“HEY HEY, HO HO, DONALD TRUMP HAS GOT TO GO” was one of the many chants shouted by the tens of thousands of Seattleites who marched from the Seattle Center out into the streets of the city last Saturday, as part of the nationwide No Kings Protests. The crowd was a motley mix of people, ranging from protestors in frog costumes flying the One Piece Jolley Roger to elderly ladies concerned about the lack of bathrooms.
Seattle was one of approximately 2,600 cities to hold a protest Oct. 18, but the Seattle Center protest was one of the largest ones in the US. The organizers of the event, Seattle Indivisible, estimated that around 90,000 people took to the streets last Saturday to form a roughly one-mile-long convoy. The rally and march aimed to express one thing: “NO KINGS.”
The Seattle Center protest was headlined by Congresswoman Pramila Jayapal, a national figure who just this year reintroduced a bill in Congress to extend protections to undocumented immigrants and provide some of them a pathway to citizenship. Considering Donald Trump has focused a lot of his efforts on cracking down on undocumented immigrants and restricting pathways to citizenship, this bill was very controversial.
Jayapal invoked a famous warning from Benjamin Franklin about the nature of American democracy in her speech. Jayapal noted that when asked what kind of country the US would be, Franklin responded, “a republic, if you can keep it.”
“Seattle, we are at that ‘if you can keep it’ moment,” Jayapal said.
Girmay Zahilay was the other prominent elected official speaking at the event. The King County Council Chair spoke on the erosion of social programs that had helped many Americans, including himself.
“They were the foundation under my feet that lead me to this stage today, but that foundation is being chipped away for too many of our neighbors,” Zahilay said.
The crowd’s general vibe was more like a parade than a protest, as people were poking fun of the administration.
One protester, Claire Peters, donned a dinosaur costume and bore a sign that stated, “All kings in the US should be extinct.” She compared her own family’s history of escaping Nazi Germany to the current events that the U.S. is going through.
“I can’t imagine not being here,” Peters said, referring to the rally.
Peters shared that her choice to don a dinosaur costume was inspired by the Portland citizens protesting against U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). Demonstrations have been populated by people wearing inflatable frog costumes.
“It’s important for us to show that we’re not a bunch of scary terrorists, but we’re joyful, we’re having fun,” Peters said.
The notion that humor and fun are important parts of a protest was on full display in the crowd. One protester, who gave his first name as Mike, dressed as King Henry VIII of England. Mike expressed concern about the political power in our country being focused on one individual. When asked as to why he and his companion, who had dressed as Marie Antoinette, had chosen to dress up as historical royals, he responded with concern veiled in comedy.
“We thought, ‘bring back the monarchy,’ well, let’s do it right! Who else’ll oppress all the people, and Trump seems to be doing a real good job of that,” Mike said.
The protests across the country did not go unnoticed by the administration. Trump, in response to the protests, fired back with his own brand of humor. After returning from a golf outing taken during the No Kings protests, Trump posted an AI-generated video to his personal account on Truth Social. The post was of himself wearing a crown, flying a fighter jet that had “King Trump” emblazoned on the side, and dumping brown clumpy liquid resembling feces on protestors, all to the tune of Kenny Loggins’ “Danger Zone.”
As the current political landscape shifts increasingly towards the online sphere, humor is emerging as the premier battleground for many political movements. While frogs and other colorful animals dance in front of the Portland ICE building, perhaps Seattle will have salmon swimming in protest.
