No Kings: The Coalition, the Money and the Criticism

No Kings is a brand more than an organization. The No Kings spokesperson Eunic Epstein-Ortiz told Snopes that it "is not an organization, nor is it a formal entity that can accept donations."¹ It is a name for coordinated protest days. That affects every question about who is behind it, because the answer is a coalition, and the members have different histories, funders and politics.

How it started

The first No Kings Day was Saturday, June 14, 2025, the same day as the U.S. Army 250th anniversary parade in Washington and Donald Trump's 79th birthday, which is also Flag Day. Organizers deliberately held no flagship event in Washington. Indivisible's Ezra Levin said the events would be "led by normal, everyday people, not professional political organizers," and the main event was in Philadelphia, near the Declaration of Independence sites.²³

According to Wikipedia, the theme was planned by 50501 and the protests were organized by Indivisible and other progressive groups as a coalition of more than 200 organizations. The ACLU says it "co-sponsored the protests with Indivisible" and a coalition of labor, environmental and human rights organizations.³⁴ 50501 had already held "No Kings on Presidents Day" protests on February 17, 2025 (lesson 12).

The name's roots are argued rather than documented. The Nation tied it to Thomas Paine's revolutionary 1776 pamphlet and the rejection of King George III, but that is the author's argument and not an organizer statement. It also quoted the call: "we're showing up everywhere he isn't, to say no thrones, no crowns, no kings." Wikipedia says the name responded to Trump's own references to himself as king and to administration posts showing him as a monarch. The lesson found no organizer statement citing the Declaration of Independence.⁵³

The people

Named in the sources: Ezra Levin and Leah Greenberg, co-executive directors of Indivisible, whose Form 990 data lists their fiscal year 2024 compensation at $98,515 and $103,223; Anu Joshi of the ACLU, who spoke in Philadelphia, and Deirdre Schifeling of the ACLU, who gave a statement; Randi Weingarten of the American Federation of Teachers, quoted on union backing in October 2025.⁶⁴⁷ InfluenceWatch, a research site that the lesson treats as a pointer only, names Carlos Alvarez-Aranyos of American Opposition PAC as a key organizer; the lesson treats that as a pointer only.⁸ The People and personalities section below says more about how these and the Idaho figures behaved in public.

The days and the numbers

Organizer and independent counts differ every time a comparison exists.

• June 14, 2025. More than 2,100 events. The ACLU and organizers said 5 million or more. The Crowd Counting Consortium (Erica Chenoweth, Soha Hammam, Jeremy Pressman and Christopher Wiley Shay), covering 82 percent of events with tallies, estimated 2 to 4.8 million at over 2,150 actions. G. Elliott Morris, in a back-of-the-envelope estimate reported by Wikipedia, said "somewhere in the 4 to 6 million range."⁴⁹³
• October 18, 2025. About 2,700 events, during a federal government shutdown. Axios reported "nearly 7 million" in its own voice, and Wikipedia attributes that figure to organizers. G. Elliott Morris (Strength In Numbers) put the median at 5.0 million with an upper bound of 6.5 million. NPR later reported No Kings's own figure as about 5 million at about 2,600 events. The lesson reports the difference as a discrepancy.¹⁰¹¹¹²
• March 28, 2026. Organizers claimed more than 8 million (some sources say 8 to 9 million) at more than 3,300 events, according to Wikipedia; NPR said more than 3,000 were planned. No independent published estimate was found; the raw sum of CCC's public data is in the table below. Police counts at two sites: the Minnesota State Patrol said 100,000 at the St. Paul flagship, where organizers said about 200,000, and San Diego police said 40,000. The Montana Free Press found that organizer estimates varied widely, that ground video makes crowds look huge and aerial video may undercount, and that no federal agency counts crowds.¹²¹³¹⁴
• June 14, 2026. "Rise Up, Sing Out," a concert for the First Amendment with watch parties, not a street protest.
• October 17, 2026. "No Kings: Vote Early," with at least 1,000 events planned and a focus on voter participation and election protection. No national turnout total had been published in the sources found by October 27, 2026; Texas Public Radio, carrying NPR text, said only "thousands of gatherings."¹⁵¹⁶⁴⁸

Turnout compared: organizers, estimates and raw sums

Four kinds of number appear in this lesson. An organizer claim is a figure the organizers published. An independent estimate is a range from outside the organizers, such as the Crowd Counting Consortium's published range or G. Elliott Morris's. A police count is an officer's or agency's figure for one site. A raw sum is this module's own addition of the low and high tallies in CCC's public data for every recorded event that has a tally. Events without a tally add nothing and later records may be added, so a raw sum is a floor and not a CCC estimate.⁴⁹

Day	Organizers' claim	Independent estimate	Raw sum of tallied events in CCC data (a floor)	Other counts
Jun 14, 2025	5 million or more at more than 2,100 events (ACLU and organizers)	CCC authors: 2 to 4.8 million at over 2,150 actions. Morris: 4 to 6 million, a back-of-the-envelope figure reported by Wikipedia	2,010,414 to 4,782,986, which reproduces the published CCC range when summed this way	St. Paul: State Patrol about 25,000; coalition 80,000
Oct 18, 2025	About 7 million at about 2,700 events (nokings.org; Axios reported "nearly 7 million"). NPR later gave No Kings's own figure as about 5 million at about 2,600 events	Morris with Xylom: median 5.0 million, upper bound 6.5 million	3,187,821 to 4,150,612 across 2,830 recorded events, 2,418 of them with tallies	None found
Mar 28, 2026	8 to 9 million at more than 3,300 events (Wikipedia, citing organizers)	None published found	2,744,368 to 3,336,848 across 3,562 recorded events, 2,871 of them with tallies; CCC's data end May 31, 2026, so records may be added	St. Paul: State Patrol 100,000, organizers about 200,000. San Diego police: 40,000
Oct 17, 2026	At least 1,000 events planned; no total found	None	No CCC rows (data end May 31, 2026)	Texas Public Radio: "thousands of gatherings," no total

None of these numbers is an official count; no federal agency counts crowds, as the Montana Free Press found. CCC's own program page says its data show the June and October 2025 days were "among the largest single-day demonstrations in US history."⁵⁰ A careful sentence therefore names the counter: organizers said about 7 million for October 18, 2025; Morris estimated a median 5.0 million; and the tallied events in CCC's public data add up to at least 3.2 million.

