Approximately 30 "No Kings" protests are planned in Missouri, and almost 2,000 are planned across the country, this weekend against Trump administration policies.
The “No Kings Day of Defiance” was organized nationwide at the same time a military parade will mark the U.S. Army’s 250th anniversary in Washington, D.C. The date also coincides with President Donald Trump’s 79th birthday.
In response to the planned rallies in Missouri, Gov. Mike Kehoe announced Thursday that he had activated the Missouri National Guard in preparation for the protests. The Guard will be mobilized only if “assistance is needed to support local law enforcement,” according to a news release from the governor’s office.
The rallies across the country are intended to “honor civil liberties for all” and protest deportation, U.S. actions in Gaza and recent funding cuts to government departments such as USAID, said Jeff Stack, coordinator of the Mid-Missouri Fellowship of Reconciliation and an organizer of a demonstration in Columbia.
A number of rallies are planned in Kansas City and St. Louis, with additional demonstrations scheduled in Boonville, Fayette, Marshall, Jefferson City, Warrensburg, Cape Girardeau, Springfield, Joplin, Rolla, St. Joseph, Poplar Bluff, West Plains, Kirksville, Maryville, Clinton and several other locations.
The demonstrations were spurred by the 50501 movement, a network of opposition that organizes and calls for protests across the country. The number refers to 50 protests, 50 states, one movement, according to the organization’s website.
It began on the social media platform Reddit after Trump’s second inauguration in January. The movement issued a statement earlier this month that “all No Kings events adhere to a shared commitment to nonviolent protest and community safety.”
Saturday is also Flag Day, a federal holiday that marks the adoption of the American flag on the date in 1777. No protest rally will be held in Washington, D.C., with the organizers saying it will “make action everywhere else the story of America that day.”
The rally in Columbia will be a “nonpartisan event,” Stack said. It is not in direct response to the presence of the National Guard and Immigration and Customs Enforcement in Los Angeles, Stack said, but federal action on the streets of California is emblematic of what will be protested.
“We’re not aligned with one particular party,” Stack said. “We’re just concerned about the policies.”
The goals of “No Kings” are to “give people a chance to come together to air grievances” and “honor the human rights and civil rights that we all have,” he said.
Cutting federal funding, deporting immigrants, enacting policies that “benefit the wealthiest of the wealthy” and laying off scores of federal employees are examples of the grievances, Stack said.
The "No Kings" rally in Kansas City is scheduled from noon to 3 p.m. Saturday at West 47th Street and Mill Creek Parkway, according to its website. Other rallies in the metro are planned in Lee's Summit and in Lenexa and Overland Park, Kansas.
This story originally appeared in the Columbia Missourian and was made available through the Missouri Independent.
