On Saturday, June 14, 2025, President Trump spent around $45 million of my money to put on a military parade for himself. I know this is also the US Army’s 250th birthday and the celebration was supposed to be about honoring our military, but lots of reports say the plans for this day became much more elaborate after Trump took office. And that was why the 5051 Movement organized No Kings rallies around the United States, set for the same day as Trump’s birthday party. Indivisible Twin Cities organized a rally in front of the Minnesota State Capitol in St. Paul.
I posted my reasons for attending my first protest rally back in April 2025. Those reasons are all still valid, but now there’s more.
No Kings Reasons?
Every week seems to bring a new Trump outrage. They come so fast, nobody can document them all. In early June, 2025, protesters in Los Angeles went up against ICE agents conducting yet more raids. Faster than anyone could say “Illegal executive order” three times, Trump declared that hoards of liberal activists were burning down the whole city and federalized the National Guard and US Marines against Governor Gavin Newsom’s wishes. The last time a president federalized the National Guard against a governor’s wishes was 1965 when President Johnson did it to protect Martin Luther King and peaceful protesters.
Trump told the world that Los Angeles was a test case, and that he would use the military across the country to put down protests if he felt the need. And if anyone protested his military parade in Washington, D.C., they would feel severe consequences.
Presidents are not supposed to use the US military as their personal private army. As of this writing, California continues to challenge Trump in court.
On Friday, June 13, 2025, DHS Secretary Kristi Noem held a press conference in Los Angeles. When California US Senator, Alex Padilla tried to ask a question, federal agents wrestled him to the ground and handcuffed him. Noem and MAGA world claimed Padilla tried to lunge at her stage. The video tells a different story. Other people who were there corroborate the video.
And that set the stage for No Kings day. Until the unthinkable happened.
The Unthinkable
Around 2:00 am Saturday morning, June 14, 2025, Vance Boelter tried to murder Minnesota State Senator John Hoffman and his wife, Yvette. They survived. Reports say Yvette Hoffman saved her daughter Hope’s life by throwing herself on top of her daughter. Around 3:30 am, police found a vehicle that looked like a police SUV parked in the driveway of Minnesota House Speaker, State Rep. Melissa Hortman. Boelter emerged from Hortman’s house and exchanged gunfire with police. Boelter escaped on foot behind the house. Melissa Hortman and her husband, Mark, died from gunshot wounds.
With a political assassination suspect on the loose, Minnesota officials tried to cancel all Minnesota No Kings rallies. But around 20,000 people showed up in front of the Capitol building in St. Paul anyway. I was one of them.
I’m grateful for a large police presence, that the atmosphere was friendly, and that nobody needed to dodge any bullets.
Law enforcement caught Boelter on Sunday evening, June 15, 2025.
Traffic in downtown St. Paul was gridlocked. Parking was a hassle. Which meant lots of people were turning out. Which was good. I parked in front of the Landmark Center, almost a mile away, and fed the parking meter the maximum of two hours.
The No Kings Show Must Go On
Organizers scrambled to put on a program and the No Kings rally took on a more somber tone than the Hands Off rally I attended in April. But everyone I met agreed that we needed to do this. Gathering made a statement that we will not let fear rule us. Plenty of Americans before us showed up when it counted. Now it was our turn.
I snapped lots of sign pictures and handed out business cards. A few people asked me what I write about. After ten years of trying to answer that question, I finally came up with a concise answer. Online abuse. Which fits today’s political narrative.
Here is a short video with a 360 degree panorama showing the crowd size.
I met two women at the No Kings rally who talked about a 2017 rally in Washington D.C., the day after the first Trump inaugural. They wore pink hats with cat ears and called them pussy hats, in honor of Trump’s infamous “grab ’em by the pussy” hot mic comments that leaked shortly before the 2016 election. Apparently, women wearing those hats in a protest that day brought more people to the Washington, DC Mall then the Trump inauguration.
I had to feed the parking meter again and made it back to my car with five minutes to spare. I returned to the rally right as the rally ended, earlier than the original plan because Governor Walz and other speakers had to cancel because an assassin was still on the loose. And that’s when this sign caught my attention.
We had a good talk about big tech, power concentration, social media, and dopamine. She said she is a Russian citizen and I think she said she has an advanced degree in psychology. She said the Russian government dumps people in prison for even liking social media posts the Russian government doesn’t approve. She sees the same trend starting here in America. I gave her a business card. I hope she reaches out. Maybe she’ll see this blog post.
And that leads to online abuse.
Online Abuse
Beyond the usual MAGA hogwash whining that evil liberals organized the No Kings day and evil rich liberals pay people to protest, Utah Republican US Senator Mike Lee sank to a new low when he used social media to ridicule the Hoffman attempted murder and the Hortman murders.
By Sunday evening, June 15, 2025, Lee’s post generated 3.6 million views and 1900 reposts. But Lee wasn’t done. He pinned the post below, which generated 3.5 million views and 3000 reposts as of this writing.
Senator Mike Lee was hardly alone spewing online abuse. Another MAGA influencer called “The Hodgetwins” claimed on Facebook that Democrats incited Hortman’s murder because of her recent compromise vote to finalize the Minnesota state budget in a deadlocked legislature to avoid shutting down state government.
Her bold stand to protect taxpayers infuriated open-border radicals, and now police confirm her murder was POLITICALLY MOTIVATED! The suspect, a white male posing as a cop, left “No Kings” flyers linked to anti-Trump protests and a manifesto targeting Hortman and other Dems.
President Trump called it a “heinous attack on democracy,” vowing AG Pam Bondi and the FBI will deliver SWIFT justice!
X users are LIVID: @FinalTelegraph says, “She paid the ultimate price for doing what’s right,” while @stbythec demands Dems “stop inciting violence.” The killer’s still at large—Brooklyn Park’s on LOCKDOWN! Share to honor Hortman’s bravery and BACK Trump’s fight to crush political violence!
117,000 people liked this post and 60,000 people shared it, including at least one of my Facebook friends.
The problem with Hodgetwins’ theory is, no facts support it and the available facts as of this writing lead to an opposite conclusion. Vance Boelter calls himself a Christian who voted for Trump and opposes abortion and LGBTQ rights,
Don’t buy into the lies. Murder is an equal opportunity crime. This time, a so-called conservative did it.
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