This Saturday, thousands across the U.S. are expected to take part in the “No Kings” protests—a national day of action against what demonstrators view as authoritarian overreach and a growing concentration of power in the executive branch.
The protests coincide with a massive military parade in Washington, D.C., marking the U.S. Army’s 250th anniversary and President Donald Trump’s 79th birthday. This comes as a recent AP-NORC poll shows some feel the parade, which Army officials say could cost as much as $45 million, is not a good use of funds. In a video highlighting the upcoming demonstrations, organizers claimed the parade portrays President Trump to be “acting like a ‘wannabe’ king.”
Those same organizers say their message is simple: America was founded on the rejection of monarchy, and the traditions of democracy must be defended. Some key issues in their stance include aggressive immigration enforcement, the militarization of Los Angeles, and federal job cuts from recent executive orders.
On the contrary, President Trump and his supporters have dismissed these criticisms, arguing that he is simply fighting a corrupt establishment and using the tools available to him as an elected leader. They claim the accusations are politically motivated and meant to distract from policy issues. The President himself recently stated, “I don’t feel like a king. I have to go through hell to get stuff approved.”
The last reigning king of America
Some signs and chants at the upcoming protests are expected to reference King George III of Great Britain, the last king to rule over the American colonies. As history shows, his reign ended during the American Revolution in 1776 when he was cast as a symbol of tyranny. The Declaration of Independence listed his offenses, which included imposing taxes without consent, dissolving representative bodies and obstructing justice.
Though a constitutional monarch in Britain, to the colonists King George III represented absolute control and colonial oppression. The Declaration of Independence marked the birth of the U.S. as a republic but also a bold rejection of monarchy and hereditary power. In the years following the war, the framers of the U.S. Constitution deliberately built a system designed to prevent the rise of another king.
In fact, in 1782, when some proposed making General George Washington the new nation’s monarch, he firmly declined, as noted in the National Archives. Instead, he chose to serve under the principles of republic government. His decision helped set a standard: power in America would derive from the people, not a throne.
Fast forward nearly 250 years, and that founding principle is once again in the spotlight, though backtracking to monarchy seems unlikely.
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