How to Prep for No Kings Day
Indivisible's weekly newsletter with analysis and action
Things are getting heated and alarming, so I’m going to try writing this intro in as measured a tone as possible. We’ll talk about all this on Thursday’s What’s The Plan, but first I hope you’ll take us up on the Indivisible team’s suggested action items below ahead of this Saturday’s No Kings Day. Before we get to the action items, let’s talk about where things stand.
The autocratic breakthrough is now escalating. At Indivisible, we’ve used the term “autocratic breakthrough” a lot in recent months. The breakthrough is characterized by Trump’s firing of the internal auditors; his empowering of Musk to ransack the government; his open defiance of court orders; and his attacks on law firms, media institutions, universities, businesses, and nonprofits.
Trump and Stephen Miller have been driving a rapacious, vicious escalation in ICE raids and detentions. ICE agents have been assigned massive quotas for detentions, and to meet them, they’re going after the people they can find -- workers at job sites, immigrants who are following all the rules and reporting for check-ins at courthouses, kids at schools.
Over the weekend, this led to a predictable clash in Los Angeles. Facts are important, so here’s a timeline of events:
Friday (6/6): Surprise ICE sweeps in LA leading to the detaining of more than 40 workers. Nonviolent protests gather in different parts of the city.
Saturday (6/7): At a nonviolent protest, California’s SEIU leader David Huerta, a US citizen, is assaulted, tear-gassed, and arrested by ICE. Trump calls up 2,000 California National Guard troops over the objection of the governor and mayor, even as the Los Angeles Police Department applauds the protests for remaining peaceful.
Sunday (6/8): Military humvees arrive in LA. Protesters block the freeway. LAPD declares unlawful assembly and fires non-lethal rounds and teargas on protestors and journalists. Trump (through Secretary of Defense Hegseth) escalates further by threatening to mobilize 500 Marines.
Monday (6/9): Just as we're hitting send on this email, it's reported that 700 Marines are being deployed to LA over the next 24-hours.
Trump and his cadre are escalating to cause enormous human harm against those they view as less than human. But they’re also escalating to create chaos they can then use to legitimize further escalation. So while protests were overwhelmingly peaceful, when some bad actors engaged in property destruction or violence, the Trump team used that as an excuse to escalate further. That’s their plan -- rinse and repeat.
Where we go from here. The ICE raid escalation has not been limited to LA, and I don’t believe the military escalation will be limited to LA either. Legal experts have noted that Trump’s legally-questionable statement commandeering the California National Guard did not limit him to just California. Who knows which city is next. Or cities.
And of course, this is coming at a fraught moment. Trump is planning a taxpayer-funded birthday military parade for himself with tanks in the streets of DC. It’s a flamboyant and intimidating show of force -- an attempt to present himself as a supreme leader. Somewhere, Mussolini is looking up and smiling.
We don’t know how much of this is intended to be an escalation specifically in advance of the parade. What we do know is that this is scary -- intentionally so. Fear is their goal because fear is both demobilizing and contagious.
But we know that courage is contagious, too. When the fascists crack down on small-scale nonviolent protest, we need large-scale nonviolent protest. That’s what works. Leaders, institutions, and people currently on the sideline need to know that the defense of democracy is inevitable, overwhelming, and irresistible. They need to see it with their own eyes.
This is where the good news comes in. When we here at Indivisible heard Trump was planning a birthday military parade, we got to work on No Kings Day counterprogramming. We wanted to avoid counter-protests in DC that would give Trump an excuse to crack down on protestors. Instead, we aimed to organize everywhere else.
I announced the plan last month in a conversation with Rachel Maddow. At the time, we had a handful of partners and about 100 events registered. Today, there are more than 150 national organizational partners, thousands of local leaders, and nearly 1,800 nonviolent protests globally.
Despite how unsettling these escalations are, I’m excited for Saturday. I’m trying to ground myself in some basic beliefs. I believe in our people. I believe in our cause. And I believe that we will win. We just have to do the work to make that more than a belief.
In solidarity,
Ezra Levin
Co-Executive Director, Indivisible
Your weekly to-dos
Join a No Kings protest this Saturday, June 14, to show the Trump regime we won’t cower under its authoritarian attacks. Trump can roll tanks through DC and deploy the military against peaceful protestors in LA, but we can mobilize millions in large cities and small towns from sea to shining sea. We need to show up by the millions to demonstrate that Trump’s tyrannic crackdown is only deepening our resolve.
Attend the “Know Your Rights” training tomorrow, June 10, at 7pm ET / 4pm PT to help keep No Kings protests safe and non-violent. Trump deployed forces against American citizens to chill dissent, spark confrontation, and create an excuse to seize even more power. We won’t back down, but we need to be prepared to handle encounters with law enforcement and de-escalate tense situations. También disponible en Español a las 5:15pm PT.
