By S.A. McCarthy

The past weekend saw a series of protests crop up around the U.S. Most protestors — notably those participating in “No Kings” events — targeted President Donald Trump and his administration, but other conservatives and Christians also became the center of attention.

Over 500 “No Kings” demonstrations were scheduled Saturday in cities across the U.S., although reports suggest that fewer events — sparsely attended and peopled largely by the elderly — actually occurred. Protestors vilified the incumbent president as an authoritarian, a dictator, and a “king.” Numerous events featured Democratic and progressive figures as speakers or protestors, including Senators Angela Alsobrooks (D-Md.), Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), Cory Booker (D-N.J.), Ed Markey (D-Mass.), Chris Murphy (D-Conn.), Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.), Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), and Peter Welch (D-Vt.), as well as Reps. Katherine Clark (D-Mass.), Ayanna Pressley (D-Mass.), Seth Moulton (D-Mass.), and Adam Schiff (D-Calif.). State and local leaders such as Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker (D), Connecticut Lieutenant Governor Susan Bysiewicz (D), and Mayors Brandon Johnson (D) of Chicago and Michelle Wu (D) of Boston also attended the protests.

Following the assassination of Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk and the leaked text messages of Democratic nominee for Attorney General of Virginia Jay Jones fantasizing about killing a Republican opponent and his children, political violence became a concern ahead of the planned rallies. Trump administration Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy argued that the “No Kings” protests are “part of Antifa,” a radical left-wing militant network formally designated as a terrorist organization by the president. Speaker of the House Mike Johnson also linked the protests to Antifa, saying in an interview, “It’s all the pro-Hamas wing and the Antifa people, they’re all coming out.” He called the events a “Hate America rally” and suggested that Democrats are waiting until after the rallies to broker a deal with Republicans to end the government shutdown “because they can’t face their rabid base.”

Republican Governors Greg Abbott (Texas) and Glenn Youngkin (Va.) both mobilized their state National Guards ahead of the planned protests to address any potential political violence. Numerous arrests were made in connection with the rallies on charges ranging from disobeying lawful orders to resisting arrest, assault, possession of weapons, and even firing missiles at police. Arrests were made in Denver, Los Angeles, and New York City, among other locations.

In one instance, individuals affiliated with the “No Kings” events vandalized the Community Bible Church (CBC) in San Antonio, Texas, spray painting slogans such as, “Jesus wants Trump gone!” Pastor Ed Newton responded to the vandalism in a social post, writing, “Let’s be real clear. Jesus is King. Like Period. Jesus is King. But the Scripture is real clear 1 Timothy 2:1-2 calls those of faith to pray for all forms of government leadership.” He continued, “To spew evil, spray paint this on our church, in a form of hate, causes me to question the very belief system of who participate, condone, and not condemn this kind of hate language and ideology.” Newton added, “Can I tell you what ‘Jesus wants you to do?’ Not to spray paint His church. Not to vandalize, break laws, and honor the God you claim.”

The “No Kings” website calls on protestors to espouse “a commitment to nonviolent action. We expect all participants to seek to de-escalate any potential confrontation with those who disagree with our values and to act lawfully at these events.” However, a number of protestors touted violent left-wing rhetoric. Numerous signs and slogans used by protestors repeatedly compared the Trump administration and Republican voters to Nazis, while others featured violent imagery such as guns and crosshairs and the slogan “86 47,” often interpreted as a call to assassinate the 47th president.

Other protestors lauded political violence, including the assassination of Charlie Kirk last month, according to The Daily Signal. One protestor interrupted Daily Signal intern Angelina Delfin, who was interviewing event attendees, to declare, “Charlie Kirk is a piece of garbage. Of course we were mean. I am so tired of people saying, ‘Oh, but you know, it’s a terrible thing.’ No, Hitler is dead. I’m glad Hitler is dead.”

Another protestor, at an event in Chicago, was filmed waving a Mexican flag and mocking Kirk’s death, repeatedly making a “finger-gun” gesture against her own throat and pretending to be shot. The woman was later identified as a Chicago elementary school teacher named Lucy Martinez. She has since been fired. Referring to the multiple assassination attempts against Trump, one protestor carried a sign depicting a crosshairs over the president’s face, accompanied by the words, “WANTED: BETTER SNIPERS.” At a “No Kings” event in Maine, a protestor said that her birthday wish was to wake up and read Trump’s obituary. “You’re wishing that President Trump is dead?” a reporter asked her. “Yes. Absolutely,” she replied.

