What’s next after the historic No Kings protest?

This article is adapted from a Choose Democracy newsletter email.

On Saturday, an estimated 7 million people poured into the streets to say it loud and clear: No Kings. (No Kings pointed out that this turnout is 14 times larger than both of Trump’s inaugurations combined.) From Anchorage to Atlanta, from tiny towns to huge city squares, the message echoed across the nation — a call back to the founders’ defiance of tyranny and forward to a people-powered democracy.

With protests in over 2,700 cities and towns, the movement continues to break further and further into Trump’s support. As Erica Chenoweth’s and colleagues’ data shows, the protests this year — even before No Kings last weekend — have been the most geographically widespread in U.S. history. 

The signs at the demonstrations were fun. “Make monarchs for butterflies, not presidents.” “I already have one boss (it’s my cat).” “We the People Means ALL the People.” And of course the many frog memes: “Ribbit. Resist. Repeat.”

We just witnessed the largest protest in U.S. history — more than 2.1 percent of the country mobilized in one day. That’s breathtaking. That’s history in motion.

And despite the threats, the fears and the rumors of chaos, the day was overwhelmingly peaceful, determined and joyful. That’s worth pausing to appreciate.

So, where do we go from here?

Here are four quick reflections on what’s next:

1. Note the growing movement — not only in protests

There has never been this many people mobilized over time and geography in the U.S. We showed the country what a massive, nonviolent protest can look like. Such actions make it easier for people to see themselves aligned with the movement, to consider other actions, and to take courage with this connective tissue we’re making.

Personally, the last weeks had me feeling scared — and being with this many people boosted my courage. I know that’s true for many. It also gives added support for the many other ways people are resisting: Chicagoans protecting neighbors with their bodies, Memphis protesters using tents to talk to people about ways to resist their National Guard deployment, nurses using their voice and actions to protect transgender patients rights, Adelita Grijalva trying to get sworn in, and many many more. (Find many more of these stories of resistance at Resist List.)

As Hardy Merriman put it recently in a podcast with The New Yorker, we are facing a leader who can wake up each morning and do something terrible. If our only yardstick is whether we can stop the next headline, we’ll be depressed daily. We have to steadily shift the landscape beneath the regime’s feet. That means we have to show greater unity, greater discipline in the face of violence (because it will grow), greater numbers and greater ability to provoke defections.

Some of these defections and loyalty shifts are already beginning to take place.

2. Defections are growing

You can already see cracks forming. Institutions and individuals are beginning to say “no” with stronger voices.

• Seven universities, including the University of Pennsylvania, University of Southern California, and University of Virginia, have publicly rejected the White House’s new “funding compact,” refusing to trade integrity for dollars. Many made a big deal when universities “buckled” earlier — but some are now finding their backbone. Recall that Brown University and the University of Pennsylvania had made a deal with Trump to restore research money. Now they have both rejected the compact, showing that even early capitulators can transform into resisters.
• En masse reporters walked out of the Pentagon press corps rather than sign loyalty oaths. This included ABC, NBC, CBS, CNN, The Associated Press, Reuters, Bloomberg News, The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Guardian, The Atlantic, Financial Times, Politico, NPR, and even conservative outlets like The Wall Street Journal, Fox News and Newsmax.
• Major airports are declining to air Kristi Noem’s propaganda videos.
• Joe Rogan, surprisingly, criticized the violence of ICE deportations in no uncertain terms. “Everybody who has a heart can’t get along with that,” he told his massive audience. “Everybody with a heart sees that and goes, ‘That can’t be right.’”
• For the first time, pushback was severe enough that a tech titan had to publicly backtrack. Over at Salesforce, CEO Marc Benioff called for the National Guard in San Francisco. Immediately, he was lambasted by rank-and-file Salesforce employees and his long-time friend and colleague Ron Conway resigned from Salesforce’s board — joining a growing tech-industry dissent. (Salesforce had offered its services to help ICE.) Benioff has now publicly apologized and says he’s changed his mind (hey, it’s a move in the right direction).
• The commander of U.S. Southern Command resigned rather than oversee attacks on civilian boats in the Caribbean. A Marine colonel recently wrote publicly — quite a feat — that he quit rather than violate his oath to the Constitution.

Defections are one of the most powerful ways to erode authoritarian control. They send a signal: the regime’s grip depends on our consent — and that consent is slipping.

Defections often start quietly and then snowball. If we stay organized and keep building moral and social pressure, expect more. Throwing sand in the gears of the system is how it slows down.

3. Expand our noncooperation toolbox

Protests capture attention, create a platform, provide cover and encouragement for defections, and give me courage. Noncooperation changes the balance of power.

As trainers at Freedom Trainers remind us, every regime relies on pillars of support — the institutions, corporations, media and civil servants that make it function. When we refuse to cooperate, those pillars start to wobble.

That can look like workers walking off the job, cities refusing unjust orders, or everyday people disrupting “business as usual.”

Previous Coverage

How the Disney boycott beat the FCC’s censorship push

We’ve seen how this plays out economically. When consumers and workers together withheld cooperation, such as the Disney boycott, it caused measurable financial pain and forced public reconsideration. A recent report from the Wall Street Journal estimated a doubling of customers leaving Disney+ and Hulu over normal months — suggesting 1.5 million customers boycotted Disney+ and 2 million Hulu over Jimmy Kimmel’s censorship. That’s the power of coordinated withdrawal.

There are also boycotts against deportation airlines Avelo and T-Mobile over its ties with Musk and removing its DEI policies — among others happening right now.

Noncooperation is people refusing to participate in their own oppression. It’s students declining to repeat loyalty pledges, artists refusing government commissions, tech workers refusing to build surveillance tools. It’s being on juries and refusing to put away activists standing up for all of us. Every act chips away at the machinery of compliance — and can lead to large mass noncooperation actions.

4. Expect violence

This weekend’s protest faced very little violence. But this country has deep roots of violence. And the media consistently struggles to name where that violence comes from. We’ve seen this dynamic dramatically in Los Angeles: a few thrown stones and it grabs headlines, while the daily violence of deportations, evictions and police abuse barely registers.

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We can hold two truths at once — that we prioritize safety and that courage, not safety, is what moves history forward. All of us will need to dig into our wellspring of courage and find what actions we are prepared to take.

For now, a good first step is to check in with your local groups. Thank your marshals, medics, artists and organizers. Hydrate and celebrate. Let’s make this a stepping off point for more. The next steps — strikes, boycotts, refusals — will need all of us.

Because what we’re doing isn’t just resisting. We’re reclaiming the democracy we always should have had from those who would rule us as kings.