Idaho counts, with attribution

Idaho figures come from reporters, an officer, organizers and CCC rows that often copy organizer postings. Each is labeled. A CCC "tallied at" figure is the low end CCC coded from the cited report.⁴⁹

Place	October 18, 2025	March 28, 2026
Boise	About 5,000 (state police trooper, Idaho Press); about 10,000 (KIVI reporter); "thousands" (Capital Sun); CCC row "several thousand," tallied at 3,000	About 5,000 (Capital Sun reporter); "thousands" (Idaho Press); Wikipedia gives about 10,000 without attribution
Pocatello	About 2,000 (CCC row; the Idaho State Journal headline says "massive crowd," and its article was not opened)	Over 1,000 (Post Register); the CCC row says "hundreds," tallied at 200
Idaho Falls	About 1,200 (East Idaho News; the source of the estimate is not stated)	Over 1,000 (Post Register)
Sandpoint	About 1,200 (Sandpoint Reader)	More than 1,000 (CCC row)
Coeur d'Alene	400 to 500 (CCC count of a video)	About 1,700 (CCC row)
Hailey	Over 1,000 (CCC row)	200 to 900 (CCC row; "hundreds" in one report, 900 in another)
Twin Falls	"Hundreds" to over 1,000 (CCC row)	Up to 400 (CCC row)
McCall	425 or more (CCC row)	350 to 600 (CCC row)
Moscow	About 400 (CCC row)	150 to 250 (CCC count of a photo)
Driggs	50 to 70 (CCC count of a photo)	600 (CCC row)
Rexburg	About 200 (CCC row)	250 (CCC row)
CCC raw sum, all Idaho events	10,288 to 11,248; 15 of 19 events tallied	11,263 to 12,429; 16 of 22 events tallied
Organizer claim, statewide	More than 26,000, according to the Sandpoint Reader's report of an Idaho 50501 list	None found

The Idaho 50501 claim for October 18, 2025 is more than double the raw sum. The sources read do not reconcile them: this module saw the Reader's report of the statewide total but not the list, and the raw sum leaves out four untallied events. Report each figure with its source.⁵¹

The coalition, member by member

Group	What the sources show
Indivisible	Principal organizer (ACLU release; Wikipedia).
50501	Principal organizer; planned the June theme (Wikipedia).
MoveOn, ACLU, Public Citizen	Partners or co-sponsors verified; all three appear on the nokings.org Partners page.
American Federation of Teachers	Verified; Weingarten quoted.
SEIU	Reported by Labor Press as one of two anchor unions in October 2025, with the AFT.
AFL-CIO, CWA	Listed on Wikipedia pages; not independently confirmed.
Working Families Power	Listed on the nokings.org Partners page (read October 27, 2026). The Working Families Party itself is not listed under that name.
Party for Socialism and Liberation	Listed among organizers on Wikipedia's June 2025 page; not listed on its October page or on the nokings.org Partners page read October 27, 2026.
Democratic Socialists of America	Wikipedia lists DSA for March 2026. Metro DC DSA says "DSA chapters across the country will be taking part." The nokings.org Partners page (the Vote Early list) lists Democratic Socialists of America and two chapters, Atlanta DSA and Boulder County DSA.

The nokings.org Partners page was read directly for this lesson on October 27, 2026.⁵² It is the list for the Vote Early campaign, so it is not the June or October 2025 list; earlier versions could not be compared because the web archive was blocked. The sources support a plain description: Indivisible and 50501 were the principal organizers of a coalition of more than 200 groups, and a few socialist organizations were participants. They do not support calling the coalition socialist-led, and sociologist Dana Fisher's survey of participants, as reported by Wikipedia, found them mostly white, highly educated, female, middle-aged and Harris voters in 2024. Organizers describe their Vote Early program as nonpartisan voter participation.³¹⁷¹⁸

The partner list, counted

The Partners page lists 313 unique names. This module sorted them by hand into the groups below. The sorting is the module's and not the coalition's, the categories are approximate, and a name can fit more than one. Appearing on the list means a group is named as a partner. It does not show money, control, shared staff or agreement with every other partner.

Group of names	Count	Examples from the page
Labor unions, councils and federations	37	American Federation of Teachers, AFSCME, Service Employees International Union, Communications Workers of America, National Education Association, National Nurses United, United Electrical Workers, AFL-CIO state federations of Colorado, Illinois, Indiana and Texas
Faith, humanist and religion-and-state groups	27	Interfaith Alliance, Unitarian Universalist Association, Jewish Voice for Peace, Bend the Arc, Faith in Public Life, American Humanist Association, Freedom From Religion Foundation, Catholics Vote Common Good
Environmental and climate groups	22	Sierra Club, Greenpeace USA, Sunrise Movement, Center for Biological Diversity, state conservation voter groups
Groups named Indivisible	19	Indivisible (national) and 18 local or issue groups with the name
Third Act groups	6	Third Act and five state or city chapters
Entries named 50501	5	50501 / Voices of Florida Fund, 50501 Quincy Illinois, 50501 SoC, 50501 SoCal, CT 50501
Democratic Socialists of America	3	National DSA, Atlanta DSA, Boulder County DSA
All other	194	ACLU, Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, Color of Change, Public Citizen, Common Cause, MoveOn, Working Families Power, Our Revolution, League of Women Voters of the United States, Voto Latino, Black Voters Matter Fund, Refuse Fascism and many issue, health, immigrant and community groups

Searching the saved page text, this module did not find the Tides Foundation, Democracy Alliance, Open Society Foundations, Party for Socialism and Liberation, ANSWER or the Communist Party USA among the names. No Idaho organization appears by name; Idaho coverage names Idaho 50501, Indivisible Twin Falls County and the ACLU of Idaho, but they are not listed separately.

