Not a single thing the Trump administration said turned out to be true. I guess the new strategy is just to call the other side stupid. The fact is that roughly seven million people turned out across the country to protest Trump, his policies, his administration, and his continued efforts to bring our country into a more authoritarian state.
https://www.cnn.com/2025/10/18/polit...tests-analysis
CNN: The GOP’s extraordinary rhetoric about the ‘No Kings’ rallies
OCT 18, 2025
President Donald Trump and his allies have spent weeks painstakingly trying to manufacture an image of an irredeemably violent American left.
This despite a series of rulings from judges, including several Republican-appointed ones, saying the image being painted is a mirage. And it’s despite hard data showing that, even as left-wing violence has increased this year, it still pales to decades of right-wing violence.
But ahead of the “No Kings” rallies across the country on Saturday, the GOP’s effort has taken a rather stunning turn.
The Trump team and its allies suggested that the rallies, which are likely to draw millions of people, will essentially be chock full of antifa, terrorist sympathizers and even terrorists themselves.
It’s baseless and ugly, yes. But it’s also highly suspect strategically.
The GOP rhetoric surrounding this and the Democratic base more broadly has grown remarkably pitched.
House Speaker Mike Johnson of Louisiana has called them “hate America” rallies and said it’s “all the pro-Hamas wing and, you know, the antifa people.”
A member of his leadership team, Rep. Tom Emmer of Minnesota, described the rallies as being held by the “terrorist wing” of the party.
Sen. Roger Marshall of Kansas predicted that “paid protesters” and “agitators” would require calling in the National Guard.
Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said the “No Kings” protests were “part of antifa.” Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent predicted they would feature the “most unhinged in the Democratic Party.”
Others have stepped up their rhetoric about the left in other contexts.
Attorney General Pam Bondi suggested the fact that protesters might be provided matching signs could somehow be evidence of antifa funding. (Trump’s own rallies often include people holding matching signs that were handed out, as comedian Jimmy Kimmel noted.)
And White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt issued perhaps the most extreme comments Thursday on Fox News.
“The Democrat Party’s main constituency are made up of Hamas terrorists, illegal aliens, and violent criminals,” Leavitt said.