On Saturday, the “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 single-day of protests in American 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 movie starring Tom Cruise. (It even used “Danger Zone,” Kenny Loggins’ song from the film, which the singer demanded be “scrubbed.”) The fake video depicts “King Trump,” complete with a crown, piloting a plane and unleashing what appears to be human waste on No Kings marchers.
Since the president couldn’t stop the marches, he chose to descend into the sewer — and not just with the video.
Trump and other MAGA Republicans predicted violence and mayhem during what was referred to as a “hate America” rally. There was none. Republican Govs. Glenn Youngkin of Virginia and Greg Abbott of Texas mobilized their states’ National Guard in anticipation of potential violence. They were not needed. Trump and his mouthpieces, including Speaker of the House Mike Johnson, R-La., slurred No Kings as “anti-American” and “hate marches.” They claimed 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, massive public protests would send a loud, clear signal to the president and his party that they need to recalibrate their positions and behavior to maintain support and avoid being voted out of office, or at least to do a better job of persuading the public to join their side.
In a functioning democracy, massive public protests would send a loud, clear signal to the president and his party that they need to recalibrate their positions and behavior to maintain support and avoid being voted out of office, or at least to do a better job of persuading the public to join their side.
But America is no longer a functioning democracy. Norms about legitimacy and governance increasingly do not apply. Trump is an aspiring autocrat who is rapidly expanding and consolidating his power. He views public opinion as largely invalid, embracing instead a maximalist view of presidential power and authority where he is the personal embodiment of the state. The vox populi, the chorus of public opinion, should be silent and ignored unless it is praising him and his MAGA movement.
“In autocratic and illiberal systems, leaders consider demonstrations and street protests to be illegitimate, at least when the aims of the protesters go against the leader’s aims,” said political scientist Susan Stokes, director of the Chicago Center on Democracy at the University of Chicago. “Democratic leaders don’t love demonstrations against their policies and actions, but they tend to hold back on repressing the protests, arresting protesters whose actions are lawful, or using aggressive crowd-control techniques.”
Stokes compared Trump’s behavior to that of Recep Tayyip Erdoğan: “They [turned] the same less-lethal weapons against anti-ICE protesters as did the Turkish authoritarian. In response to the No Kings protests, they were less [violent] but still tried to delegitimize the protests, accusing them of all sorts of treacherous commitments.”
Trump’s scatological video was predictably popular among his supporters. On Monday Johnson heaped praise on his tactics. “The president uses social media to make the point,” he said. “You can argue he’s probably the most effective person who’s ever used social media for that.”
Trump’s video was immature and gross. But it was also deeply dangerous. It revealed how the administration and its agents use spectacle and absurdity to reinforce authoritarian control.
The video showcased the president’s taste for “mediated destruction” and “gonzo governance,” said media and communications scholar David Altheide. “His regime seethes contempt for millions of Americans who took [to] the streets in opposing his dictatorial cruelty. The target, the graphic sewage, and the meaning are clear: You are all crap, worthy only of the weaponized poop stream on your heads. The gross humor has reached millions of Americans who oppose Trump.”
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Trump’s message, Altheide said, was clear: “Any person, institution, organization, or entity that opposes Trump and his MAGA movement are outsiders, beyond the pale, symbolic waste, the most vile, who can be deported or otherwise dealt with.”
In a press availability aboard Air Force One on Sunday, the president doubled down: “I looked at the people. They are not representative of this country.”
The president’s AI-generated videos and images have been potent propaganda tools for him to emotionally train and 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 societal matters to digital memes, jokes and ephemera, compromising reality testing and making truth itself unknowable.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has used similar methods to disorient and pacify the Russian public.
The intention is obvious: After a conditioning period, the only certainty — and reality — that remains exists in the form of the Great Leader. Trump has repeatedly warned his MAGA followers to not believe their “lying eyes,” to only trust him — that he possesses great and secret knowledge. He alone can fix it.
And yet Trump’s popularity is slipping. Polls show that more Americans fear for democracy’s future under his leadership. But the Democrats shouldn’t celebrate too soon; they are also unpopular.
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Since Trump returned to office, many centrist and liberal political observers, as well as the mainstream media, have been wish-casting. They imagine the American people as a “sleeping giant” that will inevitably rise up against Trumpism and restore democracy. But the truth is dissonant, as Stokes pointed out.
“We live in a strange country in which the government acts as though it’s an autocracy while many in civil society act as though we are still a democracy,” she said. “One way to keep the democracy vital is to exercise our rights. If we act like we live in a country in which rights to free speech and free assembly are protected, then we help keep these rights alive. If we stop exercising our rights they will, like muscles, atrophy.”
The No Kings protests show that resistance to Trumpism is growing. But rallies are just a first step; without sustained action, hope is hollow.
Sir Winston Churchill famously said that “You can always count on Americans to do the right thing — after they’ve tried everything else.” As despair and justified rage fuel authoritarian fake populism both here and abroad, Churchill’s words ring painfully true.