Sign up for the No Kings mass call this Thursday, June 12, at 8pm ET / 5pm PT to prepare for the huge day ahead! All No Kings attendees are highly encouraged to join our pre-mobilization call this Thursday, when we’ll discuss recent developments, share tactics to de-escalate conflict, give tips for successful demonstrations, and come together in community to get fired up for Saturday.
Join this week’s “What’s the Plan” call (Thursdays, 3pm ET / 12pm PT) to ask Leah and Ezra your questions about Los Angeles, ICE, No Kings, and more. Each Thursday, our co-founders jump online to break down the news, draw inspiration from our work, and answer your questions directly. Come be part of a free-flowing, interactive chat about what’s next in our fight for democracy.
P.S. This is it. We’re just five days out from our nationwide day of defiance on June 14, when millions will peacefully assemble to say NO KINGS IN THE USA! We’re running promotional campaigns, hosting trainings, and lining up security, portapotties, and everything else a massive demonstration needs. That takes a TON of resources. PLEASE -- If you can spare anything at all, chip in now to organize nationwide and make No Kings as massive and powerful as possible.
This week's update on the Republican Tax Scam
The Republican reconciliation bill hasn’t moved much since we wrote to you about it last week. It’s still being significantly rewritten in the Senate, and we still have a chance to stop it through pressure tactics that maximize the chaos and infighting driven by budget hawks, Senate rules, blue-state Republicans, Elon Musk, and just about everyone else.
So this week -- given escalating ICE violence and the horrifying situation in Los Angeles -- let’s talk about how this bill funds Trump’s unlawful mass deportations and fascist crackdown on dissent.
In addition to ripping food and healthcare away from millions, the reconciliation bill provides BILLIONS in funding to supercharge ICE, which is essentially serving as Donald Trump’s private police force. The bill would:
Increase ICE’s detention budget by 13x
Fund 10,000 new ICE agents
Provide bonuses for ICE agents
Make ICE the highest-funded law enforcement agency in the federal government
We want to be really hard-nosed about our strategy here. We must oppose more money to supercharge Trump terrorizing immigrant communities and cracking down on protest. And the best way to stop this bill is to relentlessly hammer on the politically toxic Medicaid cuts and billionaire tax giveaways.
That’s what is making Republicans in Congress sweat the most, and that’s what might slow or even stop this bill in its tracks. Here’s how you can help:
Phonebanks like these can only be held on weekdays during business hours, when senators' phonelines are staffed, but we understand that many volunteers can’t join us at those times!
If you can’t join a phonebank, you can still take action anytime: Send your Republican senator an email or write to your Republican representative. Then, share those links with friends and neighbors to multiply your impact.
Get ready for No Kings with online trainings
Trump’s overreach in Los Angeles makes it clear: He fears peaceful protest and will purposely seek conflict as an excuse to demonize and crack down on dissent. We aren’t backing down, but we are preparing with training calls to help make every No Kings event safe, lawful, and non-violent.
These are the same virtual events you saw above in our weekly to-dos, but they’re just too important not to mention again:
KNOW YOUR RIGHTS w/ ACLUTuesday, June 10, 7pm ET / 4pm PTVirtual (join online from anywhere)
También disponible en español. Mira más abajo.
CONOZCA SUS DERECHOSMartes, 10 de junio, 8:15pm ET / 5:15pm PTVirtual (únete desde cualquier lugar)
MASS CALL FOR ALL ATTENDEES Thursday, June 12, 8pm ET / 5pm PTVirtual (join online from anywhere)
No Kings training calls are not mandatory for attendees but are highly encouraged. Additional training opportunities and support can be found at NoKings.org/trainings.
IndivisiWIN of the week
It’s not just the massive scale of protests like Hands Off! and No Kings that make Indivisibles’ work so powerful. It’s often the speed with which local Indivisible groups respond to authoritarianism at work across the country!
This weekend -- just hours after Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth threatened to deploy Marines in Los Angeles -- demonstrators led by Indivisible North County San Diego and Indivisible49 gathered at a nearby Marine base, Camp Pendleton. Activists held signs condemning Trump's use of military force to quell dissent, while waving flags and showing support for servicemembers caught in the middle of his authoritarian gambit.
Fight medical misinformation with the Truth Brigade
Join Indivisible’s Truth Brigade Wednesday to explore how disinformation -- from false claims about vaccines and wellness to harmful fictions about gender-affirming care -- props up harmful healthcare policies and creates a culture of mistrust around science.
Speakers Caitlin Dow, from the Center for Science in the Public Interest, and Jake Engle from Upswing Research, will join us to help break the chain of sickening health lies.
Follow us on Bluesky, Mastodon, and Threads to keep up on the latest information, and text “INDIVISIBLE” to 59798 to opt-in to our text messaging program, where we send rapid response actions a few times a month.
I’m very ready for massive peaceful protest. Thank you and the Indivisible crew for making this happen. Well timed.
Chock full of great ideas!! Thank you so much for all you do! 🙏🏼🫶🏼💙