Principles

nokings.org says that a core principle behind all No Kings events is "a commitment to nonviolent action and no civil disobedience." It asks participants to de-escalate, act lawfully and leave weapons home, "including those that are legally permitted," and says organizers are trained in de-escalation and safety coordinators are on site. The ACLU helped with virtual safety trainings in October 2025. Late 2026 messaging added early voting and election protection.¹⁶¹⁷ Deirdre Schifeling of the ACLU said that protecting democracy "isn't a partisan issue," in the ACLU's release.⁴

Money

Documented. The Indivisible Project, a 501(c)(4), reported revenue from Form 990 data of $17.5 million in fiscal 2018, $14.6 million in 2019, $9.4 million in 2020, $14.3 million in 2021, $11.7 million in 2022, $12.6 million in 2023 and $10.4 million in 2024. The Open Society Foundations gave Indivisible about $5.01 million from 2021 to 2023 according to Snopes, including a $3 million 2022 grant "to support the grantee's social welfare activities." Fox News's version describes a two-year, $3 million grant in 2023 and a $7.61 million total; the lesson flags the discrepancy. InfluenceWatch says MoveOn received $3.2 million from Open Society from 2020 to 2024.⁶¹¹⁹⁸

Not documented. Any Open Society grant earmarked for No Kings days, the total No Kings budget, partner funding, or payments to individual protesters.

Fact-checks. Snopes rated the claim that billionaires spent $300 million on the protests "Mostly False." Some partner groups received foundation grants, but those predate the second Trump term and were not earmarked for No Kings. The rumor traces to Seamus Bruner of the Government Accountability Institute, whose October 16, 2025 post totaled $294,487,641 across foundation networks; Bruner later said the money goes to causes beyond civil unrest, such as immigration, education, voting and climate, adding that "the money is fungible," as Snopes reports. Open Society spokesperson Sean Savett said, "we did not provide any funding to organizations specifically for the No Kings rallies." An Open Society statement quoted by Fox said grantees "make their own decisions about their work." FactCheck.org found a viral "hiring protesters" Craigslist ad was a prank by two podcasters unrelated to No Kings, and Lead Stories found a viral post about $20 to $40 an hour came from an account with a parody history and an AI-generated profile photo.^1192021

What the filing summaries show, and do not

IRS summary data for 2023, as ProPublica displays them, give these revenue figures: Indivisible Project, the 501(c)(4), $12.57 million, which matches the figure above; Indivisible Civics, the 501(c)(3), $5.14 million; MoveOn Civic Action, $6.03 million; and the Tides Foundation, $350 million.⁵³ Tides sponsors donor-advised funds, so a grant that passes through it does not by itself show who the original donor was or that Tides directs the recipient. For politics, FEC totals show Indivisible Action PAC with $10.92 million in receipts in the 2026 cycle, only $135,000 of it from individuals. Where the rest came from was not examined, and it would take the committee's itemized receipts and transfers to say.⁵⁴

What this does and does not settle: the four organizations file separately under separate identification numbers, and the coalition's partner list confirms that Indivisible, MoveOn and Working Families Power are named partners. The summaries do not show shared officers, donors or staff, and the officer lists in the Form 990 filings were not read. The alliance claim in Pierson's essays, discussed below, therefore stays untested in this lesson, not disproved.

What officials said

• Speaker Mike Johnson, in a Fox interview published October 10, 2025: "They have a 'Hate America' rally that's scheduled for Oct. 18" on the National Mall, and "It's all the pro-Hamas wing and, you know, the ANTIFA people." On ABC's This Week on October 19, he said the issue was the message, cited "pretty violent rhetoric calling out the president," and pointed to Zohran Mamdani as an "open socialist Marxist."²²²³
• Reported by Newsweek: Johnson shared an image saying the Communist Party USA supported a No Kings rally, writing that events were "funded by Soros, and sponsored by the Communist Party USA," and Rep. Nancy Mace wrote, "Nothing says 'we care about democracy' like showing up to a rally" sponsored by communists. No organizer response or fact check of the Communist Party USA claim was found.²⁴
• Sen. Ted Cruz said there was "considerable evidence that George Soros and his network are behind funding these rallies."¹⁹
• President Trump, October 19, 2025: called it "a joke," said of the signs, "I guess it was paid for by [George] Soros and other radical left lunatics," "we're checking it out," and "I'm not a king." He posted an AI video of himself in a crown flying a jet labeled "KING TRUMP." No evidence for the Soros claim was offered in the reports read.²⁵²⁶
• Others, via Media Matters, a progressive source: Sen. Roger Marshall (described as calling the protests Soros-funded), Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy ("part of antifa, paid protesters") and Attorney General Pam Bondi ("to get to the funding of antifa"). Confirm independently.²⁷
• On March 28, 2026, a White House spokesperson, Abigail Jackson, called it "Trump Derangement Therapy Sessions."¹²

Trump designated antifa a "domestic terror organization" on September 22, 2025 and signed NSPM-7 on September 25, according to Wikipedia and Media Matters. Former FBI Director Christopher Wray told Congress in 2020 that antifa is "a movement or an ideology," not an organization. The sources found no court or agency linking the No Kings coalition to antifa.²⁷¹⁷

Incidents, reported with their limits

The lesson does not call the movement violent. It reports the incidents that sources document.

• Salt Lake City, June 14, 2025. Arthur "Afa" Ah Loo, 39, a fashion designer, was fatally shot. Police said two volunteer "peacekeepers" on Utah 50501's safety team saw Arturo Gamboa handling an AR-15-style rifle and one volunteer fired three rounds. Gamboa was hit and Ah Loo was killed. Police first arrested Gamboa on suspicion of murder and later released him; NBC reports prosecutors found insufficient evidence he broke any law, though his conduct could reasonably be perceived as alarming and irresponsible. East Idaho News also reports that video later suggested his rifle was pointed down, which it describes as not independently confirmed. Salt Lake County District Attorney Sim Gill charged the safety volunteer, Matthew Scott Alder, 43, of Murray, Utah, with manslaughter, a second-degree felony, in December 2025, saying the third shot was reckless; KUER's report is dated December 3, 2025, and an earlier version of this lesson gave October 29 from NBC's report, which the KUER and Courthouse News dates do not support.⁶² Gamboa was not charged. Alder pleaded not guilty through attorney Neal Hamilton. After an all-day preliminary hearing on October 13, 2026, Third District Judge Derek Williams found probable cause and bound the case over for trial. The defense raised a possible ricochet from new forensic evidence; Deputy District Attorney Josh Graves told the court that each pull of the trigger was a conscious decision. A pretrial conference is set for December 11, 2026. No trial date, plea or verdict had been reported: Alder is charged, not convicted. Ah Loo's family has also filed a civil suit.⁵⁹⁶⁰⁶¹ National 50501 cut ties with the Utah branch and said all actions must have a strict no-weapons policy.²⁸²⁹
• Minnesota, June 14, 2025. Melissa Hortman, a former Minnesota House speaker, and her husband were killed and Sen. John Hoffman and his wife were wounded that morning. Authorities said "no kings" papers were found in the suspect's vehicle. None of the sources read attributes the shooting to No Kings organizers or participants. Some Minnesota events were canceled, and the St. Paul rally went ahead with a State Patrol count of about 25,000 against the coalition's 80,000.³⁰
• Idaho, outside the No Kings days. On March 29, 2025 in Meridian, at a Tesla Takedown "Treasure Valley Day of Protest" that was not a 50501 or No Kings event, CCC's notes say a protester hit a counter-protester, a member of a group called Idaho Liberty Dogs, with a car after an obscene gesture and was charged with aggravated battery. This module read only CCC's note and not the underlying news stories; the case number and outcome are unverified. In Boise, CCC records arrests on April 1 to 4, 2026 (9, 6 and 6 on three of the days) at Statehouse protests over House Bill 752 and related bills, with the ACLU of Idaho listed as an organizer on April 1. Those were not No Kings events. They are listed so that they are not confused with the No Kings days.⁴⁹
• Arrests and clashes. Wikipedia reports at least 36 arrests in Denver in June 2025, 36 or more arrests nationally in October 2025, and 105 arrests in total in March 2026, mostly near ICE facilities, with tear gas near a Los Angeles detention center. These are secondary-source figures spread over thousands of events. New York City police reported zero protest-related arrests in March 2026.³¹⁷¹³

Idaho

• June 14, 2025. Boise: thousands at the Capitol, organized by Idaho 50501, with a written statement from Chris Ross; no incidents. KIVI listed 11 planned sites, including Nampa, Weiser, McCall, Twin Falls, Hailey, Pocatello, Idaho Falls, Moscow, Coeur d'Alene and Salmon. In Twin Falls, several hundred rallied, organized by Indivisible Twin Falls County; speakers included Democratic candidates David Roth and Terri Pickens. A separate group in Trump gear, who said they were celebrating Flag Day, stood across from the courthouse, and police reported no incidents. Idaho officials spoke before and around the day. Attorney General Raul Labrador wrote on June 13, 2025 that "we are not California" and that "violence, property destruction, and lawlessness will not be tolerated in Idaho," while saying he would protect the right to protest peacefully.⁵⁶ Twin Falls County Sheriff Jack Johnson issued a statement on June 11 asking protesters and counter-protesters to act "peacefully, respectfully, and lawfully."⁵⁵ A flyer from the Magic Valley Liberty Alliance, promoting a Flag Day demonstration across from the Twin Falls protest, told its participants to keep their distance and not respond to No Kings attendees.⁵⁵ Gov. Brad Little's June 14 post condemned political violence after the Minnesota shootings and did not mention the rallies. No statement from the Idaho Republican Party chair, legislators or mayors was found for any No Kings day; the search was limited, so that is a gap in the search and not a finding that none exist.^31323334
• October 18, 2025. Boise: organized by Idaho 50501, Indivisible and the ACLU of Idaho, with ACLU board member Sam Linnet speaking. Crowd estimates were about 10,000 (KIVI reporter) and "thousands" (Capital Sun), and no arrests, violence or counter-protesters were reported. Eleven Idaho events were listed. The Crowd Counting Consortium records 19 Idaho events that day, 15 with tallies, and Idaho 50501 reported a statewide total of more than 26,000, against a raw sum of 10,288 to 11,248 (see the Idaho counts table above). A separate "God's Country March" for Charlie Kirk, organized by groups including Old State Saloon, Idaho Liberty Dogs, Soldiers of the Cross, Turning Point USA and the Idaho Freedom Foundation, took place at the Capitol four days earlier.³⁵³⁶³⁷
• March 28, 2026. Boise: about 5,000 per the Capital Sun, "thousands" per the Idaho Press, about 10,000 per Wikipedia, which gives no attribution for that figure. Speakers included Maxine Durand, Terri Pickens, Melanie Folwell of Idahoans United for Women and Families, and Luke Mayville of Reclaim Idaho. The ACLU of Idaho urged a veto of House Bill 572. Hailey drew hundreds, and KMVT said crowds filled the streets in Twin Falls. No counter-protesters, incidents or arrests were reported.³⁸³⁹⁴⁰
• October 17, 2026. Boise, at the Capitol steps, billed No Kings: Vote Early. The Idaho Capital Sun reported the event with no crowd number, interviewed attendees and gave early voting information, with the November 3 general election as the focus.⁵⁷ KIVI, as carried by East Idaho News, said "hundreds" gathered and saw no organized counter-protesters during about an hour.⁵⁸ No incidents were reported and no official was quoted. Idaho 50501 had announced the event in a September 18, 2026 press release headed "NO KINGS 4." No other Idaho city was located for that day.

