How to Rain on Trump's Military Parade
Indivisible's co-founder Ezra Levin has a message for anyone who wants to see a "No Kings" protest in their zip code: "It's on you."
How do you oppose authoritarianism in the United States? The first step is staying informed.
On June 14, the day that Donald Trump wants the U.S. military to throw him a birthday parade on the streets of Washington, D.C., Indivisible is helping to organize protests everywhere but the nation’s capital.
There are more than 700 demonstrations slated already across the United States and around the world, whose locations dot a crowded map on the protest’s website.
“Normal, everyday people”
If you don’t see your town on that list, Indivisible’s co-founder
says it’s on you to fill the gap.“There's a misconception out there that somebody else has this covered. That this is all going to take care of itself. That there are professional organizers, politicians or public leaders, and they're the ones that are going to take care of the current crisis,” Levin told All Rise News in a phone interview.
“It's just not true,” he added.
That’s why Indivisible created a shareable “Host Toolkit,” with information about how to register an event, join training calls, create graphics, and get support, security and insurance.
“This is being led by normal, everyday people, not professional political organizers,” Levin added. “You look at the folks that are organizing: They’re teachers; and they’re nurses; and they’re IT technicians; and they’re government workers.”
It’s the same approach that Levin credits for the success of the massive “Hands Off” protests that took off globally on April 5, 2025, and Indivisible anticipates an even larger turnout.
“Big, expensive military parades on the taxpayer dime”
In its call for potential organizers, Indivisible made clear that it does not want any demonstrations in Washington, D.C., and Levin explained the organization’s thinking in an interview.
“A kind of thing that authoritarians do is throw themselves big, expensive military parades on the taxpayer’s dime,” Levin said. “It turns out that this particular military parade will cost somewhere in the neighborhood of $50 million, and it will involve tanks through the streets of D.C.”
Indivisible’s everywhere-but-D.C. approach serves two goals: It saps some of the media attention that Trump craves and deprives his administration of an opportunity to crack down on a big, concentrated, peaceful counterprotest.
The Second Continental Congress created Flag Day with a resolution passed on June 14, 1777, which by some coincidence more than 150 years later, also became Trump’s birthday.
Trump flirted with the idea of a military parade for his birthday during his first presidential term, but he never had enough support to order one.
Now that he has a nearly fully compliant GOP-controlled Congress, Trump plans to unleash his self-glorifying id with marching troops, tanks on city streets, and World War II-era airplanes and Vietnam War-era helicopters overhead. He’ll also put 34 horses, two mules, one wagon and a dog to work in service of his ego, according to CBS’s accounting.
D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser anticipates that the tanks will cause millions of dollars in damage to civilian city streets that were not designed to accommodate tanks, and the repairs are currently expected to come out of the Army’s budget, according to The Washingtonian.
“I don't think Trump and his cohorts know what the hell they're doing with us, and I don't think they particularly care,” Levin said. “They have demonstrated repeatedly that they have no respect for the government or the people of D.C., and they're quite willing to literally run roughshod over them.”
You can find out more about the protests or get involved as an organizer on NoKings.org.