While around 1,800 protests are set to coincide with President Donald Trump’s military parade in Washington, D.C. on Saturday, June 14, there is notably none planned in the U.S. capital.
The day-long festival and parade will celebrate the U.S. Army’s 250th anniversary with music performances, fireworks and more Saturday, which is also simultaneously Flag Day and the president’s 79th birthday.
Yet outside the city, numerous rallies will oppose what critics are calling Trump’s power grab in a movement known as “No Kings Day.” One of the organizers Ezra Levin, who co-founded the Indivisible grassroots movement, said the Saturday protests are meant to prevent Trump from placing himself front and center of a patriotic celebration.
“A spectacle meant to look like strength. But real power isn’t staged in Washington. It rises up everywhere else,” the “No Kings” website reads. “Instead of allowing this birthday parade to be the center of gravity, we will make action everywhere else the story of America that day: people coming together in communities across the country to reject strongman politics and corruption.”
Levin explained that organizers opted out of protesting in Washington to avoid the narrative that they are anti-veteran. He added that the goal was to “actually make this about the American people and the democracy we’re defending.”
“We made that choice to not feed into any narrative that Trump might want that we’re counterprotesting him directly or give him the opportunity to crack down on protesters,” he said.
Why are there protests?
“No Kings” protests are meant to reclaim the American flag and U.S. patriotism from the Republican Party as well as to condemn what organizers are calling Trump’s recent “authoritarian” actions.
“Two hundred and fifty years ago, the Continental Army was formed to fight back against a king, and there is an opportunity right now for Americans to come out and say: ‘No, wait, this isn’t what America stands for. We didn’t sign up for this guy to concentrate power in his own hands, to come after the pillars of political democracy,'” Levin said.
Where will ‘No Kings’ protests be instead?
“No Kings” protests are scheduled across U.S. 1,800 communities outside D.C.
The largest protest is expected to be in Philadelphia, where the Second Continental Congress signed the Declaration of Independence in 1776.
The movement shared an interactive map of “No Kings” protest locations on Saturday, June 14, revealing the exact location and timeframe for each rally.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Why isn’t there a ‘No Kings Day’ Trump protest in DC?
