An estimated 600 people gathered at Five Corners on Martha’s Vineyard on Saturday, in coordination with protests held across the country, to take a stand against the policies of President Donald J. Trump for the second “No Kings Rally” held in Vineyard Haven this year.
Islanders held signs such as “Save our Democracy,” “No Faux-King Way” and “No Kings, Queens or Cons” as the protest swelled beyond State Road to Cumberland Farms.
Indivisible Martha’s Vineyard, Showing Up for Racial Justice on MV, and the Unitarian Universalist Society of Martha’s Vineyard helped organize Saturday’s rally. Rallies have been held at Five Corners monthly, but Saturday’s rally was one of the largest to date, organizers noted.
National media has reported that some 7 million people turned to more than 2,700 No Kings protests across the U.S.
The “No Kings” rally at Five Corners may have drawn a crowd, but let’s keep the facts straight. Marching with clever signs doesn’t mean democracy is in danger — it means democracy is working. People protested peacefully, and no one stopped them. That’s the opposite of authoritarianism.
The irony is that calling a constitutionally elected president a “king” cheapens the term. The U.S. system still includes elections, separation of powers, and an independent press — all thriving right now. If anything, the courts and Congress have checked Trump at every turn, proving that no single person “rules.”
What’s troubling isn’t Trump’s existence; it’s the reflex to brand every opponent a tyrant. That mindset fuels division, not democracy. Seven million people marching against an elected leader doesn’t make that leader a king — it makes him accountable to voters who will decide at the ballot box.
Real democracy isn’t about waving signs; it’s about showing up, voting, and accepting results even when you don’t like them.
Vineyard Haven doesn’t need “No Kings” rallies — it needs level heads and civic trust.
Rallies and marches have been the force behind any number of positive advancements in liberalism in our nation. Women’s right to vote, labor laws, ending segregation…..I could go on.
I think you’re missing the point of why these protests are called “No King”. We are living through a tumultuous political period in our country where the sitting President (a convicted felon) is doing everything in his power to subvert the democratic norms of our system. Not only that, the Republicans who control every branch of government bow to his every whim with cult like loyalty. Authoritarianism is on the rise. From using the FBI and the FCC to punish and silence political opponents, to enriching himself and his family by securing backroom deals that have nothing to do with the official business of the US government. Let’s also not forget that the Speaker of the House and the chief Whitehouse press spokesperson has routinely and publicly derided these protests as anti-American and espouses that the Democratic Parties main constituency is “Radicals”, “Terrorists”, and “Illegals”.
I’d like to hear what you have to say about the January 6th insurrection before I listen to your take on what democracy is about. I think these rallies are perfectly appropriate, and I don’t think calling Trump a tyrant to too far off what he would desire of himself as far as the power he would consolidate had we not had a least a minimum of checks and balances.
Dan,
I get what you’re saying, but let’s keep this grounded. Trump doesn’t “control every branch of government.” Democrats still run the Senate, and the Supreme Court has ruled against him on major issues — from immigration to immunity. That’s not authoritarianism; that’s separation of powers working exactly as designed.
January 6 was ugly and shameful. The people who broke laws were arrested, charged, and sentenced — over 1,200 of them. That’s not collapse, that’s accountability. Since then, power has changed hands twice, peacefully. The institutions held firm, which is the opposite of tyranny.
And let’s be honest — every administration, Republican or Democrat, has faced accusations of using federal agencies politically. That’s why we have oversight, elections, and a free press to call them out.
Labeling millions of Americans “cultists” or “anti-democratic” just widens the gap.
Half the country still supports Trump — not because they want a king, but because they want secure borders, affordable energy, and fair elections.
You can disagree, but that’s still democracy — loud, imperfect, and alive.
This is wishful thinking at it’s finest devoid of our current reality.
When the president bans any news organization, such as the AP earlier this year, or by asking journalists to sign pledges to only publish articles that have been approved by the president and his loyalists, which happened recently, we are already living under an authoritarian regime.
The propaganda and lies by the republican regime is dangerous.
This president will spend hours answering questions from the press off the cuff
Let’s not forget the last president who had to be handed a card with pictures of who he lets ask questions
Real authoritarian regimes always have a puppet leader
How much trust do you have in a habitually bankrupting tax-evading sexual assaulting convicted felon
Or a near-entire Republican congress that supports one
Me- not so much
What’s troubling is when people are pretending not to see obvious and deliberate attacks on democracy.
