May 6, 2026
By Jacob Collins Dodd
Staff Writer
President Donald Trump posted on Truth Social on April 7 that “a whole civilization will die tonight, never to be brought back again.” He was referring to Iranian citizens that he threatened to exterminate in the ongoing war between the United States, Israel and Iran.
A week and a half prior, on March 28, an estimated 8 million people participated in more than 3,300 No Kings events worldwide, making it the largest single-day protest in U.S. history, according to NBC.
The three major No Kings protests — which oppose the Trump administration — were direct responses to major flashpoints of the administration’s misconduct, including the killings by ICE agents of American citizens earlier this year, Trump’s cover-up of the Epstein files and, most recently, the Iran war.
ILLUSTRATION BY MARIAH ALLEN
Since Feb. 28, the United States has been entrenched in an unexplained war with no clear end in sight, despite Trump telling reporters on March 31 that it would only last two or three more weeks.
By the time of the No Kings protests, 61% of Americans publicly opposed his war with Iran, according to a Pew Research Center study.
The public backlash against Trump has been enormous, with a University of Massachusetts survey from March 30 finding that his approval rating among Americans was 33%, the lowest he had polled in either of his terms.
On March 30, Trump intensified his violence against Iran, threatening widespread destruction of its energy and water resources. He said that if Iran did not negotiate a deal with the United States promptly, it would broaden its military actions by “completely obliterating” power plants, oil wells and desalination plants.
Despite the high turnout, the No Kings protests have fallen short. Successful protests need to have a demand and results. Americans’ anger at the Trump administration has become obvious, but the protests have not rectified America’s political state.
On April 7, Democratic lawmakers, with the support of some Republicans, filed articles of impeachment following Trump’s repeated threats to commit war crimes in Iran. Democrats have drafted official documents challenging Trump’s mental condition and have opened numerous investigations into the actions of his second administration. And yet, none of this has impacted Trump because Republican members of Congress — who tend to show unabashed loyalty to Trump and his politics — currently hold a 218-213 majority in Congress.
Successful protests need to have a demand and results. Americans’ anger at the Trump administration has become obvious, but the protests have not rectified America’s political state.
So far, America’s collective efforts against Trump have added up to opposition without consequence. Trump has had every reason to continue acting recklessly and outside the law, and he has spent the entirety of his second term doing just that.
In May 2024, Manhattan’s criminal court found him guilty of falsifying business records to conceal hush money payments he made to suppress a sexual encounter with adult film star Stormy Daniels that would have damaged his 2016 campaign.
Trump won the election anyway, and, as a result of a conservative-led Supreme Court ruling in July 2024, he was granted broad immunity from criminal prosecution while in office.
What Trump has learned during his second term is that he is immune to consequences and protected by those in power. These lessons are more dangerous than anything he has done.
He has watched outrage build and dissipate without experiencing repercussions, threatened to wipe out an entire population and significantly worsened American life. Until these lessons are interrupted, Trump has no reason to believe his next escalation will cost him anything at all.
