Al Letson at No Kings: Hope, Fury, and Inflatables

Reveal

The Center for Investigative Reporting and PRX

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4.7 • 8K Ratings

🗓️ 22 October 2025

⏱️ 25 minutes

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Summary

More To The Story: On October 18, roughly 2,700 No Kings demonstrations took place around the US. Organizers estimated that 7 million protesters came out to denounce what they described as America’s slide toward authoritarianism under President Donald Trump. That’s right where More To The Story’s Al Letson found himself this weekend. Al spoke with a handful of the thousands of protesters who attended to get a better sense of why they came out. Some had creative posters. Others wore inflatable costumes. But all of them told Al they were concerned about the direction of the country in a second Trump term. On a special episode of More To The Story, Al talks to No Kings protesters about Trump’s immigration raids, threats to free speech, federal workers being fired, and fears about the future of democracy in America.

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Read: There Sure Were a Lot of American Flags at the “Hate America Rally” (Mother Jones)

Listen: “Madness”: A Retired Brig. General Slams Trump’s Military Power Grab (More To The Story)

Read: I Returned to the Site of the Original “No Kings” Protest (Mother Jones)

Listen: Taken by ICE (Reveal)

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Transcript

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0:00.0	We just want to protest the fact that our democracy seems to be going down the tubes
0:07.0	and our spineless genuflecting Republican senators are sitting on their thumbs and our spineless
0:14.5	genuflecting ass kissing.
0:18.0	Congressmen are doing the same thing as well. The emperor is running around naked, no clothes, and nobody is saying, excuse me, Emperor, you have no clothes.
0:26.6	Today I am in the middle of a protest at the No King's Rally in Washington, T.C.
0:32.6	To find out why people came to protest and what they think the future of our country looks like. Don't go anywhere.
0:38.3	This is more to the story. I'm Al Letts and we are doing something a little different this week because these are extraordinary times.
0:57.6	I'm reporting from the National Mall in Washington, D.C. for the October 18th, No Kings Rally.
1:03.2	I'm standing outside the Capitol building surrounded by thousands of protesters.
1:08.2	They all have their own motivation for being here, but the common thread is to push back
1:12.2	against Trump and the administration. Organizers call it a movement rising against his authoritarian
1:18.4	power grabs. So the crowd is, uh, at this point is pretty big. There's signs everywhere.
1:26.0	There are a lot of, um, these At this point it's pretty big. There's signs everywhere. The four bodies were backstage.
1:28.3	There are a lot of these air-blown costumes, a donkey, Tyrannosaurus wrecked, chicken and eagle.
1:40.3	They're having a good time.
1:47.0	Hi, what's your name?
1:48.0	I'd rather not give my name.
1:50.0	Sarah.
1:51.0	We won't go to your last name.
1:53.0	How about that?
1:54.0	Make sense.
1:55.0	Sarah, what brought you out here today?
	...

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