President Donald Trump said he doesn’t feel like royalty when asked for his response on the “No Kings” rallies planned across the country in protest of his expansive use of executive power.
About 2,000 protests against the two-term Republican are expected to coincide with a military parade being held in Washington D.C on June 14 on the U.S. Army’s 250th anniversary and Trump’s 79th birthday. Protest organizers say Trump is “hijacking” the Army’s anniversary to “feed his ego” and celebrate himself.
“I don’t feel like a king. I have to go through hell to get stuff approved,” Trump said in response to a reporter’s question in the White House right after he signed three resolutions overturning California’s mandate to ban the sale of new gas-powered vehicles and speed up the adoption of electric vehicles by 2035.
“The king would have never had the California mandate. He wouldn’t have to call up Mike Johnson and say, ‘fellas, you have got to pull this off,’” Trump said, referring to House Speaker Mike Johnson. “And after years, we get it done. No, no, we’re not a king.”
Indivisible, a progressive group, alongside a coalition of partner organizations, said it’s holding the events to “reject authoritarianism and show the world what democracy actually looks like: people, united, refusing to be ruled.”
The parade along the National Mall is set to feature thousands of police officers and security measures including metal detectors, anti-scale fencing, concrete barriers and drones overhead surveilling the crowd.
It also comes as Trump and California Gov. Gavin Newsom are locked in a standoff over the use of the National Guard and the U.S. military to help quell protests that have sprung up in Los Angeles against the Immigration and Customs Enforcement sweeps carried out at the president’s direction.
There will be no planned “No Kings” protests for Washington D.C. Organizers said they intentionally avoided having a protest in the capital to avoid being cast as “anti-veteran.”
The largest protest is instead scheduled for noon ET in Philadelphia, where the Second Continental Congress adopted the Declaration of Independence on July 4, 1776.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: ‘I don’t feel like a king’ says Trump