The Crowd Counting Consortium's Idaho rows for June 14 and October 18, 2025 and March 28, 2026 record no arrests, injuries or property damage. That agrees with the news reports above; it is absence in a data set built from public reports, not proof.

People and personalities

Everyone here is described by what the cited source says the person said or did. Appearing at a rally, being quoted, or belonging to an organization on a partner list is not agreement with every other partner. Groups and individuals are described by their own stated purposes and documented acts, and none of them is connected by any source in this module to the extremist movements in lessons 7 to 10.

Coalition voices, counters and critics

• Ezra Levin and Leah Greenberg. The co-executive directors of Indivisible. Their documented habit is to explain strategy in long public letters, essays and interviews. Levin said the first events would be led by "normal, everyday people" and told Rolling Stone in April 2025 that 50501 was a "very legitimate, organic, grassroots group of folks."⁷² After the October 17, 2026 events he told reporters "We're done sending a message," according to Texas Public Radio carrying NPR text.²⁴⁸ Greenberg's June 2025 essay and her October 2026 interview, in which she spoke of turning "protest power into voter power," are quoted below.⁷¹
• Eunic Epstein-Ortiz. The No Kings spokesperson who told Snopes that No Kings is not an entity that can accept donations and that most events are organized and funded locally by volunteers.¹
• Erica Chenoweth, Soha Hammam, Jeremy Pressman and Christopher Shay. The Crowd Counting Consortium researchers whose published range is the academic benchmark for June 14, 2025. They also report the conduct record: more than 99.5 percent of events with no injuries or property damage in their data, as the authors state.⁹
• G. Elliott Morris. An independent data journalist (Strength In Numbers) who, with Xylom, produced the median 5.0 million estimate for October 18, 2025. His method was partly behind a paywall.¹¹
• Critics and defenders. Asra Nomani, a Fox News Digital columnist with the Pearl Project, whose figures The Federalist relayed and whose October 17, 2026 article is discussed below; Keira Havens, who argued in Current Affairs that the national organization would not endorse impeachment; and Micah Sifry, a movement strategist who wrote sympathetically and reported local practices such as clipboards and QR codes for collecting names (quoted below).⁷⁰⁴⁷

Idaho: speakers, officials and counter-demonstrators

• Speakers and organizers. Sam Linnet of the ACLU of Idaho board (October 2025); Democratic gubernatorial candidates Maxine Durand and Terri Pickens (March 2026; Pickens also spoke in Twin Falls in June 2025); David Roth, a Democratic Senate candidate, in Twin Falls in June 2025; Luke Mayville of Reclaim Idaho; Melanie Folwell of Idahoans United for Women and Families; and the Rev. Josh Lee of Interfaith Justice Idaho, who spoke against Christian nationalism, a view he said he holds (Idaho Press, March 2026). Candidates appearing as speakers is in the record. So is the coalition's statement that events are nonpartisan and Fox's report that some local chapters promoted partisan messages.³⁸³⁹⁴⁷
• Officials. Attorney General Raul Labrador, Twin Falls County Sheriff Jack Johnson and Gov. Brad Little, as described in the Idaho section. Labrador and Johnson spoke in terms of lawful, peaceful protest and a warning against violence; neither accused organizers of anything in the statements quoted.
• Counter-demonstrators and neighbors. The Magic Valley Liberty Alliance flyer in Twin Falls told its own participants not to engage, and police reported no incidents there. The "God's Country March" for Charlie Kirk on October 14, 2025 at the Capitol, organized by groups including Old State Saloon, Idaho Liberty Dogs, Soldiers of the Cross, Turning Point USA and the Idaho Freedom Foundation, took place four days before the October 18 rally, and no clash between the two was reported. These are conservative and Christian political groups, described by their own stated purpose; nothing in this module connects them to extremist movements, and a writer should not.³⁵

In their own words and in the record

This section sets the organizers' public statements beside what supporters and critics wrote, so that a reader can see each in its own words before reading Pierson's analysis. Each item says who wrote it and where it stands: self-published by the coalition, written by a sympathetic observer, or written by a critic. Quotes are short and attributed. It does not decide the argument.

Organizers and allies

• Leah Greenberg, Indivisible mailing, June 10, 2025 (self-published; full text read). She lists "Bring in new people" and "Foster community" among the purposes of a mass mobilization, says it can "draw them into a cycle of action and relationships on the ground," and says it helps build a "shared sense of identity." She also writes, "Protest is a tactic."⁴²
• nokings.org training page, call "Make Your Impact Last," October 7, 2026 (self-published; read directly). The page frames the follow-up work as "recruitment, retention, absorption."⁶⁴
• Ezra Levin, Indivisible weekly update, March 16, 2026 (self-published; summary read only). A "Recruit" section asks supporters to find three people who did not attend the year before.⁶³
• Joe Turmes, Idaho 50501 organizer, to the Idaho Press, March 28, 2026. The aim of the day's booths was to get people "introduced to the folks that are doing the actual work."³⁹
• nokings.org "About" (self-published). Gives the October 18, 2025 figure as about 7 million and says 50501 activists came up with the rallying cry.⁶⁵
• A sympathetic observer. Micah Sifry, a movement strategist, reported in The Connector on March 11, 2026 that local groups collect names on clipboards and with QR codes, as local leaders described it to him.⁶⁶ Common Dreams, republished by Raw Story, described the One Million Rising training as "people power" organizing.⁶⁷

These statements establish that the organizers say, in public, that the events are meant to bring people into local groups and continuing work. They do not name a destination beyond that, and this section takes no position on whether one exists.

