U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi and Speaker of the House Michael Johnson labeled the second “No Kings” protest a “Hate America” protest. Bondi claimed it was an organized event carried out by “Antifa”. She promised to crack down on the organizers because they were a threat to America.

Those characterizations are not what I observed when I strolled among the protesters on Griffin Avenue in downtown Enumclaw.

There is no organization called Antifa. Antifa is really a shortened form of the word anti-fascism. It’s actually a viewpoint shared by most Americans who lived through and fought against the German, Japanese, and Italian fascists who tried to conquer the world during the first half of the 1940s. Is Bondi trying to label all those long-dead patriots and supporters of the Allies during World War II as anti-democratic?

What I saw were about 600 residents from Enumclaw and the surrounding county who came out to protest the lawless and dictatorial behavior of our current president. The demonstrators were peaceful and even festive. Some wore costumes of dinosaurs and other creatures.

Signs varied with the demonstrators. Some said “I heart America”. Other signs protested against governmental lies and the Jeffrey Epstein scandal. Some objected to the bad treatment of transgender Americans and immigrants. Others strongly objected to masked I.C.E. and C.B.P. agents being sent to American cities.

Cities like Los Angeles, Washington D.C., Portland, and Chicago have seen National Guard soldiers being called up in direct violation of the Posse Comitatus Act. This 1878 law forbids the use of the military acting as police. The call up of the National Guard was made over the objections of Democratic mayors and governors and ruled illegal acts by federal court judges across the nation.

At the Enumclaw protest, there were a handful of pro-Trump supporters. What struck me was that none had signs indicating what they were protesting or what they stood for. Their “signs” consisted of a life-size cardboard photo of the president and a 2024 Trump/Vance banner. Two had photos of Governor Bob Ferguson and Senator Patty Murray wearing crowns. This didn’t make any sense because both were elected officials acting legally under the law.

These pro-Trump demonstrators seemed unable to articulate their positions. When one of the “No Kings” protestors asked one of them why they didn’t organize their own rally, his response was that “I don’t have the time.”

When I went home, I watched independent media on YouTube of massive demonstrations in major U.S. cities including Seattle where 70,000 “No Kings” protesters marched down the streets. All were peaceful as they used their First Amendment rights of free speech. The estimated number of “No Kings” protestors nationally was seven million, two million greater than the June 2025 “No Kings” protest.

Before I left my house, I weighed the cost of demonstrating for the Constitution with the danger to my life. Some crazy might come with his AR-15 to shoot the demonstrators or ram them with his vehicle as has occurred in American cities in the past. In actuality there were many motorists who passed us showing their agreement by honking their horns and giving the protesters a “thumbs-up”.

That morning before the protest I talked with an Italian-American citizen who had grown up in Italy among Mafia “bosses” who posed a mortal threat if they felt challenged. Based upon his experience, he was staying home. He didn’t want to die at the hands of an American mafioso “boss” or one of his minions.

What struck me was the contrast between the threat of government military intervention against violent protesters in their “hate America” rallies versus the reality of what I actually experienced. Government officials like the President, the U.S. Attorney General, and Speaker of the House were lying and continue to lie about American cities being war zones and out of control.

The truth is that the current president and his minions are the ones out of control, not the American people who showed up at the “No Kings” rally to demonstrate peacefully for a return to the rule of law guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution.