The Daily Populous Monday October 20th, 2025 morning edition
Authored by motherjones.com and submitted by DBCoopr72

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Saturday’s “No Kings” protests were, as my colleagues chronicled, about as wholesome as you could imagine.

There were inflatable animals. There were American flags galore. Even the New York Police Department admitted that the 100,000 protesters were peaceful and that cops made no arrests; police in Washington, DC and Austin, Texas said the same. But that hasn’t stopped top Republicans from thoroughly melting down over its success.

Case in point: On his Truth Social platform on Saturday night, President Donald Trump posted a Top Gun-style AI video of himself wearing a crown and dropping raw sewage on the protesters from a military plane. (Yes, you read that right.) One of the targets appears to be Gen Z Democratic influencer Harry Sisson. Spokespeople for the White House did not immediately respond to questions about the video from Mother Jones on Sunday morning.

The President of the United States has posted an AI video of himself unloading tons of raw sewage on American cities.

One of the targets in the AI video is Harry Sisson. pic.twitter.com/wMTzGp3scY — Yashar Ali 🐘 (@yashar) October 19, 2025

Meanwhile, House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) doubled down on his prior assessment of the gatherings as “hate America” rallies. On ABC’s This Week on Sunday morning, Johnson claimed the protests included “hateful messages” and “violent rhetoric” against Trump. He also dismissed the protests—which took place in thousands of cities and towns both in the US and across the world—as a “stunt” orchestrated by Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.). “He’s closed the government down because he needs political cover and this was a part of it,” Johnson said. (The protests were not organized by Schumer.)

“If President Trump was a king, the government would be open right now. If President Trump was a king, they would not have been able to engage in that free speech exercise,” Speaker Johnson tells @JonKarl following the nationwide “No Kings” protests. https://t.co/wiTLxsYRmW pic.twitter.com/AIDORW7u64 — This Week (@ThisWeekABC) October 19, 2025

Official government social media accounts have been trolling the protest theme. The White House posted a photo of Trump and Vice President JD Vance wearing crowns, contrasted with Schumer and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) wearing sombreros. On Bluesky, Vance posted an AI video of Trump wearing a king’s crown and pulling out a sword as Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) bows down to him, set to the song “Hail to the King.” The Department of Transportation, very bizarrely, posted illustrations of Schumer and Jeffries dressed as Disney princesses, alongside the caption, “No Kings!!”

As Max Madame, a protester in Oakland, Calif., told Mother Jones on Saturday of Johnson and other Republicans’ attacks: “They’re delusional. We all know that… they know they’re lying, we know they’re lying.”

findingmike on October 19th, 2025 at 18:26 UTC »

There were a few important things I noticed:

Every demographic was in attendance in significant numbers.

Less cops. They knew the protests weren't going to be violent and just had a token force. They spent their resources wisely.

Much better news coverage.

An attitude shift. All the cool kids were there. Many people who didn't go are going to feel like they missed something.

The next phase is organizing all of these people and getting them to take action.

Slight-Rate7309 on October 19th, 2025 at 17:44 UTC »

Absolutely no respect for presidential decorum or the American people. My family attended a protest yesterday. People were friendly, well-behaved, and unapologetically patriotic. There were funny signs, costumes, and many, many American flags. There was anger, yes, but there was also purpose and engagement at levels I haven't seen in awhile, and it's about damn time. I'm glad to have been a part of it.

Groceries and household sundries are out of sight expensive, health care premiums are skyrocketing, federal employees are losing their jobs with no rhyme or reason, respected flag officers are resigning, the right to due process has been upended, grants for essential research are being gutted, farmers are going broke, preventable diseases are spreading, and on and on and on. We are fed up. This administration and the GOP members supporting it are toxic. They have to go.

DeweyPLlama on October 19th, 2025 at 17:14 UTC »

There was no violence so naturally they need to keep beating the “hate America” drum. If they stopped lying they’d be as silent as monks.

Hey maga, there’s only one “hate America” party, and it’s yours.