Like so many other citizens across this great nation, I fear that we are witnessing in real time the fall of our democracy and the rise of fascism under Donald Trump. Our nation and civil society are now navigating unchartered and increasingly rough waters. The calamity of each passing day brings us closer to the event horizon. Most of us were raised to love this country, to think of it as mighty and immune from takeover or collapse. Forever enduring. History, however, is strewn with examples of fallen nations whose citizens believed the same.
The No Kings protests on October 18 provided a glimmer of hope that we can correct course and make our way back to the heart and soul of our democratic nation that was founded in the face of tyrannical British rule with the signing of the Declaration of Independence in 1776. Congress has essentially abdicated its responsibility to be a check on the executive branch. Our courts are struggling to pick up the slack and hold the line. Judges are increasingly being maligned, threatened, attacked, and defied. October 18 showed that We the People may be the ultimate check against rogue authoritarian rule.
An estimated 7 million people took part in the nearly 3,000 registered peaceful protests in cities and towns in all 50 states. By any fair measure, it was the largest and most successful one-day domestic protest against a sitting U.S. president in modern American history. It built on the first wave of No Kings protests on June 14, 2025, that turned out 5 million people in nearly 2,000 U.S. cities and towns. Those protests drowned out Trump’s selfish but true to character appropriation of the U.S. Army’s 250 th anniversary to honor his 79 th birthday with a military parade. The “No Kings” name reflects Trump’s own contention that he is a “king,” several posts by his administration depicting him as a monarch, and his actions that are more aligned with authoritarian rule rather than democratic leadership—like holding a North Korea regime-style birthday parade complete with tanks, military launchers and troops he treats like his own toy soldiers.
Here in West Virginia, thousands of people turned out on October 18 at more than 20 registered protests across the state—a sharp increase from the handful of protests that were held last June. This shows that the tide against Trump is rising, even in a state that voted overwhelming for him last November. I was proud to organize the No Kings protest in Wardensville. That Main Street protest drew over 100 people, which exceeded our expectations given the other nearby protests in Moorefield, Romney, Woodstock and Elkins.
I was compelled to organize the local No Kings protest because Trump has been consolidating his executive power by implementing Project 2025 that was drafted by the right-wing Heritage Foundation. This is the plan he told the American people in the last election he had never heard of—an obvious lie. Trump has torched our government and cultural institutions, demonized and fired career civil servants (including many that are a part of our local community), and installed loyalists in their place. He has co-opted entire agencies, including the Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI) and Department of Justice (DOJ) that now do his bidding by investigating and prosecuting his political enemies, including former FBI Director James Comey, New York Attorney General Letitia James, and most recently, former national security adviser John Bolton.
Along with House Speaker Mike Johnson who refuses to swear in elected congresswoman Adelita Grifalva from Arizona who will be the deciding vote in discharging the Epstein files, they cover for him. They are also turning a blind eye to the rampant corruption in his administration. Trump has abused the presidency to make himself $3 billion richer selling everything from Bibles to crypto currency. After accepting a $400 million luxury jet as a “gift” from Qatar (a “funder of terrorism at a very high level” according to Trump’s in 2017) and signing a deal to build a luxury golf resort in that country, he is allowing the Qatari Emiri Air Force to build a base in Idaho! “Border czar” Tom Homan was caught on film accepting a bag of $50,000 in cash from an undercover FBI agent and he still has a job.
Vice-President JD Vance downplayed the film on This Week with George Stephanopoulos because it is apparently normal for people in their orbit to accept bags of cash as payment for supposedly legitimate things. Vance has repeatedly proven he has a twisted sense of what is normal. When a group chat of Young Republicans was recently leaked that used racist slurs, called rape “epic,” and praised Hitler, Vance defended the chat as “edgy” and kids being kids, even though those on the chat ranged in age from 24 to 35.
The consolidation of Trump’s executive power is occurring in tandem with voter suppression efforts that some are referring to as Project 2026. These efforts include the redistricting in Texas and the “Preserving and Protecting the Integrity of American Elections” executive order that Trump signed on March 25, 2025—an unprecedented power grab that violates both federal law and the U.S. Constitution. Trump and his enablers are making power grabs as though he will reign like a King forever. As though no other future president from a different party will benefit from them. This should be concerning to everyone.
