Yesterday, the streets of our nation’s capital and major cities were once again filled with the “No Kings” protests. To the casual observer—or the viewer of any mainstream news broadcast—it appeared to be a spontaneous, grassroots eruption of protest of the “authoritarian” Trump. Instead, it was orchestrated by far-left professional organizers who seek to destabilize our institutions under the guise of defending them.
The media coverage was predictably sycophantic. From the New York Times to CNN, not a single major outlet reported a fundamental fact about the march’s primary architect, a tangle of groups that call themselves Indivisible. While it claims to be a collection of “local leaders,” it is a top-down operation, whose original funding came from the so-called Open Society Foundations, the massive philanthropic engine of George Soros.
To be sure, there’s plenty of anti-Trump sentiment to be harnessed, and millions of sincere people had plenty of reasons to take to the streets yesterday, but it must be asked whose interests are being served.
The rhetoric at yesterday’s rallies was not just hyperbolic; it was dangerous. Speakers frequently conflated lawful executive actions—such as the enforcement of immigration law—with “tyranny.” When Indivisible and their allies use the term “No Kings,” they aren’t arguing for constitutional checks and balances. They would create a world where the donor class gets its way, whether the protesters on the streets understand that they are the tools of billionaires or not.
The “No Kings” slogan is a masterpiece of irony. Indivisible claims to fear a “king” in the White House, yet they are funded by a man who uses his vast wealth to bypass the democratic process, installing radical prosecutors in our cities, and financing “civil society” groups that exist solely to overwhelm political opponents. That includes Republicans, but the real venom is reserved for moderate Democrats who might challenge the left’s enforced orthodoxy on issues like immigration.
Nor did the media report on Indivisible’s weird obsession with radical gender ideology. Along with the “No Kings” protest, the group promotes the March 31 “Trans Day of Visibility,” complete with a virtual panel titled “Centering with Trans Leadership and Accountable Allyship,” whatever that means.
This isn’t about opposing Trump. It’s about a cultural revolution. The Trump bogeyman is used to recruit the well-meaning, only to funnel their energy into a radical social cause that would erase the legal concept of gender. This is the bizarre state of the modern left. They scream about “norms” while actively trying to subvert objective reality by denying genetics and biology. The result in the real world is the destruction of women’s sports and vulnerable teenagers having their body parts ripped off.
We’ve seen this movie before. Black Lives Matter (BLM) also garnered widespread support, by claiming to champion a broader mission. BLM was a front for trans activists who sought to displace racial justice with something called “intersectionality.” Not content with the class precepts of Marxism, its proponents allege that gender and sexuality are likewise systems of oppression. The movement fell apart when, among other problems, the “trained Marxist” who led it, Patrisse Cullors, was revealed by the National Legal and Policy Center to have decidedly bourgeois aspirations, owning four pieces of real estate.
There’s no evidence that the Indivisible organizers have been similarly corrupted. Perhaps they are more committed ideologues. But make no mistake, the patriotic slogans heard yesterday mask a dark and extreme agenda.
PETER FLAHERTY is Chairman of the National Legal and Policy Center.