Two things can be true at the same time: People are still able to protest (for now) and he is acting like an authoritarian. There are many examples and he’s made it clear he isn’t going to let the courts or Justice Department hold him back this time.
Real democracy and patriotism are about prioritizing (small-D) democratic values over your party goals. It’s about calling out anti-democratic behavior even when it’s furthering political objectives you agree with because in the long run it’s bad for everyone.
Closing your eyes and pretending it’s not happening suggests that you may think the ends justify the means.
Based upon three counts of the people on all five sections of five corners, Im believe that there were, without question, more than 2000 people at the MV protest, possibly as many as 3000.
A rather large collection of ” election deniers ”
The democrats don’t have better ideas so they have to use scare tactics, which seem to work, judging by the crowd
Also two high profile murders used bullets with the word facist written on them
Yucking it up in costume is one thing , but can we dispense with the facist rhetoric that is triggering lunatics
The MV times should know better that to show a picture of someone with the word facist on their sign
sounds like something a fascist might say.
The demonstrations for me were about the hollowing out of our governments departments by Trump and his cabinet of the weak and willing to please their master. Departments which were voted into existence by our legislators are being attacked and destroyed without any resistance from the Congress. For me the personal attacks on the judiciary by Trump and for him by his henchmen and women. For me the many lawsuits by Trump against the forth estate, the attacks personal and official using the federal departments FDA, DOJ, FAA Health and Human Services, State Department and all other organs of the federal government against those who have earned his displeasure in his unique mind’s eye. He has proven himself a weak person who demonstrates a boarder line personality, many Americans are just waiting for the other shoe to drop. I believe calling him a wannabe king is correct. I personally don’t know how the Republican Party survives after Trump, the sycophants in the congress and the senate have all shown themselves followers none of them have shown leadership let alone integrity to serve the American people. I swore an oath part of which as follows “ I swear to support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies foreign and domestic “., there for I stand with others in a peaceful protest.
Please explain how you came up with that 600 figure. I’ve been at many, many Five Corners demos and this was one of the bigger ones. Did you use the aerial photographs?
As someone who was at the No King’s Rally, I wonder where you got the figure, 600. The total number of people was 1200.
True, Trump was elected to be president not an authoritarian leader. He, himself posted a photo of Trump in a king’s crown. He has bypassed the guardrails of our democracy so he can get his declarations into law.
Kudos to the planners of this peaceful rally. In addition, I want to thank the VH police who were so wonderful to work with.
Woke up this morning…still no King.
You did it Martha’s Vineyard.
The average reign for an English King is 18 years. Nancy Pelosi has been reigning in her office for nearly 40 years.
Yet, Nancy Pelosi posted a video attacking Trump for being a ‘King’
Let’s break that down:
– Trump has been in office for 4.5
– Pelosi has been in office for 38 years
– Trump is term-limited
– Pelosi is running *again* in 2026
– Trump’s lost billions in office
– Pelosi has made $300M insider trading
– Trump is that first person in his family to run for office
– Pelosi is a nepobaby who inherited everything from her rich, powerful, connected Democrat daddy
Nancy Pelosi’s ‘No Kings’ might be the biggest self-own of the year.
If there was credible evidence that Pelosi had engaged in insider trading, the republicans would have taken legal action immediately. Since they didn’t we can be very sure that insider trading didn’t occur.
I’m hearing a lot of talk about “saving democracy,” but it’s worth stepping back and realizing how far this Island is from the rest of America.
People here on Martha’s Vineyard may honestly have little idea what the country looks like beyond our shoreline.
Most of the United States did pick Trump. You can dislike him all you want, but pretending his support is fringe is delusional. Drive through the heartland, through the Carolinas, Texas, Pennsylvania, or Michigan — you’ll see what democracy actually looks like when people vote their own interests, not just parrot what’s fashionable in elite enclaves.
As Democrat Adam Frisch told The Wall Street Journal:
“Twenty big cities, Aspen and Martha’s Vineyard — that’s what’s left of the Democratic Party. And I’m not exactly sure those 20 big cities are getting the best version of the Democratic Party.”
He’s right. The Vineyard has become an echo chamber that mistakes protest signs for courage.
The rest of the country is moving in another direction — and until people here admit that, they’ll keep mistaking isolation for virtue.
No, sorry.
The man got 49% of the 65% that voted, aka 32% of eligible voters.
Size matters.
