No Kings/Love America Rally

Seven million Americans rallied across the country on Saturday to declare “No Kings” for a second time. A reference to Trump ruling lawlessly by executive order since January.

Under the Constitution the president only has two minor powers. He does not legally get to send masked thugs to kidnap and deport people without a hearing. Nor to declare protesters a “domestic terrorist organization.” No power to hire and fire civil servants or withhold money that Congress has appropriated. No power to impose tariffs. Trump can only act like a lawless tyrant if the people allow it.

My YouTube video of the Santa Barbara march runs 27 minutes of people filling the street curb to curb.

Congress Member Salud Carbajal emphasized Trump’s attempt to steal the 2026 Congressional election by getting Texas to gerrymander their voting districts. His message: We all need to vote NOW for Proposition 50 to fight back here in California.

Assembly Member Gregg Hart repeated that message and added the urgency of the situation: That Trump has weaponized every branch of government to carry out his personal vindictive plans.

Immigrant rights advocates Julissa Peña and Primitiva Hernandez spoke about the terror that the Trump Administration has created for our fellow Americans without documentation. Many of these Americans have lived here for decades with no path to documentation.

They emphasized that the terror Trump’s masked ICE agents are creating in our community extends to everyone, even citizens. Trump has openly talked of deporting citizens who challenge him.

Jenna Tosh of Planned Parenthood explained how Trump’s attacks on Planned Parenthood are actually attacks against health care for poor women in our community.

The final speaker was a researcher at UCSB explaining how Trump’s attacks on scientific research are aiding our global competitors like China.

Trump is terrified of this massive show of dissent. So his administration preemptively put out disinformation, claiming that the entire event is a “Hate America” rally. Which led to many signs of love for America and many American flags on display.

Trump issued an executive order declaring “antifa” to be a domestic terrorist organization. But there is no such official designation as a “domestic terrorist organization.” And there is no such organization as “antifa.” “Antifa” is just short for “anti-fascist.” My father’s uncles landed on the beach in Normandy to fight fascism in 1944. They were “antifa.” Is Trump next going to declare veganism a “domestic terrorist organization”?

I was blown away by all of the creative and fun inflatable characters at the rally. This started in Portland as a fun way to diffuse the vicious attacks by Trump on their laid-back city. The attacks even included tear gassing one of the peaceful protesters in an inflatable frog outfit.

We had frogs, space aliens and sharks. A raccoon, a unicorn, an axolotl. An inflatable king of the dinosaurs, T-rex urged us to “Make Kings Prehistoric”!

I recognized friends who are not usually political, who turned out to protest the current dire situation.