A would-be king wants a coronation on June 14, a date already laden with meaning: Flag Day, the 250th anniversary of the founding of the U.S. Army, and, yes, Donald J. Trump’s 79th birthday.
But this year, Americans are refusing to let the day be coopted. Across all 50 states, from big cities to small towns, more than 1,000 events are planned to mark what organizers are calling the “No Kings Day of Defiance.”
Driven by grassroots outrage and organized by Indivisible, Public Citizen, Social Security Works, Third Act, Commit to Democracy, and others, these decentralized protests share one audacious goal: to reclaim the flag from authoritarianism and reject the corrosive spectacle of a would-be despot. The theme? “Take back the flag on Flag Day.”
Trump’s military pageant—planned for the heart of Washington—is a grotesque parody of patriotism. The New York Times reported that the proposed display features 28 M1 Abrams tanks, 28 Stryker armored vehicles, a vintage WWII-era B-25 bomber, 6,700 troops, 50 helicopters, and more than 100 military vehicles, horses, even a dog. The projected cost will likely end up at nearly $50 million, footed by we the people. All in the service of one man’s fragile ego.
Let’s not be coy: since returning to the presidency, Trump has presented himself not as a public servant, but as a sovereign. His contempt for constitutional limits is as naked as it is dangerous. While the judiciary has pushed back—ruling against his overreach time and again—he relentlessly smears judges and demands fealty from a majority Republican Congress hollowed out by fear and complicity. Gone are the “adults in the room” from his first term. What remains is a court of sycophants.
Rep. Jamie Raskin of Maryland, speaking before the Subcommittee on the Constitution earlier this year, reminded Americans what’s at stake:
“We have no kings here, no queens, no titles of nobility, no serfs, no slaves. Our revolution overthrew monarchy and the established church… But in our time, Donald Trump’s crime spree throughout American society has tested the hard-won principle that we are all equal and that no one is above the law.”
That’s the ethos animating No Kings Day of Defiance—a clear-eyed recognition that 250 years ago, our ancestors rejected a mad king. And today, we must reject another.
Legal analyst and political commentator Robert Hubbell, writing earlier this spring, captured the spirit of this moment:
“At root, the issues animating protests separated by two-and-a-half centuries are the same: The right to self-determination, liberty, democracy, and the rule of law—not subjugation to the ‘divine right of kings.’”
Hubbell, whose Today’s Edition newsletter has become a must-read for pro-democracy advocates, adds:
“We stand on the shoulders of those who rose up against tyranny—not just revolutionaries in 1776, but the generations of Americans since: abolitionists, suffragists, civil rights marchers, labor leaders, and more. We inherit their unfinished struggle.”
This is the enduring charge of citizenship. We are stewards, not owners, of democracy. The legacy we fight for isn’t ours to hoard—it belongs to all Americans, past, present, and those not yet born. The torch must be passed with an unwavering commitment to justice.
The road to a more perfect union has always been long, muddy, and rough. It took eight years to win independence. Another four to adopt the Constitution. Three-quarters of a century—and a civil war—to challenge slavery’s brutal grip. A hundred more years to begin fulfilling the promise of equal protection under the law.
No Kings Day is a line in the sand. Let’s meet the moment. Let’s honor the republic. Let’s remind each other—and the world—that in this country, power still flows from the people.
Democracy will endure. But only if we refuse to let it be stolen.
While some “kings” deserve admiration, the only ones worth celebrating aren’t monarchs at all. The sign I’ll be carrying on June 14 says it this way: “The only kings to listen to are MLK, B.B., Carole, and Billie Jean.”
Rob Okun ([email protected]), syndicated by Peace Voice, is editor emeritus of Voice Male, a magazine chronicling the antisexist men’s movement for more than three decades. He writes about politics and culture.
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