Cute math, but elections aren’t graded on “eligible voters who didn’t bother.” They’re decided by the people who actually cast ballots. In 2024, about 155 million Americans voted — and Trump won 49.8%, 312 electoral votes, and over 2,500 counties.
Kamala Harris took 48.3% and 226 electoral votes — hardly proof that “most of the country” rejected him.
If you want to play the “percent of all adults” game, then no president — not Obama, not Biden, not Harris — ever had a mandate.
Turnout has hovered near 60–65% for decades. Pretending that somehow makes Trump illegitimate is lazy arithmetic dressed up as moral superiority.
The map tells the real story: almost every rural and working-class region — the actual heart of the country — went red. You can dislike that, but you can’t spreadsheet it away.
So yes, “size matters.” And by every serious political measure — votes, counties, and states — Trump’s 2024 coalition wasn’t fringe. It was the majority of engaged America speaking loudly while the Vineyard kept talking to itself.

Nah. You said “Most of the United States did pick Trump.” That’s simply not true.
I think the info in this statement is garbled, mixing apples and oranges into one equation.
Elections are always decided on the basis of who actually voted.
Or should be.
When calculating percentages, one must define the denominator clearly.
See, for instance,
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voter_turnout_in_United_States_presidential_elections
And of course all votes cast and counted must come from legally eligible voters.
Bringing in other metrics (percentage of eligible voters) is a red herring in the context of who actually won an election, especially in the US, where voter turnout is historically quite low. See the table in the Wiki entry above.
There are plenty of people all across this country, Texas and Pennsylvania included, that don’t like what the republicans are doing. There are people who voted for trump who no longer support the ridiculousness. You’re kidding yourself if you think “most Americans” like trump. They no longer support.
Are liberal dems really whining about how their “HUUGE” numbers were but weren’t correctly calculated in the paper? Why does that sound so familiar?
They were underestimated.
Every protester has at least ten family members and friends who did not vote for Trump.
See the island’s 2024 presidential election results.
Your whining sounds so familiar.
Thanks to all of the “No Kings” protests that took place across the United States over the weekend, we now live in a completely different world. There isn’t enough time or space to detail all of the earth-shattering things that have come about as a result of the “No Kings’ movement, but it’s worth calling attention to some of them.
Here are just a few of the historic things accomplished by the “No Kings” protests:
1.
2.
3.
4.
That last one was especially noteworthy. Everyone will remember where they were and what they were doing when the “No Kings” protests changed the world. What else did they accomplish?
John, your list is incomplete; you forgot their greatest accomplishment… looking silly.
I’ll use my 200 word today to comment on the comments. I am a bit to the left, so forgive my biases. Someone on IT said it’s ironic that this happened in VH where the majority of people voted for trump.. On this thread ; trump lost billions in office and Pelosi made $300 million on insider trading. Someone called the protestors “election deniers “and using “scare tactics” . Calling trump a wanna be king is divisive they say, and we should “trust” him. Someone mocked the protestors by congratulating them that there is still no king, and another said the Vineyard is “out of touch with the rest of the country.”
What can I say ? I could go on and point out the obvious misinformation, outright lies, total unawareness about “election deniers” or divisive rhetoric point by point But I don’t need to point it out— people who have the capacity to have rational thoughts based on facts will know what I am saying about every point– others will just refuse to yield their biased opinions and will choose to remain willfully ignorant. At least for now, we have the freedom to publicly disagree. This protest aimed to keep it that way.
“in VH where the majority of people voted for trump.” Trump got 500 votes to Harris’ 200
Maybe you accidently left a zero off of Harris number. According to Tisbury Annual Report, Harris received 2,031 votes and Trump 542.
Nestor– Where did you get that quote ? The realty is that Harris got 2031 votes from the citizens of Tisbury in 2024 — zero of them were from “illegals “or dead people , trump got 548.. https://electionstats.state.ma.us/elections/view/165300/filter_by_county:Dukes. One trend I am seeing on the side of trump supporters is that they seem to be drifting further away from factual information at an alarming rate. When Kellyanne Conway coined the term “alternative facts” liberals shook their heads in disbelief, while conservatives embraced the concept–But to the comment at hand. It now it seems it’s ok to use “alternative math”, like you did in your comment . Just yesterday, Dr. Mehmet Oz, the administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, had this to say about how to calculate percentages. https://www.yahoo.com/news/articles/dr-oz-invents-totally-math-140643272.html It’s too long to explain so I just put the link in, as someone here would think I was misquoting him or something. I think most if us learned about percentages and how to calculate them in grade school, but times change I guess, especially if you need to agree with the dear leader…
Ah yes — the ever-popular theory that Trump supporters have all stopped believing in facts. It’s a nice, tidy story if one falsely needs to feel smarter than half the country.
