Kate, a No Kings protester in Davenport, Iowa on June 14, 2025.
Today, while dining in Iowa at an establishment known to be Trump-friendly, I witnessed parts of the Trump parade, despite my intention to ignore this $43 million DJT birthday celebration. The parade masqueraded as a celebration of the birthday of the U.S. Army, just as our rejection of centuries of Canadian friendship and alliance was attributed to the microscopically small amount of fentanyl that Donald Trump claimed was being smuggled across the Canadian border into the U.S.
Earlier in the day I attended the No Kings demonstration in Davenport, Iowa—one of hundreds of such demonstrations across the United States. There is no question that the many cities participating saw millions protesting the most destructive, divisive and disruptive presidency in history.
Kate, from California and Utah, served four years in the Marine Corps as a Corporal.
It was a surreal dining experience. We were bombarded with patriotic music (mostly country music) while dining, Lee Greenwood tunes cranked to the max. It was creepy, upon entering, to see a life-sized cut-out of Donald Trump.
Outside the restaurant stood a gigantic GOP elephant. A recruiting van and truck stood outside the door, urging patrons to help elect a convicted felon who doesn’t read briefings, plays more golf than any president in history, and has single-handedly visited more grief and disruption upon us, as a nation, than any of his 46 predecessors.
Davenport, Iowa, demonstrators on 6/14/2025.
And high on the list of those who have suffered the most are the farmers of this and every other Iowa county. When will minorities and those most affected wake up and see what this man is doing to them, while posing as some television version of a “manly man”? It’s absolutely bonkers to realize that those most negatively impacted by Trump have become his biggest champions. Based on what? His stint on TV as a successful businessman on “The Apprentice,” perhaps, despite his multiple bankruptcies and the truth.
Meanwhile—to add to the surreal nature of my day— while dining, a deluded Black commentator talked about how united we are as a country. W-H-A-A-T?
It was a stunning reminder of just how UNdivided we really are.
Police in L.A. were deploying flash bangs to dispel a protesting crowd.
Demonstrators in Davenport protested both the autocratic behavior of DJT and his ICE raids.
A madman in Minneapolis was shooting elected Democrats in cold blood.
Meanwhile, on Brady Street in Davenport, Iowa,—the 148th largest metropolitan area in the United States— protesters were waving signs against Trump, while motorists sped by and honked in support (some even waving signs of their own).
Across the Mississippi River in Schweibert Park (Rock Island, Illinois), an even larger turnout from the neighboring Democratic state, protested President Trump’s more outrageous actions.
Roughly 200 Davenport (Iowa) protestors gathered on June 14, 2025 on Brady Street.
Davenport had a population of 101,724 as of the 2020 census, making it Iowa’s third-most populous city, after Des Moines and Cedar Rapids.[5] It is the largest of the Quad Cities in Iowa and Illinois, a metropolitan area with a population of 384,324 and a combined statistical area population of 474,019.[6][7]
Moline, just across the Mississippi River, is the headquarters of John Deere, one of the most home-grown American companies, and one that DJT recently targeted for criticism because, like other successful American companies, it engages in outsourcing production to neighboring countries, like Canada and Mexico. My husband worked for Deere & Company for 40 years. I know this company well; I can’t think of a more “American” company, yet Trump recently lambasted it for its business practices, which mirror those of every successful modern company in America.
Lifesize DJT cut-out, Treehouse Lounge, Davenport, Iowa
At the No Kings demonstration on Brady Street I spoke with Kate, a Marine Corporal (for 4 years) who was among the youngest demonstraters present at age 35. As someone who protested at Berkeley in 1965 during the Mario Savio years, a child of the 60s, I have seen and participated in demonstrations against the Vietnam War. I stood up with my roommate as she married her Navy husband at China Lake, just prior to his being shipped off to war. As a young pregnant bride, I waited anxiously outside a draft office in Rock Island, Illinois, to see if my new husband, 1A on the draft list, was going to be sent to a war that even former Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara grew to regret.
My observations following the demonstrations locally in the Heartland on June 14, 2025 are these:
GOP elephant statue, Treehouse Lounge
In order to rescue our country from the complete disregard for the Constitution that Donald J. Trump represents, my children and grandchildren are going to have to pick up the torch. Those of us who demonstrated in the sixties are with you, in spirit, but it’s up to you now.
- Contrary to the African American talking head on television during Donald Trump’s birthday parade, this is not a united country. The barely hidden racism, the misogyny, the anti-Semitism, the dislike of gays and transgender citizens: it’s always been there beneath the surface. Now the surface has become the new reality of the United States. Only threats from outside seem to unite us, as with 9/11. We must work to make a reality of the words of the Constitution about equality and the pursuit of happiness.
- We need to right the ship of state as quickly as possible. It will take decades to undo the damage inflicted by DOGE, as it is.
MAGA truck and van
MAGA van
I am ending this report on today’s No Kings demonstration in Davenport by repeating Robert F. Kennedy’s message to the country in Indianapolis after the assassination of Martin Luther King on April 4, 1968.
“What we need in the United States is not division; what we need in the United States is not hatred; what we need in the United States is not violence and lawlessness, but is love, and wisdom, and compassion toward one another, and a feeling of justice toward those who still suffer within our country, whether they be white or whether they be black. … let us dedicate ourselves to what the Greeks wrote so many years ago: to tame the savageness of man and make gentle the life of this world. Let us dedicate ourselves to that, and say a prayer for our country and for our people.“
And here are the words of Mario Savio, that are also food for thought:
