Thousands of Southern Californians are expected to take part in a second \u201cNo Kings Day\u201d protest on Saturday, Oct. 18 to speak out against \u201cauthoritarian excesses and corruption of the Trump administration,\u201d while prominent Republicans have criticized the planned event as anti-American.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe president thinks his rule is absolute. But in America, we don\u2019t have kings and we won\u2019t back down against chaos, corruption, and cruelty,\u201d protest organizers wrote in a statement on the No Kings website.<\/p>\n
Large crowds in Southern California took to the streets during the first No Kings protest in June<\/a> to protest President Donald Trump\u2019s policies, an event that fell on his 79th birthday.<\/p>\n The June 18 protests were mostly peaceful until protesters and local law enforcement officers clashed in downtown LA, leading to officers deploying chemical irritants and flash bang grenades at civilians.<\/p>\n Hundreds of protests<\/a><\/strong> are scheduled in the second wave of No Kings protests around the country this Saturday, Oct. 18, including dozens in Southern California:<\/p>\n Tensions are already high across the nation in advance of the protests following various acts of political violence including the shooting death of conservative activist Charlie Kirk, the killing of Democratic Minnesota state representative Melissa Hortman and her husband, and a fatal shooting outside a Dallas, Texas U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement building that authorities say targeted ICE agents, although two detainees were killed.<\/p>\n Additionally raising tensions is the threat of troop deployments across various U.S. cities, including Chicago and Portland. The federal government says the troops support immigration agents and protect federal property. Trump has also previously sent the National Guard to Los Angeles and has discussed sending troops to Oakland and San Francisco.<\/p>\n House Speaker Mike Johnson on Friday called the No Kings protest march scheduled to take place at the National Mall a \u201chate America rally\u201d that would aligned with \u201cthe pro-Hamas wing\u201d and \u201cthe antifa people,\u201d according to a Politico story.<\/a><\/p>\n In September, Trump vowed to target the \u201cradical left\u201d after the fatal shooting of right-wing activist Charlie Kirk. Ten days after Kirk\u2019s death, Trump signed an executive order to designate Antifa as a domestic terrorism organization.<\/p>\n\n