Critics

• The Federalist, June 18, 2025 (opinion; Robert Busek relaying Asra Nomani and the Pearl Project). Says the coalition has about 200 groups with "over $2 billion in annual revenue," cites a #ResistTrump slide deck that places political violence on a continuum of protest, and quotes an anonymous volunteer about scripted messaging.⁶⁸ The $2 billion adds up the revenues of partner organizations, including large unions, the ACLU and the Sierra Club. It is not a No Kings budget, and the spokesperson says No Kings cannot accept donations.
• Washington Examiner, July 18, 2025 (critical outlet). Calls Indivisible "Soros-backed" and presents One Million Rising as a recruitment program. The article cites no figures or documents.⁶⁹
• Fox News Digital, October 17, 2026 (Asra Nomani). Discussed below the analysis; its quotes come from host documents, chapter flyers and a webinar.
• Current Affairs, October 15, 2026 (Keira Havens, opinion). A critic of the national leadership's strategy who writes that the national organization would not endorse impeachment.

Not obtained for this lesson: National Review, the Wall Street Journal and Capital Research Center pieces.

Three questions, three kinds of source

Question	What organizers say publicly	What critics say	What documents show
Is recruitment the aim?	Yes: "bring in new people," "recruitment, retention, absorption"	It is a recruiting mask for a radical movement (Pierson, below)	The stated aim is documented; a more radical destination is not named in the sources read
Who pays?	No Kings is not an entity that accepts donations; events are funded locally	Soros-funded; $2 billion network	Open Society grants to Indivisible in 2021 to 2023 were not earmarked for rallies; the $2 billion adds up partners' revenues
Is it nonpartisan?	Host materials say events must not be partisan	Chapters promoted "vote blue" messages (Fox)	Fox quotes chapter flyers and a webinar; the host materials say what organizers say they require

Pierson's analysis follows, set beside these statements.

Pierson's analysis: No Kings as a recruiting and onboarding tool

Pierson has argued in three Substack essays, "No Kings: Recruitment Masquerading as Protest" (September 25, 2025), "Who is Behind No Kings" (October 17, 2025) and "The 'No Kings' Protests in Context" (October 19, 2025), that No Kings is designed to recruit and onboard people into Indivisible's network and into what he describes as a radical vision of social transformation, and that the patriotic and constitutional imagery draws in moderate and apolitical participants.⁴¹ This section reports that argument as his analysis, sets it beside what the organizers say, and shows which parts the sources document.

The organizers describe recruitment as a goal. Leah Greenberg, co-executive director of Indivisible, wrote on June 10, 2025 that the mobilization aims to "bring in new people" and draw them into a cycle of action and relationships on the ground, to foster community and a shared identity, and that a single mobilization will not turn the country around.⁴² In an October 18, 2025 interview she described the goal as an ongoing cycle of organizing, absorbing new people and putting them to work, and said protest is a tactic, not a strategy.⁴³ In October 2026 she described a big-tent strategy and a shift from protest power to voter power.⁴⁴ On C-SPAN's Washington Journal on March 28, 2026, the day of the third national protest, she said "Every major No Kings event is also a recruitment event."⁴⁶ She described the events as an easy on-ramp for first-time protesters: someone gets your phone number, invites you to a follow-up meeting and asks you to get involved in your community, and the events are meant to lead to a larger range of civic activism. She also said the movement is organizing every day through mutual aid, immigrant defense, advocacy and voter registration, that outrage expressed in protest regularly turns into voting shortly after, and that it is not a partisan movement. Those statements establish that the organizers intend the events to bring people into local groups and continuing actions, and that they say so in public.

The essays go further. They say Indivisible works within an alliance that includes the Democracy Alliance, MoveOn, the Working Families Party and the Tides Foundation, that these groups share personnel, donors and infrastructure, and that No Kings is a "recruiting mask" for a radical movement. The essays cite Greenberg's essay, Indivisible's About page and an InfluenceWatch profile of Greenberg.⁴⁵ Greenberg's essay supports the stated recruiting purpose. Indivisible's page describes about 2,500 local groups and three affiliated entities: Indivisible Project, a 501(c)(4); Indivisible Civics, a 501(c)(3); and Indivisible Action, a political action committee. The InfluenceWatch profile covers Greenberg's background, salary and affiliations and does not mention No Kings. None of the three documents the shared personnel, donor or infrastructure claims, and the essays name no more radical group into which participants are recruited.

For a reporter, the line runs here. "Recruit" as the organizers use it means bringing people into an organization, and the sources document that. The characterization of the movement as radical is Pierson's, and it should be attributed to him. The funding and personnel claims can be tested against the Form 990 filings of the Indivisible entities, the Tides Foundation and MoveOn, the Democracy Alliance's published materials and state and federal campaign finance records, and a reporter who finds the overlap in those records can report it with the filing cited.

A second line of reporting concerns partisanship. Fox News Digital reported on October 17, 2026 that the coalition's own host materials say events must not be partisan or refer to preferred election outcomes, and that local chapters of Indivisible and other groups nonetheless promoted "vote blue" and "vote them out" messages on their websites and flyers. It also quotes Indivisible co-founder Ezra Levin telling a webinar audience, "By all means, make it about Trump," and describing himself as a Texas Democrat.⁴⁷ The quotes from the host documents, chapter flyers and webinar are the article's primary material. The article's funding and size figures (an estimated $2.5 billion in annual revenue across about 300 groups, about 3,000 events, a $250,000 St. Paul production, and "millions of dollars" from George Soros to Indivisible) are Fox's own estimates or assertions without a cited document, and should be attributed to Fox and checked against filings. The article does not describe No Kings as radical or as recruiting for any named extremist group; it describes a voter-mobilization effort for Democrats.