While Trump rewards his loyalists with lucrative government contracts and pardons, anyone who disagrees with Trump and his policies—mayors, scientists, judges, universities, corporations, reporters, artists, late-night talk show hosts—are now targets of retribution through funding cuts, censorship, threats of arrest, or worse. Who thought we would see the day when a sitting U.S. President would openly declare war on our cities? Trump has boots on the ground in only Democratic-led cities. He is threatening to invoke the Insurrection Act against these cities—an act he did not invoke when there was a real insurrection on January 6, 2021, that tried to prevent a legitimate president-elect from assuming office, smeared feces on the walls of the U.S. Capitol, and killed five police officers. He pardoned the insurrectionists and promised insurrectionist Ashli Babbitt’s family full military funeral honors for her and $5 million dollars for them. What Trump has been doing since returning to office is basically an extension of his attempted January 6 coup.
The No Kings protests were endorsed and promoted by nearly 300 prominent American groups representing a variety of interests implicated by Trump’s authoritarian rule, including the ACLU, Indivisible, Planned Parenthood, Public Citizen, People for the American Way, Moms Rising Together, Human Rights Campaign, Faithful America, American Association of University Professors, Move On, National Organization of Women, Union of Concerned Scientists, and Greenpeace. Trump has threatened a crackdown on the finances and activities of liberal non-profits and groups opposed to his agenda. Potential tools to defund or shut down these groups reportedly being considered include IRS investigations to strip them of tax-exempt status; surveillance and criminal probes by federal law enforcement agencies, and the use of RICO statutes typically used for organized crime and financial investigations under anti-terror laws to identify donors and funders.
We are all seeing the disturbing videos of masked ICE agents brutally descending on communities across the country, kidnapping people off the streets or outside of courthouse immigration hearings, throwing them into unmarked vans and disappearing them to parts unknown without due process. Even U.S. citizens are getting swept up in these discriminatory raids, mostly of Latino origin, and being detained without warrants, charges, or access to phones or lawyers, which is now the subject of a joint congressional investigation. Most people agree immigration needs reform. There was a bipartisan solution in Congress prior to the election that Trump torpedoed because he has no humanity and needed the immigration problem to run on. He wanted the ICE raids that are meant to shock and intimidate us. When the mass detention centers are constructed with the $45 billion allocated in the One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA) he signed into law and all the immigrants have been deported, it is not unreasonable to think he will make a play from the Fascist playbook and find new scapegoats to detain. If Trump’s war on Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) has taught us anything, it is that there are a lot of scapegoat options for Trump. He wants us to live in fear. Those of us who showed up at the No Kings protests sent a message that we refuse to bend to fear.
Here in West Virginia, Trump is more than just an existential threat. Earlier this month, the president of the American Farm Bureau Federation warned the White House that more than half of U.S. farms are losing money, threatening small towns and rural economies. Trump has prioritized a $20 billion foreign bailout to prop up.
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Argentine President Javier Milei, an ideological ally. In another slap to the face of hardworking American families and farmers, Argentina announced it is selling soybeans to China, displacing sales American farmers had until Trump started a trade war. Trump has also stated he is considering importing more beef from Argentina to reduce U.S. beef prices that have climbed to record highs. While Trump is building a ballroom and accenting the Oval Office with 24-karat gold, West Virginia families are struggling with the cost of living that continues to rise in the face of his indifference and economic policies. They will struggle even more with cuts to programs and services made in OBBBA to pay for the tax breaks for the rich.
OBBBA did not extend the Biden-era enhanced premium tax credits for people who buy their health coverage on the Health Insurance Marketplace through the Affordable Care Act. The credits are set to expire at the end of the year. Unless Congress acts to change that, the 67,000 West Virginians who buy health care on the marketplace will see their premiums increase by an average of 133% according to the Center on Budget and Policy. Approximately 15,000 West Virginians will lose health care altogether because they cannot afford it, according to the Center. That is why the government is shut down—because Democrats are fighting to extend the health insurance credits and Trump and his congressional allies refuse to compromise. Trump admitted he will not “even bother dealing with them.”
The Trump administration grew visibly nervous the week leading up to the October 18 protests. Always willing to gaslight the American people and malign entire segments of the population, the administration armed its spotlight and soundbite loving loyalists with media talking points that characterized the protests as “hate America” and “Antifa” rallies. They ridiculously said we were all getting paid. Our own Congressman Riley Moore, a Republican who has yet to hold a townhall to answer to his district for his OBBBA support, quipped, “you’ll have the antifa crowd and the pro-Hamas crowd of the Democrat party showing up and protesting.”
