Trump and Johnson Are Melting Down Over The Success of “No Kings”

The president had an odd response to the Saturday “No Kings” protests.Alex Brandon/AP

Saturday’s “No Kings” protests were, as my colleagues chronicled^[2], about as wholesome as you could imagine.

There were inflatable animals^[3]. There were American flags galore^[4]. Even the New York Police Department admitted^[5] that the 100,000 protesters were peaceful and that cops made no arrests; police in Washington, DC^[6] and Austin, Texas^[7] said the same. But that hasn’t stopped top Republicans from thoroughly melting down over its success.

Case in point: On his Truth Social platform on Saturday night, President Donald Trump posted a Top Gun-style AI video^[8] of himself wearing a crown and dropping raw sewage on the protesters from a military plane. (Yes, you read that right.) One of the targets appears to be Gen Z Democratic influencer Harry Sisson^[9]. Spokespeople for the White House did not immediately respond to questions about the video from Mother Jones on Sunday morning.

Meanwhile, House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) doubled down on his prior assessment^[12] of the gatherings as “hate America” rallies. On ABC’s This Week on Sunday morning, Johnson claimed^[13] the protests included “hateful messages” and “violent rhetoric” against Trump. He also dismissed the protests—which took place^[14] in thousands of cities and towns both in the US and across the world—as a “stunt” orchestrated by Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.). “He’s closed the government down because he needs political cover and this was a part of it,” Johnson said. (The protests were not organized^[15] by Schumer.)

Official government social media accounts have been trolling the protest theme. The White House posted^[16] a photo of Trump and Vice President JD Vance wearing crowns, contrasted with Schumer and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) wearing sombreros. On Bluesky, Vance posted^[17] an AI video of Trump wearing a king’s crown and pulling out a sword as Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) bows down to him, set to the song “Hail to the King.” The Department of Transportation, very bizarrely, posted^[18] illustrations of Schumer and Jeffries dressed as Disney princesses, alongside the caption, “No Kings!!”

As Max Madame, a protester in Oakland, Calif., told^[19] Mother Jones on Saturday of Johnson and other Republicans’ attacks: “They’re delusional. We all know that… they know they’re lying, we know they’re lying.”