the government shuts down on October 1, a move that critics say OMB Director Russ Vought is using as leverage to force the hand of Senate Democrats who last week blocked advancement of a stopgap spending measure passed in the House.
Democrats are seeking to negotiate bipartisan legislation that includes an extension of subsidies under the Affordable Care Act (ACA), better known as Obamacare, which are set to expire at the end of the year. Legislation introduced earlier this month by House and Senate Democratic leaders offered a short-term fix for keeping the government running while permanently extending ACA subsidies, reversing Medicaid cuts in the One Big Beautiful Bill Act signed by Trump on July 4, lifting the freeze on foreign aid, and restoring funding for public broadcasting.
"The president and Republican congressional leaders are doing nothing to address a looming, massive healthcare cost spike for more than 20 million people," Sharon Parrott, president of the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities (CBPP), said in a statement Friday. According to CBPP, that' roughly the number of Americans who will be affected if the ACA's premium tax credits are allowed to expire at the end of this year, which they will absent congressional action.
"This is how dictators and comic book archvillains behave."
Taking aim at the measure proposed by GOP lawmakers that would keep the government running through November 21, Parrot—who decried the mass firing threat as "blatant extortion"—said that "Republicans are claiming their short-term continuing resolution is business as usual, but nothing about this moment is normal."
Lawmakers introduced two dueling continuing resolutions earlier this month; both measures failed to pass. Congress must pass any continuing resolution by October 1, the start of the new fiscal year, to prevent a shutdown.
“The Trump administration is threatening to inflict massive harm on all of us unless Democrats in Congress surrender in the funding fight," said Lisa Gilbert, co-president of the consumer advocacy group Public Citizen. "A temporary lapse in funding does not provide grounds for an agency to fire federal workers indiscriminately—and really, this is just a threat to harm the public if Republicans don’t get their way."
“This whole saga demonstrates exactly who is to blame for a shutdown: Trump and Republicans in Congress," Gilbert added. "Instead of negotiating a funding deal in good faith like every White House and Congress in history has managed to do, Trump and Republicans are threatening the American people with ruin if they don’t get their way."
"This is how dictators and comic book archvillains behave," she said. "Congress must not back down in the face of this reprehensible and un-American threat against all of us.”
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) faced intense criticism in March for leading a small group of Democrats who helped end the last such standoff. At the time, he warned that a shutdown would be a "gift" allowing Republicans "to destroy vital government services at a significantly faster rate than they can right now.”
The evisceration of federal agencies—as pursued by the Trump administration and its so-called Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE)—is a main objective of the far-right blueprint for a government overhaul known as Project 2025, whose executive policy section was authored by Vought.
Parrott noted that this time around, Republicans "have so far refused bipartisan negotiations to prevent families across the country already struggling to afford healthcare and other basics from taking this hit. Indeed, they have rejected bipartisan discussions on anything related to year-end spending bills, even as they need bipartisan support in the Senate to pass short- or long-term funding bills."
"Congressional Republicans and the president need to come to the table with Democrats to reach a deal that prevents healthcare cost spikes for millions of people and ensures the administration can’t unilaterally or illegally undo parts of bipartisan funding laws simply because the president dislikes them," Parrott added.
New polling published Wednesday by Impact Research shows that 72% of respondents want Congress to extend the healthcare tax credits, with 44% calling the issue "very important." More than half of those polled said that lowering the cost of monthly health insurance premiums would provide the biggest relief to their monthly expenses.
“This latest polling clearly shows that Americans are demanding lower costs and affordable healthcare, yet Republicans in Congress continue to ignore them in favor of millionaires and billionaires,” Unrig Our Economy campaign director Leor Tal said in a statement.
“Congressional Republicans would rather risk a government shutdown than reverse course and preserve healthcare tax credits millions rely on," Tal added. "We need our leaders to focus on lowering healthcare costs, not enriching the ultrawealthy.”
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Texas Republicans Advance Trump-Backed Plan 'to Rig Our Elections'
"Republican lawmakers in Texas should be ashamed," said one campaigner. "They are to blame for the gerrymandering arms race that we will now see across the country."
Aug 20, 2025
The GOP-controlled Texas House of Representatives voted Wednesday in favor of a plan pushed by US President Donald Trump to redraw the state's congressional map to create five new Republican districts ahead of next year's midterm elections.
