Here’s ‘What’s Next’ According to ‘No Kings’ Organizers

Millions of people opposed to the Trumpian agenda have taken to the streets in “No Kings” demonstrators across the country—many now want to know what comes next? Photos/Joe Maniscalco

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By Joe Maniscalco

Organizers of the latest round of “No Kings” demonstrations held nationwide over the weekend concluded their post-game wrap-up on Tuesday evening promising, “tonight is the night when we move from talking about what’s next—to doing what’s next.”

“What’s next?” is a question “No Kings” organizers could hardly avoid this week after an estimated 8 million people across the country turned out on Saturday March 28, to once again oppose the Trump administration’s deepening march into post-Constitutional authoritarianism. 

So, what does “doing what’s next” look like according to “No Kings” organizers? 

In the most concrete terms, it looks like working class people nationwide taking the “No School. No Work. No Shopping.” pledge on May 1—International Workers' Day, as well as continuing to march, rally, and organize. 

“The real question here isn’t, does a protest change everything?” program moderator Ash-Lee Woodard Henderson argued during Tuesday night’s virtual meet-up. “It’s can you build a sustained anti-authoritarian campaign without mass demonstration? And I think we can say unequivocally the answer is no—we can’t skip it. It’s a single part of building movement infrastructure. It’s not just spectacle or performance for its own sake.”

A protester in a Trump mask and prison jumpsuit takes part in New York City’s “No Kings” demonstration on June 14, 2025.

Previous “No Kings” demonstrations across the country, Henderson further argued, have helped transform "private discontent into public identity."

“People walk away knowing they are part of something, something bigger than themselves,” she said. “They’re not just scared or angry, or grieving alone.”

And that, according, to Henderson is “raw material” for “No Kings” organizers and their sustained organizing.

Clearly, “No Kings” organizers want to use that “raw material” to elect Democrats in the mid-term elections later this fall. 

“This may have started with an election, it will end with an election,” Edwin Torres Desantiago, manager of the Immigrant Defense Network in Minnesota, said on Tuesday. 

AFL-CIO President Liz Shuler said that “from now until November, the AFL-CIO and our state and local movements, are going to be in the streets, at the worksites, making sure everyone knows the issues at stake in the next election,” she said.

“We’re fed up with an economy that treats workers like an expense to be minimized instead of the engine that makes everything run,” Shuler continued. “We have to meet each other in that shared experience. If we can agree that shit costs too much and we’re all getting squeezed then we can start working together to fix it.”

Many, however, argue that “working together to fix it” actually requires a lot more than waiting around for the mid-term elections and replacing cooperate-controlled Republicans with corporate-controlled Democrats.  

“Anytime, anywhere that authoritarianism has shown up, the determining factor of it succeeding has been one thing—the response of the labor movement,” Organized Power in Numbers Executive Director Neidi Dominguez said on Tuesday. “The response of working people, the response of people like you showing up against it.” 

Indivisible Co-Founder Leah Greenberg, meanwhile, stressed the importance of building a “tapestry of defiance” against the Trumpian agenda.

“We’re in a pivotal year,” she said. “Trump is losing support fast. He is flailing. Flailing would-be dictators are dangerous. They don’t go quietly—they lash out. That is why he invaded Minnesota. That is why he launched an illegal, catastrophic war on Iran. That is why we are fully expecting him to sabotage the upcoming mid-term elections. We stop that by building our power.”

Dominguez further urged working class people taking the “No School. No Work. No Shopping.” pledge to “do as much as you are able” on May 1, and “build the muscle we need to stop this regime and build a world that works for all of us.” 

“You may not be able to do all three of those things,” she said. “That’s okay. But know that you can do one of them. And we need more of us to be doing one, or if you can, all them.” 

May Day Strong organizers will hold an online planning meeting from 7-8 p.m. EST on April 9.