But if we’re talking about “alternative facts,” let’s at least admit they exist on both sides. Remember when the Russian collusion narrative was treated like gospel? Or when inflation was called “temporary”? Funny how those “facts” evaporated quietly.
Dr. Oz’s math flub was embarrassing, sure. But to spin one politician’s sloppy arithmetic into proof of a national IQ crisis is creative writing, not analysis. Politicians mangle numbers daily — it’s practically a job requirement.
If anything, the louder someone claims to “own the facts,” the more likely they’re selling an opinion. Maybe that’s the real “alternative math” — where one bad quote equals 75 million dim-witted voters.
Facts don’t belong to Democrats or Republicans. Pretending they do might be the most un-factual thing of all.
Yes, where did the MVT get the figure of 600 attendees at that rally? When was that number counted?
I’m confused that Ellis McMahon thinks Trump has lost money while in office. In fact it has been documented that he and his family have made billions from his various scams. He was near bankruptcy when he came into office the first time. He is not a businessman.
And have you seen the pictures of the destruction of the East Wing of the White House (which does not belong to him, by the way) after yet another broken promise that he would neve touch the White House with his big, beautiful ballroom ostensibly paid for by billionaire donors? That on top of paving over the rose garden. Apparently he doesn’t realize that his is a short-term tenancy, unless he really is planning on staying in office past 1/20/29. Of course he’s tried that before.
Wrong. Here’s my proof. Where’s yours?
https://www.bbc.com/news/business-56438914
https://www.businessinsider.com/donald-trump-net-worth-down-700-million-since-becoming-president-2021-3
https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/543672-trumps-net-worth-dropped-by-700-million-during-presidency/
2021 ….now research the last 10 months……
Would you like to have a conversation about Barack Obama had a net worth of $1.3 million dollars as he began his presidency, then achieved a net worth of $11.2 million dollars by his last day as president?
Or does this only apply to Trump?
A lot of FAKE OUTRAGE over construction of the big, beautiful (and privately funded) White House Ballroom.
FACT: Presidents have been renovating and expanding the White House for more than 100 years.
In 1902, President Theodore Roosevelt built the West Wing.
In 1909, President William Howard Taft added the first Oval Office during a West Wing expansion.
In 1933, President Franklin D. Roosevelt added a second floor to the West Wing; in 1934, he relocated the Oval Office to its current spot, completed the East Wing, and built an indoor swimming pool.
In 1948, President Harry Truman began completely gutting and rebuilding the White House interior, preserving only the exterior walls.
In 1970, President Nixon converted FDR’s pool into the press briefing room; in 1973, he added a bowling alley in the basement.
In 2009, President Obama upgraded the tennis court into a full basketball court.
Now, in 2025, President Trump has broken ground on a grand ballroom
– modernizing the wing while privately funding the project.
Ms Hansen if you are referring to the Hegseth Pentagon decree. Please read carefully. Hegseth is making Pentagon press credentials contingent on outlets pledging that they will not use or obtain unauthorized information from the Department of Defense. Reporters at the Pentagon would also have to be accompanied by DOD officials to access certain areas of the building. This is not shutting down the press. It is simply narrowing the field of authorization for people to roam around everywhere they want and collect classified information. You are misrepresenting the decree.
So you agree that the Pentagon is shutting down transparency.
You also agree that trump has not allowed some news organizations to report on some government activities.
Sounds like authoritarian regimes like Hitler and Putin.
Narratives vs. Reality
-Trump hates immigrants – married to an immigrant
-Trump hates women – first ever woman Chief of Staff
-Trump will start WW3 – Stops wars
-Trump is a dictator – People are free to protest him 24/7
-“Democracy” is at risk – Trump won electoral AND popular vote AND all swing states which sounds pretty democratic to me…
The electoral college since 1789 is the actual elector. Each state has a number of electors assigned by population and how many representatives they have, for each election. The vote in whatever state it is can be fairly close, but the most votes in that state take all of the electors. Therefore, the winner of the election is not based on popular vote, but whomever is awarded the electors for the state. It is easily understood, better than me trying to explain it here, if you read about how it works.