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.
Edit, one week later. Like many early reports, this initial report got some details wrong. As of June 20, 2025, John Hoffman is in critical but stable condition. Yvette Hoffman is in stable condition. Both are recovering from multiple gunshot wounds. The Hoffman family released this statement.
In the statement, the Hoffmans described the night of the shooting, which occurred after they returned to their Champlin home from a dinner. Their adult daughter, Hope, was also present.
“At approximately 2:00 a.m., we were all awakened by the sounds of pounding on the front door and shouts of someone seeking entry, identifying himself as a police officer,” the statement said.
“When the door was opened, all three of us were in the entryway. John initially lunged at the gunman as the weapon was pointed directly at him, getting struck nine times. As John fell, Yvette reached out to push the man and shut the door, succeeding before she was also hit eight times by gunfire,” it continued.
The couple’s daughter then shut the door and locked it before she phoned 911.
“Her brave actions and quick thinking triggered the notice to public safety officials that a politically-motivated act was potentially underway,” the statement said.
From Minnesota lawmaker shot 9 times at his home in ‘targeted’ attack is in a critical condition
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 murders. Lee subsequently deleted this post after a storm of criticism. Here is a screenshot from archive.org. The original URL was https://twitter.com/BasedMikeLee/status/1934268603676647646.
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. Lee also deleted this post. Here is a screenshot from archive.org. The original URL was https://twitter.com/BasedMikeLee/status/1934262175582822629.
Senator Mike Lee was hardly alone spewing online abuse. At 12:39 pm, before the public learned Boelter’s identity or background, another MAGA influencer called “The Hodgetwins” posted 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.
Hodgetwins and other MAGA influencers who blasted social media posts the morning of the murders could not have known the shooter’s motive, because the public would not learn about Boelter’s background until later. So MAGA influencers made up another sensational viral lie. And now, that lie is flying around the internet and taking root with the MAGA faithful. This is a familiar story we’ve seen time and time again. The available facts as of this writing lead to an opposite conclusion from what Hodgetwins made up. Vance Boelter calls himself a Christian who voted for Trump and opposes abortion and LGBTQ rights.
Don’t buy into lies. Even if people with lots of followers spew them. Murder is an equal opportunity crime. This time, a so-called conservative did it. Next time – how about let’s find a way to reduce the odds of a next time instead of amplifying sensational lies.
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