Long Island 'No Kings' protests part of movement's aim to juice turnout for midterms

The "No Kings" movement, which since last year has drawn millions of anti-Trump protesters nationwide, is mobilizing across Long Island and the country starting Saturday with a new mission: harnessing outrage at President Donald Trump to drive voter turnout for the midterm elections.

Voters are being urged to cast ballots early. Organizers are also hoping to build an "on-ramp into election protection work," the group's website says, "needed to defend our votes locally."

Long Island has No Kings events scheduled so far in Great Neck, Hampton Bays, Lake Grove, Merrick, Miller Place, Lindenhurst/Babylon, Patchogue, Port Jefferson Station, Riverhead, South Huntington, and the Tri-Hamlets of Mastic, Mastic Beach and Shirley.

There are also No Kings events Saturday in New York City, which have drawn the region’s, and the nation’s, most attendees.

"LET’S MAKE THIS THE BIGGEST RALLY EVER!" says the listing for the South Huntington event, noon to 2 p.m., at Route 110 and Jericho Turnpike, which activists call The Four Corners for Democracy, a popular site for demonstrations over the years.

At the Lake Grove event, noon to 3 p.m. at the Smith Haven Mall entrance sidewalk, organizers promise karaoke and a costume parade to encourage early voting.

"A core principle" of the No Kings events nationwide is "nonviolent action and no civil disobedience," and participants are expected "to seek to de-escalate any potential confrontation with those who disagree with our values," the website says.

The movement is called "No Kings" to send an anti-authoritarian message to oppose Trump’s muscular use of executive power and what critics say is overreach on issues such as immigration and military deployment in American cities. Trump's defenders say he is constitutionally vested as the sole holder of executive power, and that he's seized power back from unelected bureaucrats who aren't accountable to the electorate and don't execute the people's will.   

Hundreds of groups back the No Kings movement, including the ACLU, labor unions, environmentalists, left-leaning organizations and others, but events are typically conceived and planned locally, with the national website offering a portal for those interested in hosting.

The first No Kings protest, on June 14, 2025, overlapped with Trump’s 79th birthday and a military parade he convened in Washington, D.C., to mark the Army's 250th birthday. There were also protests later in 2025 and earlier this year.

The Republican House Speaker, Mike Johnson, has ridiculed No Kings events as a "Hate America Rally."

Opinion polls foretell a trouncing at the ballot box for Trump and the Republicans, as voter frustration mounts over the Iran war, fuel prices, American support for Israel, the cost of living and the president's alleged self-dealing. But polls have been wrong in the past, notably before Trump’s first presidential victory in 2016.

It's hard to predict whether a particular protest will ultimately be successful in achieving its aims, said Lawrence B. Glickman, a professor of American studies in the history department at Cornell University and also a Melville native.

"The thing about social movements is that you really can't know in advance what will work and what won't work," Glickman said.

For example, he noted, opposition to American involvement in Vietnam started out as a small, fringe, unpopular cause but later grew to become mainstream and ultimately reversed American public opinion, leading to the United States' withdrawal from Southeast Asia. And the March on Washington in 1963 was successful beyond organizers' imaginations and helped push passage of the nation's first major civil rights legislation since Reconstruction.

But there have also been unsuccessful movements, including massive protests in the 1980s against nuclear weapons. That campaign yielded limited success in getting President Ronald Reagan to implement modest curbs.

Sometimes, Glickman said, protests can backfire, such as ones during the late 1960s by extremist groups calling for violence. Those movements played a part in pushing the so-called "Silent Majority" to elect Richard Nixon in 1968 on a law-and-order platform.

In the case of No Kings, Glickman said, protests helped rebut the notion in the aftermath of Trump's 2024 victory that America had undergone a complete "vibe shift" and Trump's policies were a fait accompli.

"People are feeling isolated and defeated, and they see a big protest, and they see other people turning out, it kind of gives you confidence that you're not alone, that other people agree with you," Glickman said.

He added: "We'll see what happens in the 2026 midterms."

By Matthew Chayes

matthew.chayes@newsday.comchayesmatthew

Matthew Chayes, a Newsday reporter since 2007, covers New York City.