WASHINGTON — Leaders of the “No Kings” coalition say they will stage synchronized demonstrations in more than 50 U.S. cities on April 6, aiming to eclipse attendance at the group’s first two nationwide protests and sharpen its message of opposition to what it calls the “creeping monarchism” of former president Donald J. Trump and his allies.
“We are not just trying to break our own turnout record; we are trying to build durable political leverage,” said Grace Contreras, a regional coordinator reached by phone on Thursday. In permit applications reviewed by the New York Times and confirmed by municipal officials in Atlanta, Denver and Phoenix, organizers project crowds ranging from 2,000 to 25,000 per city.
The coalition—an umbrella network of voting-rights advocates, labor unions and progressive student groups—emerged last summer after Mr. Trump asserted during a campaign rally that presidents should enjoy “complete immunity” for actions taken while in office. Two previous “No Kings” days of protest, held in September and February, drew an estimated 75,000 and 120,000 participants respectively, according to independent tallies by the CrowdCount Project at the University of Washington.
Republican leaders have dismissed the effort as “street theater.” “People are tired of performative outrage,” House Majority Whip Adrian Bishop (R-Ga.) told reporters Wednesday. But Democratic strategist Leah Kim argued the opposite, saying large images of packed plazas “remind fence-sitters that opposition to authoritarian rhetoric is neither fringe nor fading.”
An unclassified Department of Homeland Security bulletin circulated to local law-enforcement agencies last week, and obtained by SourceRated, warned of “significant traffic disruptions” but assessed the overall threat as low. Still, several city officials said they are dusting off crowd-control plans first drafted for the 2020 racial-justice marches.
Analysts note that the coalition has yet to coalesce around specific legislative demands. “Without a focused policy objective, big numbers can dissipate quickly,” said Maria Ortega, a political-science professor at Georgetown University. Organizers counter that they will unveil a three-point platform—centered on electoral reform, judicial ethics and executive-power limits—before April 1.
Whether the coming demonstrations become the movement’s breakout moment may hinge less on the size of the crowds than on what follows. “If a million people show up and then go home, Washington shrugs,” Ortega said. “If half that number keeps calling, fundraising and voting, Congress notices.”