( Reasoning together with Mitchell Zimmerman ) – It is abundantly clear that Donald Trump is fully engaged in a program to dismantle American constitutional democracy and enthrone an authoritarian regime festering in a cult of personality.
What are we going to do about it? Waiting for the next elections is not enough. Hoping the opposition party unseats the MAGA regime is not enough. Complaining to your friends is not enough. Avoiding the news out of sheer exhaustion is certainly not enough.
We must protect our democracy by facing the danger and fighting back. We need to broadcast our outrage – peacefully – on the streets. Where to go? See: www.nokings.org.
Are things really this bad? Put the pieces of Trump’s take-over campaign together. We see the assertion of personal power over every institution and aspect of the nation’s life.
This is more than a collection of bad policies and malicious deeds. It is a scheme to aggrandize power in the hands of one man.
Here is Trump’s effort to consolidate lawless, unbounded power:
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He pardoned every one of the violent insurrectionists who attacked the police and our Capitol on January 6, 2021, in his failed effort to overturn the 2020 election – encouraging MAGA supporters to engage in political violence on his behalf.
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He transformed the formerly-independent Justice Department into a revenge squad to persecute those who attempted to investigate or prosecute Trump’s own crimes.
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He conjures “emergencies” at every turn to assert powers that our Constitution denies him.
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He turned ICE into a secret, militarized police force that brutalizes law-abiding immigrants, murders American citizens, jails children, and violates fundamental constitutional rights.
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He has sent National Guard troops to occupy American cities.
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He has subjugated private and public universities and public schools, censored their curriculums in order to erase the role of non-white peoples in America.
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He has attacked independent media and newspapers as “enemies of the people,” and used the government’s regulatory power to intimidate major news outlets.
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He has attacked and threatened private companies that seek to provide fair opportunities for groups previously excluded by bias.
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He has defied courts and vilified judges in personal attacks calculated to generate death threats in order to destroy judicial independence.
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He has illegally demolished or neutered government agencies established by Congress.
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He has targeted blue states for denial of federal grants and services.
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He has tried to suppress voting by groups who oppose his agenda and he promotes radical gerrymandering.
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He has devised imaginary threats, fictitious crime waves, a supposed “invasion” by asylum seekers, and a conspiratorial “plot” to replace white Americans in order to justify grasping yet more power.
This is more than a collection of bad policies and malicious deeds. It is a scheme to aggrandize power in the hands of one man, to hollow out our democratic freedoms, to end our constitutional republic and establish a de facto dictatorship.
Donald Trump keeps suggesting that – in light of his achievements and despite the unambiguous language of the Twenty-Second Amendment – it would only be fair for him to have a third term as president.
Could a terrorist outrage or a fabricated emergency provide the excuse for postponing a coming election or for federal “supervision” of voting in key cities and states? Even if Trump does not himself try to remain on the stage beyond 2028, he is shaping an autocratic, democracy-proof national government for other MAGA leaders (perhaps one of his sons?) to step into.
It is time to say No.
In June 2025, five million Americans attended peaceful “No Kings Day” protests against Trump and Trumpism. In October 2025, attendance at the second No Kings demonstrations reached seven million.
Tomorrow, Saturday, March 28, still more Americans will take to the streets, peacefully, loudly, with creative, angry and amusing signs, to confirm that we remain a free nation and that autocracy can and will be stopped. Join us!
Many Americans seem to regard protest as, well, a weirdo activity. But nothing is more American than exercising “the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances,” as the First Amendment provides.
We’ve got grievances aplenty. Now is the time to do more than grouse to our friends, coworkers and relatives and wait for the next election.
People in the streets matter and get results! They mattered when African-American citizens fought and overcame segregation, disenfranchisement and the denial of fundamental human rights. They mattered when women fought for voting rights. They mattered when workers forced bosses to recognize and negotiate with unions, which created the higher living standards that made the American middle class. They mattered when young people then millions of others said No to the endless war against Vietnam.
They mattered when hundreds of thousands of Minnesotans stood up to Trump’s ICE thugs, supported immigrants in fear of government brutality, and eventually forced ICE to back down.
“No Kings” Demonstration, Ypsilanti, Michigan, October 18, 2025. ©️ Juan Cole
If you join us you will become another voice in the medley of Americans exercising the freedoms we have fought so long to preserve. Kindred spirits will upraise yours. You’ll smile. You will be the ones drivers are honking to support.
Most important, you will be sending a message to the power centers of American society that we, the people, are outraged with the direction of our government and that we will not sit quietly while our rights are expunged. They may ignore this message or jeer or belittle. But they will hear it. And as our movement continues to grow, as more and more people refuse cooperation with autocracy, we will triumph.
Where to go? Google “No Kings Day” or go to www.nokings.org to find an event near you. Use your imagination. Make a sign. Bring a friend. And get set to cheer for American democracy.
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