The rhetoric against the No Kings protests tracks with the increasingly dark and coordinated rhetoric against Democrats, once dismissed and ridiculed as “snowflakes.” White House press secretary, Karolien Leavitt, now says “the Democrat Party’s main constituency are made up of Hamas terrorists, illegal aliens and violent criminals.” Stephen Miller, a top White House adviser, said the party is a “domestic extremist organization.” Trump himself has called us “sick,” “evil,” and the “enemy within.” Perhaps Democrats will be the new scapegoat.
In reality, the No Kings protests in Wardensville and across the nation were hardly the stuff of radical extremists. At our local protest, people of all ages and from all walks of life waived U.S. flags and homemade signs that read “Defend Democracy,” “Defend Our Constitution,” “Affordable Health Care For All,” “Stop Global Warming,” “No One Is Safe When Due Process and Civil Rights Are Ignored,” “My Favorite Season Is the Fall of Fascism,” “This Is What Democracy Looks Like,” “The Power of the People is Stronger Than The People In Power,” “Dissent is Patriotic,” “Billions for U.S. Farmers NOT Argentina,” “Stop Global Warming,” and “Fight Truth Decay.” Those saying the protests were un-American should try telling that to Steven Wendelin, a retired naval officer and combat veteran who is running for the West Virginia 2 nd District congressional seat currently occupied by Riley Moore. Proudly sporting his “Retired Navy” hat and a“Democracy Dies in Silence” t-shirt, he was one of the featured speakers at the Wardensville protest.Republicans that are tired of seeing their party—once honorably led by the likes of Ronald Reagan, George W.Bush, Liz Cheney, and Adam Kinzinger—going down its current fascist path also attended the No Kings protests. Trump’s threat to an enduring democracy and civil society is bigger than any one party can solve. True patriotism is bigger than loyalty or allegiance to any one man. The Wardensville protest was also attendedby several members of the nonpartisan Kitchen Table Alliance (KTA), a grassroots movement to defend ourdemocracy and economic future. Annabel Park, a documentarian, nationally prominent community organizer,and founder of KTA, also spoke at the protest. When she was not speaking, she hosted a table with a signreading “Talk To Us About Why We Protest” that showed the protest was also about informing, not just reacting.
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It is telling that despite the historic turnout, every No Kings event remained peaceful with only a handful of arrests that included pro-Trump agitators who deliberately drove a truck into protestors and threatened protestors with guns. In Wardensville, the overwhelming majority of those that passed by showed support by honking or waving, while a few gave us the middle finger, coal rolled the crowd, and called the State Police falsely alleging that we were impeding traffic. None of us were paid—our contempt for how Trump has divided our nation and sadly many of our families is free of charge. The overall vibe was one of positivity, patriotism, community, humor, even joy.
We played Bruce Springsteen, Neil Diamond, Beyonce, Dolly Parton and the Wildflower Sisters. I will personally admit to being a little ornery and mixing in some Bad Bunny—theacclaimed artist headlining the next Super Bowl half-time show who has weirdly triggered Trump loyalists seemingly for no other reason than he is brown, from Puerto Rico, and sings in Spanish. Some have falsely chided him for not being a U.S. citizen, apparently not knowing Puerto Rico is a U.S. territory that played a strategic role in World War II. I played Bad Bunny in protest of Trump’s homophobic, racist and petty use of his bully pulpit and the Federal Communications Commission to censor freedom of expression, our museums and the performing arts, and attack our beloved artists and actors, including Tom Hanks who he ranted was “destructive” and “woke.” When our president comes for Forrest Gump, you know things have gotten bad!
Trump’s response to the “No Kings” protests only proved our point. The day of the protests, he posted a juvenile and vulgar AI-generated video that depicted him in a fighter jet wearing a gold crown and dropping feces on the protesters. Mocking the 7 million pro-America and pro-democracy protesters shows he is a fascist leader that only retaliates against and demeans anyone who disagrees with him. I believe his ego takes pride in being the one that divides us, the one that could take this nation past the event horizon and destroy it. But it also his pride and ego that will cause him to underestimate the movement growing against him—a movement that will be his downfall, not ours. I will continue to lawfully resist Trump and his fascist agenda until the real America rises again. And because of October 18, I now know “I have friends everywhere.”
Sincerely,
Derek Howard
Lost River, WV
