Montanans protested in cities across the state on Saturday against what they called constitutional violations by the Trump administration. The peaceful demonstrations were connected to about 2,000 planned “No Kings” gatherings across the country, organized as counterprogramming to President Donald Trump’s military parade in Washington, D.C., to mark the Army’s 250th anniversary that coincided with his 79th birthday.
The organization’s website listed roughly a dozen events across Montana, including Billings, Bozeman, Missoula, Great Falls and Hamilton.
Roughly 1,000 people gathered at the Montana Tribal Flag Plaza at the Capitol in Helena for a protest primarily organized by Helena’s local chapter of Indivisible, a national organizing coalition. The roughly 90-minute event featured speeches from community organizers, nonprofit directors and former elected officials from across the political spectrum. Orators focused on encouraging patriotism and constitutionalism while condemning authoritarianism.
“For nearly 250 years, this separation of powers has withstood the test of time. But now Donald Trump sets out to dismantle our constitutional protections and consolidate all power in himself,” Pat Cotter, a former Montana Supreme Court justice, said to the crowd.
Scott Payton, who lives in Helena, said he came to the rally because he “just couldn’t sit back anymore.”
“This country is so out of control,” Payton told Montana Free Press. “And I gotta find something to do.”
Payton said he worried about cuts to social programs and increased activity by the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, known as ICE. Over the last week, ICE raids in Los Angeles sparked city-wide demonstrations. Trump has deployed National Guard troops, as well as Marines, to the city against the wishes of its mayor and the governor of California.
Protesters and speakers at the Helena event Saturday expressed a broad range of anti-Trump political rhetoric.
Some signs made light-hearted jabs at the administration, including “Honk if you ever drunk-texted war plans,” “IKEA has better cabinets” and “Clean up on aisle 47,” a reference to Trump’s term as president. But others insinuated more severe accusations, including “ICE = Gestapo, Trump = Hitler, Deportation = Nazi Tactics, not our America.”
Charlie Snellman, a recent graduate of Capital High School in Helena, gave a speech that compared Trump’s activities to early Nazi policy. Snellman cited Trump’s attempt to dismantle the Department of Education and the president’s takeover of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts.
“This is our call to action. Because let’s not forget, after becoming German chancellor in 1933, Hitler and his ministry of education sought to control,” Snellman said.
Jennifer Listerud, who lives in Helena, has a pragmatic application of her opinion that Trump exercises tyrannical tendencies.
“I think it’s important to talk about history, but it’s also important to not accuse our other American brothers and sisters of being Nazis,” Listerud said in an interview with MTFP.
Listerud maintains friendships with Trump supporters, she said, and believes that ad hominem attacks are Trump’s form of argument, not her own.
“That’s the difference: to discuss issues, to discuss ideas, not to attack people personally,” Listerud said.
Sam Parks, who lives in Townsend, celebrated the range of political rhetoric at the protest.
“Trump has stepped on so many tails and it’s just crazy to see: we’ve got veterans, we’ve got Free Palestine, we’ve got LGBTQ+,” Parks said. “There are people out here that you wouldn’t really expect to interact and we’re all standing together because ‘No Kings.’”
Event volunteer Dawn Gunther, a retiree who lives in Montana City, celebrated the rallygoers’ unity but bemoaned that “most of the people are 50 and up.”
“We need more young people,” Gunther said. “None of my kids are here. They’re floating the river.”
The event was briefly interrupted by the blaring horn of a pickup truck sporting a Trump-themed flag about 30 yards from the plaza. When police asked the man for identification, he left the Capitol parking lot and quietly made several orbits of the protest. The same individual caused a similar disruption at an April rally in Missoula featuring U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders and U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.
At the “No Kings” rally in Bozeman, police issued a disorderly conduct charge to a man who drove a tractor-trailer toward the protest before exiting his vehicle with a hammer. Local police say the man did not directly threaten individual protesters, but that he did dangerously escalate tensions in the area.
When the White House press pool on Thursday asked Trump about the protests planned for Saturday, the president dismissed the claim.
“I don’t feel like a king,” Trump said. “I have to go through hell to get stuff approved.”
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