Trump's Response To No Kings Protests Prove He Still Has An Obsession With This One Thing
On June 14, 2025, numerous "No Kings" protests occurred the same day as the celebration of the U.S. military's 250th anniversary (and Donald Trump's birthday). On October 18, 2025, the group was back, with over 2,700 opportunities across the country for people to express their grievances. Trump thought he mocked the protestors — but ironically legitimized them — when he posted an AI-generated video of him wearing a crown while flying a plane with the words "King Trump" scrawled across it. In the clip, he flies over crowds of protestors and dumps massive amounts of feces on them. Even in his AI video, though, the crowd size was impressively large, something that was also reflected in reality, which clearly irked Trump.
"The demonstrations were very small, very ineffective. And the people were whacked out," Trump asserted during a press conference (via X, formerly Twitter). In the past, Trump has relied on scapegoats for his own dwindling crowd sizes, so saying the numbers were low is one of the biggest insults in his book. Despite the president's dismissive attitude, the actual numbers were not small. Over seven million people reportedly participated, two million more than the first time. In addition, both these numbers were vastly larger than the 200,000 people making up the crowd at Trump's June military parade.
Trump on No Kings: "I think it's a joke. I looked at the people. They are not representative of this country. And I looked at all the brand new signs I guess paid for by Soros and other radical left lunatics. It's looks like it was. We're checking it out. The demonstrations were... pic.twitter.com/o8F9DenojG
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) October 20, 2025
Trump's comments attracted some eyerolls and opportunities to poke holes in his ego. "Dude, there were more people at these protests than there were at your two inaugurations combined (and that's including your imaginary counts at the first one)," one person quipped on X. While official counts for inaugurations haven't been available since the 1990s, based on photos, Trump's 2017 inauguration crowd size was considerably smaller than some of his predecessors.
Trump may need to up the fun factor with his event planning
Despite Donald Trump's assertion that the protestors were "whacked out," many attendees at the "No Kings" events appeared to delight in dressing up in quirky, inflatable costumes, like dinosaurs and frogs. Some participants opted for famous characters, like Garfield, the Minions, and Cookie Monster. "Inflate your costumes and dance for democracy! Join the party!" encouraged Portland, Oregon's "Operation Inflation" on Instagram. This upbeat approach likely contributed to the increased crowd sizes. "Everything is so dark and kind of bleak that by making this sort of fun and funny and kind of a bit, you bring more people in," Democratic strategist Andy Barr explained to The Washington Post.
In contrast, at the president's military parade, the festivities didn't seem to be compelling enough; even some of Trump's biggest allies couldn't be bothered to show up. Months earlier, Trump dragged his own attendee numbers down when he held his second inauguration indoors. Using cold weather as an excuse, Trump encouraged people to find a big screen instead. That advice seemed to fall flat, since Trump's TV ratings were considerably lower than his 2017 swearing-in ceremony.
While Trump's political rallies have been known for just giving out pre-printed signs to attendees, many protesters showed added commitment by bringing handmade signs to the "No Kings" events. Along with the fun of getting crafty, many people added humor to their protest, like the "No Shellfish Kings" sign carried by inflatable lobsters. Maybe Trump should take note.