By WPS.News Staff
October 21, 2025

Dateline: United States — Seven million Americans marched on October 18, 2025, in the most widespread act of public defiance since the Civil Rights era. They called it “No Kings Day,” and they weren’t subtle: this was a nationwide rejection of Donald J. Trump — the 47th President of the United States — and the fascism he has dragged into the open.

From coast to coast, streets flooded with handmade banners reading “No Kings,” “Democracy or Death,” and “Never Again Means Now.” The protests spanned every time zone, from small-town courthouse steps to massive crowds in Los Angeles, New York, and Chicago. What happened was more than protest — it was a referendum on whether America will kneel to authoritarianism or stand as a republic.

Trump’s Regime Meets Its Moment of Truth

Trump’s second, non-consecutive presidency has been a rolling assault on democratic norms — executive orders pushed through without oversight, journalists targeted, critics branded as traitors, and federal agencies turned into personal instruments of vengeance. His inner circle still performs the strongman theater, but on No Kings Day, the crowd size was no longer his. It belonged to the resistance.

The scale alone should shake the illusion of control. Independent counts from Reuters and Time placed the turnout between 5 and 7 million, dwarfing any rally Trump has ever held (Reuters, 2025; Time, 2025). The so-called silent majority isn’t silent — it’s marching.

History Rhymes: From Rome to Washington

Trump’s apologists should revisit the fate of another self-proclaimed savior of the nation: Benito Mussolini.

For twenty years, Mussolini strutted across Italy as if the people adored him. But once Italians stopped fearing him, his power disintegrated. On July 25, 1943, his own Fascist Grand Council voted him out, and the king ordered his arrest (History.com Editors, 2009). The “Duce” who once ruled by spectacle fell because the spell was broken — the crowds turned away.

That’s exactly what America witnessed this week. When millions stop clapping, the dictator’s voice starts to sound like noise.

Italy’s Resistenza — the underground anti-fascist network of workers, clergy, and students — didn’t wait for permission. They organized, sabotaged, and liberated towns themselves. By 1945, they captured Mussolini near Lake Como and hung him in the same square where his forces had displayed their victims (The National WWII Museum, 2023). Fascism always ends that way: not with an election, but with repudiation by the people it sought to dominate.

America’s Resistance Awakens

The United States hasn’t reached that level of collapse, but the pattern is unmistakable. Trump governs by resentment and intimidation, pitting “real Americans” against imagined enemies. But the No Kings uprising shows that fear is no longer the dominant emotion — anger is. Righteous, organized anger.

Teachers, nurses, veterans, longshoremen, priests, and students all marched shoulder to shoulder. Indigenous nations joined environmental groups. Labor unions revived picket-line discipline for the streets. Even some former conservatives carried signs reading “I voted for him once. Never again.”

This wasn’t a political rally; it was a civic revival. The same American tradition that broke slavery, crushed the Confederacy, and dismantled Jim Crow rose again — this time against a gilded autocrat in a red tie.

The Beginning of the End of Fear

History teaches that fascism relies on three things: obedience, apathy, and isolation. The No Kings movement shattered all three.

  • Obedience died when millions disobeyed the unspoken order to stay home and stay silent.
  • Apathy died when communities realized silence was complicity.
  • Isolation died when Americans saw each other in the streets and understood they were not alone.

Trump’s regime feeds on spectacle — but the cameras are no longer pointed at him. They’re on the people. And that’s the moment every autocrat dreads.

The Torch Passes to the People

From the Resistenza of Italy to the civil rights marches of Selma, democracy survives when ordinary citizens refuse to surrender the public square. No Kings Day was that refusal made visible.

The anti-fascists of 1943 toppled a tyrant. The anti-fascists of 2025 just reminded the world that America hasn’t forgotten how.

Trump built his brand on the illusion of strength. But as Mussolini learned, there’s nothing weaker than a dictator facing a crowd that no longer believes in him.

References

Encyclopaedia Britannica. (n.d.). Italy – The partisans and the Resistance. https://www.britannica.com/place/Italy/The-partisans-and-the-Resistance
History.com Editors. (2009, November 16). Benito Mussolini falls from power | July 25, 1943. History. https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/july-25-mussolini-falls-from-power
The National WWII Museum. (2023, September 11). The CLN: The Italian Resistance Unites as Mussolini’s Regime Crumbles. https://www.nationalww2museum.org/war/articles/cln-italian-resistance-unites-mussolinis-regime-crumbles
Reuters. (2025, October 18). Crowds gather for ‘No Kings’ rallies against Trump. https://www.reuters.com/world/us/no-kings-rallies-expected-draw-millions-across-us-protest-against-trump-2025-10-18/
Time. (2025, October 18). ‘No Kings’ protests draw crowds across the U.S. https://time.com/7326801/no-kings-protests-near-me-trump/
Wikipedia. (2025, October). Second presidency of Donald Trump. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Second_presidency_of_Donald_Trump

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