Over the weekend, nearly 7 million people around the U.S. took to the streets to protestPresidentTrump’s regime. This was the second round of No Kings rallies (the first took place in June) and according to organizers, nearly 2,600 events were scheduledacross all 50 states. But that given Trump is not one to let peaceful protests against him happen, on Saturday he posted to Truth Social an AI-generated video of himself wearing a crown in a fighter jet labeled “King Trump,” and dropping shit—literal shit—on Americans at the protests.
Notably, ahead of the protest, Team Trump had already been throwing a fit, calling it the “hate America” rally: House Speaker Mike Johnsonsaid it would attract an “antifa,” “pro-Hamas” crowd of “Marxists”; Rep. Steve Scalise (R-La.) suggested it’s why Democrats want to “keep” the government shutdown; and Rep Tom. Emmer (R-Minn.) suggested it was organized by terrorists.
In a Fox News interview that was recorded before the demonstrations, Trump claimed he’s “not a king,” and speaking to reporters aboard Air Force One on Sunday, he said “I work my ass off to make our country great. That’s all it is.” But posts speak louder than words, and the Truth Social video—along with a monarchy-curious tweet from a Trump-affiliated account and a video introducing the White House‘s new BlueSky account—shows that Trump very much believes in the divine right of presidents.
Given Trump surprises us daily with how much crap he’s capable of dropping, it’s not really a shock that his dream response to people protesting ICE raids, budget cuts, and vaccine rollbacks is to launch literal feces at them. We’re just 273 days into the president’s second term, we’ve got 1188 left to go, and already the clean-up is promising to be messy. Trump has already soft-launched his desire to have a third term in office; as Harvard professor and authoritarianism expert Steven Levitsky suggested: “We are no longer living in a democratic regime.”
More barf-worthy news:
During No Kings protests, Vice President JD Vance attended a military demonstration and gave a speech blaming the ongoing government shutdown on Democrats. [New York Times]
Stephen Miller and Katie Miller announced they’re selling their home. It’s definitely not because protesters are bullying them with sidewalk chalk messaging, OK??? [Independent]
The Department of Homeland Security bought two new private jets for Kristi Noem to misuse. [Forbes]
The Trump administration blew up boats off the Venezuelan coast (again), and claimed it’s because the vessels were carrying drugs (again). Anonymous officials said otherwise. [Washington Post]