What this lesson concludes, and does not

The sources document a large coalition of mostly mainstream progressive and labor organizations holding public protests, with the large majority of events reported without incident, and serious incidents in Salt Lake City and elsewhere that are reported above. They document that officials in the governing party called the events funded by Soros, sponsored by Communists or part of antifa. Snopes rated the $300 million claim mostly false, FactCheck.org and Lead Stories debunked two viral paid-protester posts, no reporting read documented payments to protesters, and no fact-check of the Communist Party USA claim was found. In the reports read, no incidents were reported at the Idaho events. They do not document that DSA, any communist party or any extremist group controls No Kings. The lesson does not claim the opposite either: a few socialist organizations are participants, and the sources say so. Organizers state that the events recruit participants into local groups and continuing actions. Whether that recruitment leads to more radical associations is Pierson's argument, and the sources read do not document it.

Open items

• A published CCC estimate for March 28, 2026 and October 18, 2025, and a national total for October 17, 2026. This lesson gives raw sums of CCC's public data (a floor) and none of the three was found.
• The June and October 2025 versions of the nokings.org partner list. Only the October 2026 Vote Early list was read.
• Idaho Republican Party, legislator and mayor reactions on any No Kings day (a gap in the search, not a finding), and any Idaho city other than Boise on October 17, 2026.
• The trial date and outcome of the Alder case, and the civil suit by Ah Loo's family.
• Documents for the alliance claim: Form 990 filings for the Indivisible entities, Tides Foundation and MoveOn, and Democracy Alliance materials showing shared personnel or donors. The officer lists in the Form 990 filings were not read.
• The wording "onboarding moments" and "identify new base participants," attributed to Greenberg in Pierson's September 25, 2025 essay, could not be located. It is not in her June 10, 2025 essay (full text read) or in the nokings.org site text, Indivisible's March 16, 2026 mailing or the other pieces checked, so this lesson does not repeat it as her words. The phrases that were verified are "bring in new people" and "a cycle of action and relationships on the ground" in the essay, and "recruitment, retention, absorption" on the nokings.org training page. Pierson may be able to name the source.

Source notes for reporters

• Pair every turnout number with who counted, and call a sum of CCC tallies a raw sum of tallied events, not a CCC estimate.
• Quote officials' claims as claims and say what the fact-check found.
• Do not tie the Minnesota shootings to organizers without a source that does.

Learn more

• nokings.org: The coalition's own principles and event maps.
• Indivisible: The lead organizer's own statements.
• Snopes: Fact checks on funding claims.

