{"id":168492,"date":"2025-10-18T11:21:47","date_gmt":"2025-10-18T11:21:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/no-kings-organizers-concerned-about-protests-but-courage-is-contagious-usa-today\/"},"modified":"2025-10-18T11:21:47","modified_gmt":"2025-10-18T11:21:47","slug":"no-kings-organizers-concerned-about-protests-but-courage-is-contagious-usa-today","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/no-kings-organizers-concerned-about-protests-but-courage-is-contagious-usa-today\/","title":{"rendered":"'No Kings' organizers concerned about protests. But 'courage is contagious.' – USA Today"},"content":{"rendered":"

Ahead of the nationwide \u201cNo Kings\u201d protests against President Donald Trump<\/a>\u2019s administration, several civil rights and protest groups say they\u2019re both eager to demonstrate widespread opposition to Trump\u2019s agenda and concerned about potential retaliation.\u00a0\u00a0
Organizers predict the Oct. 18 rallies<\/a> could become the \u201clargest peaceful protest in modern American history,\u201d according to Indivisible co-Executive Director Leah Greenberg<\/a>.\u00a0
Indivisible is among the groups supporting<\/a> more than 2,500 rallies around the country. Others include the American Civil Liberties Union, the Freedom From Religion Foundation, the Human Rights Campaign and Planned Parenthood. \u00a0
“This is the American people standing up and saying no, we’re going to live in a democracy,” said Deirdre Schifeling<\/a>, the ACLU\u2019s chief political and advocacy officer.\u00a0\u00a0“We don’t have a king, we don’t want a king, and we’ll use our First Amendment rights to free speech to protest.”
More than 5 million people participated in \u201cNo Kings\u201d rallies in June, according to the ACLU<\/a>.\u00a0
But there have been numerous developments with free speech and executive action since then.\u00a0
Organizers referenced Trump\u2019s efforts to deploy National Guard troops<\/a> in a handful of Democratic-led cities.\u00a0
There was also Charlie Kirk\u2019s assassination, which prompted a national debate over the limits of free speech after scores of professionals were fired or otherwise punished<\/a> for social media posts about Kirk<\/a>.\u00a0
Hundreds of organizations signed an open letter<\/a> criticizing what they described as the administration\u2019s retaliation against them<\/a> following Kirk\u2019s death, saying the \u201cvast powers of government should not be abused to threaten their constitutionally-protected free speech and other rights.\u201d\u00a0
Only 7% of respondents in a nationwide ACLU survey conducted in late September<\/a> said they felt that free speech is \u201ccompletely secure\u201d in the United States.\u00a0
Republican leaders are pushing back.
White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller condemned what he called a \u201clarge and growing movement of leftwing terrorism in this country\u201d in an Oct. 4 X post<\/a>.\u00a0\u00a0
\u201cThe only remedy is to use legitimate state power to dismantle terrorism and terror networks,\u201d he wrote.\u00a0
Members of Trump’s administration, as well as Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson<\/a>, have also blamed \u201cNo Kings\u201d for the ongoing government shutdown<\/a>.\u00a0\u00a0
White House spokeswoman Abigail Jackson told USA TODAY the administration is \u201cfocused on stopping the scourge of left-wing violence plaguing American communities.\u201d\u00a0
\u201cLeft-wing protestors can beclown themselves by lawfully protesting the alternate reality they live in, but violence or breaking the law will not be tolerated,\u201d Jackson said.\u00a0
The organizers have been adamant that the rallies remain peaceful. The ACLU has trained<\/a> \u201cthousands and thousands\u201d of people on de-escalation tactics and vetted the thousands of event hosts. \u00a0
Still, some are anxious heading into the protests.
There\u2019s been a \u201cwhole mix of emotions\u201d among protest organizers and participants in the days leading up to \u201cNo Kings,\u201d said Hunter Dunn<\/a>, a spokesperson for 50501 SoCal, one of the organizers.\u00a0
There\u2019s hope and fear, excitement and nerves. But there\u2019s also \u201ca lot of joy,\u201d he added, pointing to a recent trend of protesters wearing inflatable animal costumes<\/a>.\u00a0\u00a0
Public Citizen co-President Robert Weissman<\/a> said involved organizations \u201chave to be, unfortunately, mindful of threats of investigation and persecution for our views, not for our actions.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0
He added, though, that \u201cwe have no intention of being intimidated.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0
Security at the protests is a \u201ctop concern,\u201d the ACLU’s Schifeling said.
\u201cNot because we think these protests are going to be dangerous,\u201d she said. \u201cQuite to the contrary \u2013 we think they\u2019re going to be peaceful, they\u2019re going to be beautiful.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0
At the same time, there may be \u201ctense\u201d moments \u2013 particularly in cities with a National Guard and federal law enforcement presence,<\/a> Mississippi College School of Law Professor Franklin Rosenblatt<\/a> said.\u00a0\u00a0
But if all sides understand and abide by their rights \u2013 and the limits of those rights \u2013 then protesters are simply doing the \u201cultimate patriotic duty of sharing their views and agitating for needed change,\u201d he said.\u00a0
NAACP spokesperson Dominik Whitehead<\/a> said his organization\u2019s 116-year history<\/a> and experience makes them \u201cprepared for this moment.\u201d\u00a0
\u201cThe concern does not stop us from the fight,\u201d Whitehead said. \u201cWe are going to rise to the occasion.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0
Among organizers’ goals of \u201cNo Kings\u201d are to demonstrate mass opposition, challenging Trump\u2019s claim of having a \u201cmandate\u201d from Americans<\/a> for his actions, and building community among dissenters.\u00a0
A big part of that is media coverage, they said. \u00a0
Seeing millions of people protesting \u201ccan reveal a lot to people who aren\u2019t plugged in,\u201d Dunn said.\u00a0\u00a0
It’s also \u201cvery displeasing\u201d to the administration, Rosenblatt said. \u00a0
The rallies also offer opportunities for participants to connect with local organizations to continue taking action after Oct. 18, organizers said. Further, they said mass actions make people feel safer and more confident in dissenting from the administration, despite any concerns about how the administration will respond to the movement. \u00a0
\u201cMy experience has been that courage is contagious,\u201d Schifeling said.\u00a0
BrieAnna Frank is a First Amendment reporter at USA TODAY. Reach her at\u00a0bjfrank@usatoday.com<\/a><\/em>.
USA TODAY’s coverage of First Amendment issues is funded through a collaboration between the Freedom Forum and Journalism Funding Partners.<\/em>\u00a0Funders do not provide editorial input.<\/em><\/p>\n

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Ahead of the nationwide \u201cNo Kings\u201d protests against President Donald Trump\u2019s administration, several civil rights and protest groups say they\u2019re both eager to demonstrate widespread opposition to Trump\u2019s agenda and concerned about potential retaliation.\u00a0\u00a0Organizers predict the Oct. 18 rallies could become the \u201clargest peaceful protest in modern American history,\u201d according to Indivisible co-Executive Director Leah […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":168493,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-168492","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-us","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/168492","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=168492"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/168492\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/168493"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=168492"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=168492"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=168492"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}