Another protestor, in Seattle, told a reporter that he would like to assassinate White House Deputy Chief of Staff for Policy Stephen Miller, the architect of much of the Trump administration’s immigration agenda. The protestor said he wanted to “kill Nazis.” When asked who he saw as a Nazi, he named Miller. “You’re going to kill Stephen Miller?” reporter Brandi Cruz asked. “If I had the chance, yeah, I would,” the man replied. Another protestor added that assassinating Miller would be “justifiable.”

Another man, at a “No Kings” rally in Chicago, encouraged attendees to shoot U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents. “You gotta grab a gun, we gotta turn around the guns on this fascist system. These ICE agents gotta get shot and wiped out,” he insisted. “The same machinery that’s on full display right there has to get wiped out.” The comments follow a series of riots at ICE detention centers in the Chicago and Portland areas, as well as a sniper attack on an ICE facility in Dallas.

In comments to The Washington Stand, Angelina Delfin shared her experience on the ground at the protest in Washington, D.C. “I think it’s extremely hypocritical that the Left is supposed to be a party of tolerance and is supposedly on the side of minorities. And I am half Mexican. My father’s white, my mother’s Mexican-American, and yet I was in fear going to this protest knowing that even though I am a minority, they would have treated me terribly if they had known my views,” she recounted. “And you can even see it in the interviews I was doing with that first woman in the clip that kind of went viral, is that I was pretending to agree with her so that she would show me her true colors, because the moment you disagree, even if you are a minority and the supposed oppressed group, you are not allowed to truly say what you believe.”

“I definitely would’ve felt in fear if it wasn’t just a bunch of old people at this protest. It was mainly old white people, which I don’t have a problem with, but again, I just think it’s hilarious that they say that they’re the party for minorities,” Delfin shared. She added that she and her colleagues at The Daily Signal prayed together before heading to the protest, asking God to keep them safe. “That’s just the fact of the matter. If we had been more forthcoming about our views, if we had challenged them more, we definitely would’ve had to feel threatened.”

“I think my generation — you know, I’m 21 years old — my generation is waking up to that, that there is an attack not on people who are black or white or Mexican or whatever, it’s an attack against the Right from the Left,” Delfin observed. “It’s an attack on anybody who doesn’t have these outrageous views, anybody who doesn’t think a man can be a woman, anybody who doesn’t think you should be able to kill your nine-month-old baby in the womb, anybody who doesn’t think that we should just allow millions of illegal immigrants across our border, that is who they’re attacking, and they’re even calling us Hitler. They think we’re all Hitler.”

Although the “No Kings” protests are billed as grassroots events, a report from Fox News has found that left-wing billionaire activists like George Soros are behind funding the rallies. Political organizations like Indivisible and pro-Hamas groups have received millions of dollars in funding from Soros and his Open Society Foundations. Many of those organization are also involved in planning and funding the “No Kings” events.

For his part, Trump responded to the protests with humor. “I looked at the people. They’re not representative of this country, and I looked at all the brand new signs paid for. I guess it was paid for by Soros and other radical left lunatics,” he said to reporters. “The demonstrations were very small, very ineffective and the people were whacked out. When you look at those people, those are not representative of the people of our country,” he added. “I’m not a king. I work my ass off to make our country great. That’s all it is. I’m not a king at all.”

Trump was not the only target for leftist protestors, however. A crowd of demonstrators gathered outside Calvary Chapel Chino Hills in California Friday and Saturday, protesting Family Research Council’s Pray Vote Stand Summit. Protestors chanted, “No fear, no hate. Facism out of our state,” and carried signs denouncing the Trump administration, according to local news outlets. Jim Gallagher, a member of the Chino Valley Democratic Club, told reporters, “We think this is fascism. We don’t want them here — but we are here, having a peaceful, nonviolent representation of our First Amendment rights.” The progressive protestors were soon met by counter protestors. Ahead of the event, the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) smeared FRC as a “hate group” and the Pray Vote Stand Summit as a means of “using tax-exempt church resources to influence politics…”

In comments shared with The Washington Stand, FRC President Tony Perkins recalled watching the protests on Saturday. “The scene told a story: on one corner stood Antifa, the ‘No Kings’ crowd, and pro-Palestinian demonstrators; across from them, the Proud Boys; on another corner, sheriff’s deputies in riot gear; and finally — [Christians] — declaring that Jesus is King.” Perkins continued, “I told Pastor Jack [Hibbs] that what we had just witnessed was a visible manifestation of the spiritual battle raging all around us. There’s no question we are in the midst of an epic spiritual struggle. Yet God has placed us here — at this precise moment — to lift high the guidon of truth: His Word and His Way.”

S.A. McCarthy serves as a news writer at The Washington Stand.