No Kings

In the latter part of the seventeenth century King George III of England levied large taxes on the American colonies. The Stamp Act (1765) and the Tea Act (1773) were imposed upon the colonists without allowing them to have any representation in Parliament to argue about why the taxes should not be imposed. This idea of Taxation Without Representation became the primary cause of the American Revolution.

Thomas Paine, an American patriot and writer, penned Common Sense in 1775-1776. In it he argued that the British monarchy was tyrannical and corrupt and the only the way the colonies would rid themselves of the King’s tyranny was to rid themselves of the king by creating an independent country.

When Thomas Jefferson wrote the Declaration Of Independence in 1776, he included a list of twenty-seven grievances against the King. Some of these were —

"For imposing taxes on us without our consent:"

"For depriving us in many cases, of the benefit of Jury trial:"

"For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offenses:"

"For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments:"

The American colonists were sufficiently aggrieved by the King’s action that they fought a war, the American Revolution, to rid themselves of this king and his tyranny. There have been other wars in our history as a country, but this war started it all and its causes are ingrained in our national psyche.

Much of what we see from our government in 2025 echoes the grievances that Jefferson recorded.

Ezra Levin, rhe co-executive director of Indivisible, Martin Luther King III and Andrea Waters King have written at length about “Trump’s Game Plan” for destroying our democracy. (https://www.msnbc.com/opinion/msnbc-opinion/no-kings-protests-trump-military-parade-rcna212922)

In the article cited above the authors wrote, “The president is using the same playbook we’ve seen in other countries throughout history: concentrate power, crush dissent, target vulnerable communities, enrich yourself, and distract the public with shows of force.”

Continuing, they said, “He’s attacked the press and public universities, purged civil servants, and ignored court orders. He’s slashing budgets for public services, moved to erase hard-won victories for civil rights, ordered the hounding of immigrants in schools, places of worship and job sites, and ignored due process while deporting migrants to dangerous foreign prisons.”

On February 19, 2025, Donald Trump called himself a king. On Truth Social, his social media channel, Trump wrote concerning a New York City plan to limit traffic congestion: “CONGESTION PRICING IS DEAD. Manhattan, and all of New York, is SAVED. LONG LIVE THE KING!” The White House reinforced this post with a fabricated Time Magazine cover picturing Trump wearing a crown.

On March 30, 2025 Trump said that the 22nd Amendment to the Constitution, the one limiting the terms of the Presidency, was somewhat wobbly and that it could be argued that a third term is permissible. The text of the amendment opens Section 1 by saying  “No person shall be elected to the office of the President more than twice …” but Trump said, “There are methods which you could do it” (https://apnews.com/article/trump-third-term-constitution-22nd-amendment-efba31be02ee96b0ef68b17fe89b7578).

And thus, No Kings Day was born.

The people of the United States rose up on June 14, No Kings Day, to protest Donald Trump’s treatment of the American people and to say “No Third Term” to him. A number of Mirehaven residents joined thousands of other Albuquerque residents to shout “No Kings!”

There are reports that more than five million people marched in the No Kings protest across the country. In Albuquerque, reports are that eight thousand people congregated in Mariposa Basin Park in northwest Albuquerque in spite of triple-digit heat. Two hundred thousand people marched in Los Angeles and about eighty thousand marched in Philadelphia. Marches were seen in 2,100 cities across the country that were also large. Even in the small towns the percentage of residents participating was high.

Reporters for Mirehaven News interviewed a number of Albuquerque marchers about why they were participating. Here is what some of them said.