The GOP has only brought enormous attention to No Kings protests

That's good, because the corporate media is doing a terrible job.

For days now Republican leaders and members of the Trump administration have been doing everything they can to demonize the No Kings protests that will occur across the country this weekend, as millions will be out in force, from the biggest cities to the wide open spaces of rural America.

The demagoguery won’t work, as millions of Americans are speaking with their own voices, and many more will see them and hear them. But it is interesting that the GOP has latched on to the story.

Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy has called them “Antifa protests” filled with “paid protestors” (which makes little sense), while House Speaker Mike Johnson has called it the “hate America” rally and “pro-Hamas” — when in fact millions of people at the No Kings protests in June were waving American flags while bedecked in red, white and blue. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent even blamed the government shutdown on the No Kings protests.

It shows they are terrified.

And more accurately, these talking points are likely being directed by the White House and Donald Trump, who, as the New York Times put it, “bristled” at the No Kings protests in June, and is surely horrified about the idea of new ones this weekend.

President Trump bristled on Thursday at the mention of a series of “No Kings” protests against his administration scheduled for the day of his planned military parade in Washington — coinciding with his 79th birthday.

“I don’t feel like a king, I have to go through hell to get stuff approved,” Mr. Trump said to laughter from an audience of Republican lawmakers and political allies in the White House, arguing in essence that the opposition he faces from Democrats proves that he is not able to rule like a king.

He continued, “A king would say ‘I’m not going to get this.’ A king wouldn’t even have the California mandate to even be talking.”

Trump is feeling high and mighty, hoping against all hope for that elusive Nobel Peace Prize after the Gaza ceasefire, and the protests will just be a big downer, another blow to his narcissistic sense of self.

Trump has a way of promoting the very things he doesn’t want to bring attention to. Just a few weeks ago, after having his FCC attempt to shut down Jimmy Kimmel, he created an enormous outpouring for the First Amendment that even his allies like Ted Cruz joined. And it made Kimmel, whom he perceived as an enemy, into a hero.

Kimmel was eventually back on the air as Disney couldn’t withstand the pressure on ABC. And that night, before the broadcast, Trump lashed out with more threats against ABC in a Truth Social post expressing his unhinged outrage—which only helped to publicize Kimmel’s return.

The GOP is doing the same thing now with No Kings. If people hadn’t heard of the No Kings protests a week or so ago, they may now have heard about them in recent days from Mike Johnson or Sean Duffy or Scott Bessent on Fox or CNN or elsewhere.

As author and columnist Margaret Sullivan wrote at American Crisis, the media has done very little to cover the upcoming protests, even though they represent the disgust and anger of many Americans, ignoring the “trauma of millions.”

We will see coverage after the fact, as millions come out to protest. But Sullivan’s point is that we see so many stories about Trump voters and MAGA supporters and what they’re thinking and feeling, and yet here is the American media once again not on top of the story of how millions opposed to Trump are feeling—and how they plan to take action.

So, the GOP is actually helping to drive the story, since the media feel compelled to report on their demonizing of the event, and in that sense they’re doing us a favor.

Of course, this still allows for the GOP to put up its framing. But we have a terrible media. We’ve never relied on them. And this weekend, knowing that Trump and the GOP are afraid, millions will take a clear message to communities all across this nation.