THE CENTER SQUARE—In the hours leading up to and during a massive military parade that took place in the heart of Washington, D.C., on Saturday evening at the behest of President Donald Trump, protesters who argue he has repeatedly acted outside his constitutional authority gathered across the nation in symbolic defiance.
The president has said the parade was held in honor of the U.S. Army’s 250th birthday. It also coincided with Flag Day and the president’s 79th birthday.
A group of about 30 people gathered at one of many Northern Virginia locations as part of the ‘No Kings Day’ nationwide protest Saturday. They held signs and stood on sidewalks by a major intersection. Among them was 68-year-old Erin Scally. Now retired, Scally was a lawyer for the Department of Justice and is also former military. She said that the administration is violating the law by refusing to take asylum applications.
Trump attempted to suspend asylum access at U.S. ports of entry on the U.S.-Mexico border with an executive order on his first day in office. Like so many of the president’s second-term executive actions, that order is being challenged in court.
“I spent my whole career working for the Department of Justice and immigration, OK? And everything that’s happening now is 100% illegal,” Scally told The Center Square. “Even though people have a legal right to apply for asylum, they can’t now, which is absolutely illegal.”
“No Kings” is a group supported by more than 100 left-wing organizations and its protest took place in cities and towns across the country opposing what they say is the “authoritarian overreach” protesters believe has been demonstrated by the Trump administration.
Some protests heard from local and state leaders. Others simply held signs and chanted things like “Love, not hate, that’s what makes America great” and “When women’s rights are under attack, what do we do? Stand up, fight back!”
Tom Doyle, a 64-year-old retiree who worked for the Food and Drug Administration and is also former member of the military, said that Trump was using the military more to celebrate his own birthday than anything else. Doyle said he “couldn’t begin to start” with the ways he thinks the current administration has violated the Constitution.
“It’s particularly egregious that this draft dodger who doesn’t even understand what the Constitution means, is trying to usurp the Army’s birthday today. It’s incredibly disrespectful,” Doyle told The Center Square.
Other veterans pushed back against the narrative that the celebration was about Trump and not the Army’s anniversary.
“As a Vietnam Veteran and retired Army soldier, I’m absolutely disgusted that the mainstream media are referring to the celebration as Trump’s military parade. They are so into [Trump Derangement Syndrome] that they would give short shrift to the birthday of the U.S. Army,” retired Federal Aviation Administration special agent Brian Sullivan told The Center Square.
Most of the protesters The Center Square spoke to had concerns with how the administration is handling immigration enforcement. Violent protests erupted in Los Angeles over the past week over Immigration and Customs Enforcement activity in the city.
The attacks on ICE agents over several days led Trump to activate 2,000 members of the California National Guard to provide protection.
“The current administration is changing the status quo to something really nasty, which is a nation without due process, and a nation where immigrants can be grabbed off the streets. A nation where ICE can run around without identifying themselves,” said Jonathan Krall, a 65-year-old who worked for the Department of Defense for more than 30 years.
“Having law enforcement that doesn’t identify itself is antidemocratic,” Krall told The Center Square.
In recent weeks, as the Trump administration has continued to implement its crackdown on illegal immigration and deportations of people who came to the U.S. illegally, there have been increased complaints of Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers wearing masks and not identifying themselves as law enforcement or ICE. The law requires that ICE officers identify themselves at the time of an arrest “as soon as it is safe and practicable to do so.”
The Trump administration says the masks are needed because outed agents have been doxed and threats have been made against their families. Trump also campaigned on securing U.S. borders and deporting criminal illegal aliens.
Krall attended the “No Kings” protest in Old Town Alexandria, Virginia, where hundreds of protesters gathered Saturday afternoon.
Others The Center Square spoke to also mentioned the dismantling of the U.S. Agency for International Development and the “misuse of federal funds” and growing the deficit when the administration has said it’s cutting government waste.
Earlier this year, the Department of Government Efficiency directed a mass firing of USAID employees, and some of the department’s functions have now been transferred to the State Department, with the reasoning that the agency’s values didn’t align with American values and that agency had demonstrated fraud, waste, and abuse.
Walter McCormick, a 71-year-old who said he was a Republican for 40 years and had worked as part of Republican staff for the U.S. Senate for 10 years, now finds himself disenchanted with the party. McCormick said he attended the protest for “defense of the rule of law.”
USAID is a “congressionally authorized and appropriated agency” and “the Trump administration just did away with it. Illegal, unconstitutional, in complete derogation of our separation of powers,” McCormick told The Center Square.
No Kings has a stated commitment to nonviolence. The Center Square did not witness any violent actions or destruction of property at the protests.
Originally published by The Center Square