On Saturday, “No Kings” protests against President Donald Trump’s authoritarian actions took place in more than 2,600 locations across the United States. An estimated 7 million people participated, dwarfing even the size of the first event in June, making it the largest day of protests in US history.
But instead of addressing their concerns, Trump mocked them.
On Sunday, he shared an AI-generated video “inspired” by “Top Gun” the iconic 1986 film starring Tom Cruise. (He even used “Danger Zone,” the Kenny Loggins song from the film, which the singer demanded be “cleaned up.”) The fake video shows “King Trump,” complete with a crown, piloting a plane and releasing what appears to be human waste on No Kings protesters.
Since the president could not stop the marches, he chose to descend into the sewer… and not only with the video.
Trump and other MAGA Republicans predicted violence and chaos during what was called a “hate America” rally. There were none. Republican governors. Glenn Youngkin of Virginia and Greg Abbott of Texas mobilized their states’ National Guard in anticipation of possible violence. They were not necessary. Trump and his spokesmen, including House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-Louisiana, smeared No Kings as “un-American” and “hate rallies.” They claimed that No Kings was poorly attended and filled with paid protesters. In reality, the millions of people who participated in the No Kings marches were simply exercising their constitutional rights.
In a functioning democracy, mass public protests would send a loud and clear signal to the president and his party that they need to recalibrate their positions and behavior to maintain support and avoid being removed from office, or at least to do a better job of persuading the public to join their side.
But the United States is no longer a functioning democracy. Norms on legitimacy and governance are becoming less applicable. Trump is a would-be autocrat who is rapidly expanding and consolidating his power. He views public opinion as largely invalid and instead adopts a maximalist view of presidential power and authority in which he is the personal embodiment of the state. The vox populi, the chorus of public opinion, must be silent and ignored unless it praises him and his MAGA movement.
“In autocratic and illiberal systems, leaders consider demonstrations and street protests to be illegitimate, at least when the goals of the protesters run counter to the goals of the leader,” said political scientist Susan Stokes, director of the Center for Democracy at the University of Chicago. “Democratic leaders do not like demonstrations against their policies and actions, but they tend to refrain from suppressing protests, arresting protesters whose actions are legal, or using aggressive crowd control techniques.”
Stokes compared Trump’s behavior to that of Recep Tayyip Erdoğan: “(They used) the same less lethal weapons against the anti-ICE protesters as the Turkish authoritarians. In response to the No Kings protests, they were less (violent) but still tried to delegitimize the protests, accusing them of all kinds of treasonous compromises.”
As expected, Trump’s scatological video was popular with his followers. Mondays Johnson praise heaped about their tactics. “The president uses social media to make his point,” he said. “You can argue that he is probably the most effective person who has ever used social media for that.”
Trump’s video was immature and disgusting. But it was also deeply dangerous. It revealed how the administration and its agents use spectacle and absurdity to reinforce authoritarian control.
The video showed the president’s taste for “mediated destruction” and “gonzo governance,” said media and communications expert David Altheide. “His regime despises millions of Americans who took to the streets to oppose his dictatorial cruelty. The goal, the graphic wastewater, and the meaning are clear: You are all shit, worthy only of the stream of weaponized poop on your heads. The crude humor has reached millions of Americans who oppose Trump.”
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Trump’s message, Altheide said, was clear: He also offered this warning: “Any person, institution, organization or entity that opposes Trump and his MAGA movement are outsiders, beyond the pale, the symbolic waste, the most vile, who may be deported or otherwise treated.”
At a news conference aboard Air Force One on Sunday, President bent: “I looked at the people. They are not representative of this country.”
AI-generated videos and images of the president have been powerful propaganda tools to train and emotionally condition the American public into a state of exhaustion, confusion, and nihilism where they no longer know what is real. This behavior also reduces serious political and social issues to memes, jokes, and digital ephemera, compromising reality testing and making truth itself unknowable.
Russian President Vladimir Putin have used similar methods to disorient and pacify the Russian public.
The intent is obvious: after a period of conditioning, the only certainty (and reality) left exists in the form of the Great Leader. Trump has repeatedly repeated warned their MAGA followers to not believe in their”lying eyes”, trust only in him, who has great and secret knowledge and that only he can solve it.
And yet Trump’s popularity is falling. Polls show more Americans fear for the future of democracy under his leadership. But Democrats shouldn’t celebrate too soon; They are also unpopular.
Since Trump returned to power, many centrist and liberal political observers, as well as the mainstream media, have been making wishes. They imagine the American people as a “sleeping giant” who will inevitably rise up against Trumpism and restore democracy. But the truth is dissonant, as Stokes pointed out.
“We live in a strange country where the government acts as if it is an autocracy, while many in civil society act as if we are still a democracy,” he said. “One way to keep democracy vital is to exercise our rights. If we act as if we live in a country where the rights to freedom of speech and assembly are protected, then we help keep these rights alive. If we stop exercising our rights, they will atrophy, like muscles.”
The protests against the Kings show that resistance to Trumpism is growing. But the demonstrations are only a first step; Without sustained action, hope is hollow.
Sir Winston Churchill famously said, “Americans can always be counted on to do the right thing, after they have tried everything else.” As despair and righteous rage fuel a false authoritarian populism both here and abroad, Churchill’s words ring painfully true.
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