Notes

1. Snopes fact check on billionaire funding of No Kings (October 2025), republished by Yahoo. Read it online. ↩
2. "Ezra Levin on kings," All Rise News. Read it online. ↩
3. "June 2025 No Kings protests," Wikipedia. Read it online. Secondary source. ↩
4. ACLU, statement on the 2,100 protests, June 2025. Read it online. ↩
5. The Nation, No Kings preview and guide. Read it online. ↩
6. Indivisible Project Form 990 data, philanthropy.org. Read it online. ↩
7. Labor Press on union backing for No Kings, October 2025. Read it online. ↩
8. InfluenceWatch, No Kings. Read it online. An adverse research site; used as a pointer only. ↩
9. Crowd Counting Consortium authors, Waging Nonviolence, August 2025. Read it online. ↩
10. Axios, October 18, 2025, on No Kings turnout. Read it online. ↩
11. G. Elliott Morris, Strength In Numbers, on the second No Kings Day. Read it online. ↩
12. NPR, March 28, 2026, on the No Kings protests. Read it online. ↩
13. "March 2026 No Kings protests," Wikipedia. Read it online. Secondary source. ↩
14. Montana Free Press, April 1, 2026, on counting No Kings crowds. Read it online. ↩
15. FOX6, No Kings events list for October 17, 2026. Read it online. ↩
16. nokings.org. Read it online. The movement's own statement of principles. ↩
17. "October 2025 No Kings protests," Wikipedia. Read it online. Secondary source. ↩
18. Metro DC DSA chapter update, March 27, 2026. Read it online. A chapter's own statement. ↩
19. Fox News, "Soros foundation helping fund anti-Trump protests," via AOL. Read it online. Includes Sen. Cruz's quote and Open Society's response. ↩
20. FactCheck.org, June 12, 2025, on the Craigslist ad. Read it online. ↩
21. Lead Stories, March 30, 2026. Read it online. ↩
22. FOX 5 DC, on Speaker Johnson's "Hate America" remarks. Read it online. ↩
23. ABC News via Rural Radio, Johnson on This Week. Read it online. ↩
24. Newsweek, "MAGA rages at No Kings protests, sponsored by communists." Read it online. Reports the officials' statements. ↩
25. Axios, October 19, 2025, on Trump's post. Read it online. ↩
26. WLOS, "Trump calls the No Kings protests a joke and ineffective." Read it online. Photos credited to AP; the funding claim is attributed to Fox News. ↩
27. Media Matters compilation of administration statements. Read it online. A progressive source; confirm independently. ↩
28. East Idaho News, on the Utah No Kings fatal shooting. Read it online. ↩
29. NBC News, on the manslaughter charge against the safety volunteer. Read it online. ↩
30. FOX 9, on the Minnesota State Capitol No Kings protest. Read it online. ↩
31. Idaho Capital Sun, June 14, 2025. Read it online. ↩
32. KIVI, planned Idaho No Kings protests, June 2025. Read it online. ↩
33. KMVT, No Kings in Twin Falls, June 14, 2025. Read it online. ↩
34. Daily Gazette (States Newsroom), Boise No Kings, with Gov. Little's statement. Read it online. ↩
35. Idaho Capital Sun, October 18, 2025. Read it online. ↩
36. KIVI, October 2025, on the Boise turnout. Read it online. ↩
37. East Idaho News, Idaho events planned for October 18, 2025. Read it online. ↩
38. Idaho Capital Sun, March 28, 2026. Read it online. ↩
39. Idaho Press, March 2026. Read it online. ↩
40. KMVT, March 28, 2026, on Idaho No Kings protests. Read it online. ↩
41. Jeff A. Pierson, Substack essays: "No Kings: Recruitment Masquerading as Protest," September 25, 2025; "Who is Behind No Kings," October 17, 2025; "The 'No Kings' Protests in Context," October 19, 2025. These are opinion essays; attribute them to Pierson. Read it online. ↩
42. Leah Greenberg, "The Strategic Logic of the No Kings Protests," Indivisible, June 10, 2025. Read it online. ↩
43. Leah Greenberg interview, Right Now with Perry Bacon, transcript published by The New Republic, October 2025. Read it online. ↩
44. "Voting is a Sabotage Disrupter: No Kings IV With Indivisible's Leah Greenberg," Interfaith Alliance, October 3, 2026. Read it online. ↩
45. Indivisible, "About Indivisible," indivisible.org/about; InfluenceWatch, "Leah Greenberg" (a watchdog site; attribute its statements to it). Read it online. ↩
46. "Leah Greenberg on the Day's 'No Kings' Protests," C-SPAN Washington Journal, March 28, 2026 (host Taylor Popielarz). The transcript is uncorrected closed captioning; check the video before quoting. Read it online. ↩
47. Asra Q. Nomani, "'No Kings' foot soldiers ignore organizers' warning, go all in for Democrats," Fox News Digital, October 17, 2026. A news report from an outlet with its own editorial perspective; attribute it and check the quoted documents. Read it online. ↩
48. Texas Public Radio (carrying NPR text), "No Kings draws crowds with focus on early voting," October 17, 2026. Read it online. ↩
49. Crowd Counting Consortium, Phase 3 public data (2025 to present), version 18, updated September 10, 2026, Harvard Dataverse (CC0). The raw sums in this lesson are this module's own additions of the data's low and high tallies, not CCC estimates. Read it online. ↩
50. Crowd Counting Consortium program page, Ash Center, Harvard Kennedy School. Read it online. ↩
51. "Sandpoint No Kings rally ranks among largest in the state," Sandpoint Reader, October 23, 2025. Read it online. ↩
52. nokings.org partner list ("Partners" page), read October 27, 2026. A self-published list by the coalition, with 313 unique names. Read it online. ↩
53. Summary data from IRS filings as displayed by ProPublica Nonprofit Explorer for Indivisible Civics (EIN 82-2355901), MoveOn.org Civic Action (EIN 06-1553389) and Tides Foundation (EIN 51-0198509), read October 27, 2026. Summary figures only; the Form 990 PDFs were not read. Read it online. ↩
54. Federal Election Commission, Indivisible Action PAC (C00678839), committee totals, read October 27, 2026. Totals only; donor level data were not pulled. Read it online. ↩
55. "Magic Valley plans for weekend of protests," KMVT, June 13, 2025. Read it online. ↩
56. "Idaho AG warns against violence ahead of No Kings protest," CBS2 / KBOI (idahonews.com), June 13, 2025. Read it online. ↩
57. Idaho Capital Sun, "Idaho's upcoming Nov. 3 general election top focus for Boise No Kings protest," October 17, 2026. Read it online. ↩
58. East Idaho News (KIVI), "Hundreds gather at Idaho Capitol for No Kings rally ahead of early voting," October 17, 2026. Read it online. ↩
59. Courthouse News, "Utah judge advances manslaughter case against No Kings volunteer who thought he was preventing a mass shooting," October 2026. Read it online. ↩
60. Utah News Dispatch, "Armed volunteer to stand trial in No Kings shooting of Afa Ah Loo," October 13, 2026. Read it online. ↩
61. KSL, "Man ordered to stand trial for shooting, killing of peaceful protester at No Kings protest," October 2026. Read it online. ↩
62. KUER, "No Kings peacekeeper charged with manslaughter in fatal Salt Lake City shooting," December 3, 2025. Read it online. ↩
63. Indivisible weekly update mailing, March 16, 2026, signed by Ezra Levin (summary read; the full text was not read). Self-published by Indivisible. Read it online. ↩
64. nokings.org, "Trainings and Calls," the October 7, 2026 call "Make Your Impact Last." Self-published by the coalition. Read it online. ↩
65. nokings.org, "About No Kings," read October 27, 2026. Self-published by the coalition. Read it online. ↩
66. Micah Sifry, "Getting Ready for No Kings 3," The Connector (Substack), March 11, 2026. A movement strategist writing with sympathy for the effort. Read it online. ↩
67. "Group behind No Kings recruits massive army," Common Dreams / Raw Story, July 21, 2025. Written with sympathy for the effort; summary read. Read it online. ↩
68. Robert Busek, "Financial Data: No Kings Protests Are Hypocritical Astroturfing," The Federalist, June 18, 2025. Opinion; the figures are Asra Nomani's and the Pearl Project's and are uncorroborated here. Read it online. ↩
69. "Soros-funded group behind No Kings launches activism training program," Washington Examiner, July 18, 2025. A critical outlet; summary read. Read it online. ↩
70. Keira Havens, "No Kings. No Demands. What Happened?," Current Affairs, October 15, 2026. Opinion by a critic of the coalition's national leadership; summary read. Read it online. ↩
71. Interfaith Alliance interview with Leah Greenberg, October 3, 2026 (summary read). Read it online. ↩
72. Tim Dickinson, "What is 50501? Anti-Trump Protest Group Has Become a Grassroots Giant," Rolling Stone, April 18, 2025. Read it online. ↩