Following seven hours of debate, Texas state lawmakers voted 88-52 to approve a rare mid-decade gerrymandering—redistricting typically occurs after the decennial census—urged by Trump as Republicans cling to just a three-vote margin of power in the US House of Representatives.
While the Republican Party of Texas hailed the House's approval what it called the "Big, Beautiful Map," the Texas Democratic Party lamented that, "at Trump's request, Texas Republicans voted to rig our elections."
"These maps drag us back to the 1950s, stripping minority communities of fair representation. Authoritarianism is here—and we're going to keep fighting like hell for our state and country," the party added.
Wednesday's vote followed a standoff between Texas Democrats who fled the state for two weeks to thwart a vote on the measure and their Republican colleagues, whose congressional allies asked the Federal Bureau of Investigation to help track down the absconding Democrats and force them back to Austin.
Such an outcome was avoided when the Democratic lawmakers returned to Texas of their own volition. However, the drama didn't end there, as House Speaker Dustin Burrows (R-83) informed the returning Democrats that they could not leave the Texas Capitol building without a law enforcement escort. On Monday, Rep. Nicole Collier (D-95)—who was forced to sleep in the Capitol—filed a lawsuit challenging the Legislature's authority to place lawmakers under police surveillance.
Democracy defenders decried Wednesday's vote, which sends the gerrymandering plan to the state Senate, where it is expected to pass during a Thursday evening session.
"Let's be clear: Today's vote on new congressional maps is nothing more than Texas Republicans openly colluding with President Trump to strip everyday Texans of their voice and representation in government and ensure political gain in the 2026 midterm elections," Taifa Smith Butler, president of the pro-democracy group Dēmos Action, said in a statement.
"Their extreme, divisive, and unprecedented actions have no place in our democracy and should be condemned by all," Smith Butler asserted. "These tactics, likely to spark copycat actions all around the country, should be called out and exposed for the malfeasance, corruption, and theft of the people's choice that they are."
Brett Edkins, managing director of policy and political affairs at Stand Up America, said the Texas GOP plan "isn't about fair representation, it's about entrenching Republican control for a generation and silencing Texans of color."
"It's a blatant attempt by Donald Trump, [Texas Gov. Greg] Abbott, and congressional Republicans to dodge accountability in the midterms for the fallout of their billionaire tax handouts paid for by cuts to Medicaid and other programs Texans rely on," he continued.
"Republican lawmakers in Texas should be ashamed," Edkins added. "They are to blame for the gerrymandering arms race that we will now see across the country."
Lisa Gilbert, co-president of the consumer advocacy group Public Citizen, said: "The Trump gerrymander push is authoritarian, anti-democratic, and yet another tell of a wannabe dictator. We watch Texas today with the clear understanding that this is not an isolated push, but the beginning of a national power grab across multiple states to try and impact the 2026 midterm."
"The immediate impacts in Texas—depriving voters of fair representation, and the disparate impact on voters of color, as districts with majority or large populations of voters of color are broken up—will be mirrored throughout the nation," Gilbert added. "We cannot allow this to proceed. And if needed, California and other states must make offsetting gerrymanders of their own."
Republicans are also weighing plans for congressional redistricting in other states—including Florida, Indiana, Missouri, and Ohio—ahead of next year's midterm elections.
Governors and lawmakers in some Democrat-controlled states have vowed to respond in kind, with New York Gov. Kathy Hochul saying earlier this month that members of her party should "fight fire with fire." The office of California Gov. Gavin Newsom also announced last week that it would proceed with plans for retaliatory redistricting, starting with a special November ballot initiative.
Dēmos Action's Smith Butler also took aim at Republicans' treatment of Collier.
"It is nothing short of a disgrace that Republicans would escalate their reprehensible, anti-democratic actions even further by confining [Collier] in the Capitol," she wrote. "They are weaponizing law enforcement to silence and intimidate Collier, a Black woman leader fighting for her constituents, namely Black and brown voters whose political power is being erased."
"This is not just about intimidating or attacking one legislator; it is a blatant effort to curb Black political power, dismantle democracy, and silence every Texan who believes in justice," Smith Butler added. "Texas Republicans are pushing an extreme mid-decade redistricting that would entrench power at the expense of Black and Latino voters. We must defend Rep. Collier and her constituents, and reject these racist, authoritarian tactics."
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