Military veterans will be among the millions slated to attend protest rallies this weekend, in the United States and beyond.
Months after protests garnered millions of attendees across the nation, groups have organized another iteration of what has come to be known as “No Kings” to decry President Donald Trump and his administration’s policies. Attendees include military veterans, some of whom spoke with Military.com about why they have attended in the past and continue to speak out.
Organizers under the “No Kings” umbrella said as of Monday that more than 2,500 events have been scheduled on Oct. 18 across nearly every pocket of the country, from Fairbanks, Alaska, to Honolulu, Hawaii, and to Key West, Florida.
Events are also planned outside the U.S., in places like Vancouver and St. Croix and even in Saipan, the largest of the Northern Mariana Islands—a U.S. commonwealth in the Western Pacific. Protests have extended to European nations including England, Germany, Ireland and Spain, to name just a few.
“In June, we did what many claimed was impossible: peacefully mobilized millions of people to take to the streets and declare with one voice: America has No Kings,” reads a message on the ‘No Kings’ website. “And it mattered. The world saw the power of the people. President Trump’s birthday parade was drowned out by protests in every state and across the globe. His attempt to turn June 14 into a coronation failed, and the story became a rallying point for a movement rising against his authoritarian power grabs.”
Military.com reached out to organizers, which include 5051, the American Civil Liberties Union, the League of Women Voters and many others, for comment.
‘Duty To Speak Up’
This will be the second time that Scott Peoples, 38, of Raleigh, North Carolina, will be speaking to gathered attendees in his locale. The U.S. Army veteran, who achieved the rank of captain, served from 2009 to 2014 and spent the duration of his service in the 82nd Airborne Division at Fort Bragg.
“I strongly believe in the First Amendment and the right to peacefully and nonviolently protest against what I believe are the authoritarian actions of the Trump administration,” Peoples, now chairman for Veterans for Responsible Leadership, told Military.com. “As a veteran I believe that we have [a] duty to speak up and be leaders in our communities. The oath we take to the constitution is for life.”
He previously addressed a crowd on June 14, when protesters rallied nationwide on the same day as Trump’s 79th birthday and during a military parade in Washington, D.C. celebrating the Army’s 250th anniversary.
Now a registered Democrat, Peoples’ political proclivities have drastically altered since he was a registered Republican from 2004 to 2017. He left the GOP when Trump took over, saying he is “morally opposed to Trump as a person” and also disagrees with his administration’s policies.
“I used to consider myself a John McCain Republican and believed that the Republican Party stood for defending democracy at home and abroad, but [I] now see that the party has abandoned those values in the pursuit of raw power—and I cannot be a part of a party that does put principles over power.”
‘Biggest Domestic Enemy Ever’
Ronn Easton has been speaking out against Trump and his administrations for over a decade.
The Minneapolis, Minnesota, resident and U.S. Army veteran who served from 1969 to 1971 said his feelings towards the president began prior to the 2016 election, when Trump seemed to imply that veterans with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) are not as strong as those who don’t suffer from the condition.
“I can assure you that as of today, 76 years, I’m far from weak,” Easton told Military.com. “I also remember my oath, to which there is no expiration date on that oath. And my oath is to the Constitution against all enemies, foreign and domestic.
“[Trump] is truly the biggest domestic enemy that this country has ever faced.”
Easton has also previously attended “No Kings,” which he described as deja vu because he’s been protesting his entire life. He learned the ropes from family.
“When I was a kid growing up in Memphis, my grandmother was a member of the NAACP there, and they held strategy meetings right in my grandmother’s living room,” he said. “People like Benjamin Hooks and John Lewis and Ralph Abernathy, they all came through my grandmother’s living room.
“That has been ingrained in me forever; it did give me a little bit of hope.”
But that hope may be waning. While “No Kings” and similar events have garnered widespread attention across the world, Easton said it will take something even bigger to send a stronger messages—tens of millions of Americans marching through the streets of Washington D.C., for example.
The self-described conservative Democrat believes the disconnect between people like him and other military service members who like and/or voted for Trump is based on economics and -isms.
As he put it, “Roaches and racism will be two things around forever.”
“I don’t go along party lines with everything that the Democrats have come up with,” he added. “As far as I’m concerned, they can kiss my a** by the way they threw Joe Biden under the bus. That left a sour taste in my mouth.
“I vote for freedom, I vote for the people. I vote for people’s rights. I vote for equal opportunity.”
Protests Have Staying Power
Scott Peoples said that protests like these have two-fold objectives: one, to send a message to administrations such as these regarding rights and not “trampling” the Constitution.
The second is to build community, or “strength in numbers” as he described, to combat what he called the Trump administration’s usage of the military community as “political props.”
“No one has done more damage to the politicization of the military than Trump and [Secretary of War Secretary Pete] Hegseth,” Peoples said. “When they speak in front of audiences of military service members and demonize all Democrats and the media it is absolutely abhorrent behavior. The military should be seen as apolitical.
“Also, there is no justification for putting the National Guard in the streets of U.S. cities. It is not only disrespectful to the service of those troops by taking them away from their families and jobs but also the military should never be used for domestic law enforcement.”
The firings of tens of thousands of Department of Veterans’ Affairs employees will have lasting damage on veterans’ healthcare, he added, saying that an already understaffed agency will be challenged to recruit high-quality doctors, nurses, and mental health therapists to take care of our nation’s veterans.
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