UPDATED: As millions of Americans take to the streets — from New York to Los Angeles, Washington, D.C. to Chicago — Hollywood is voicing its support for the nationwide No Kings protests, with prominent figures like Glenn Close, Spike Lee, Jean Smart and many others praising the day of dissent.
As Deadline reported yesterday, networks have planned extensive coverage of the countrywide event, which is the second round of historic demonstrations against President Donald Trump and his actions in the White House following June’s marches.
Close, who was most recently seen at the red carpet premiere of Ryan Murphy’s forthcoming legal drama series All’s Fair, posted a selfie featuring a sign that read: “No oligarchs, no dictators, no despots, no autocrats, no kings!!”
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Meanwhile, the Highest 2 Lowest filmmaker shared a photo of a protester with a sign spoofing Time‘s recent cover of Trump, featuring the caption “Time to go!” Lee added in the caption: “GET UP STAND UP. YA-DIG❓SH😇-NUFF.”
In an Instagram video made several days ago, multi-Emmy-winning Hacks star Smart urged people to join the “peaceful protest” in a city near them, adding: “The current resident of the White House seems to think he has everybody fooled, but he has made it abundantly clear that he admires dictators and wishes to be one. And ironically, this country was founded on our rebellion against having a king … The most patriotic thing that you can do is say, ‘No kings.’ A king does not belong in the United States of America.”
Many speakers across the country spoke of Trump’s dispatch of National Guard troops to Los Angeles and Washington, D.C., and he threat to send them to Chicago and Seattle.
In Santa Monica, Rob Reiner warned a crowd that “we are seeking now what is happening. People are starting to get used to the idea that the military can be on the streets. That is not acceptable unless there is serious, serious unrest and people are killing too. So we have to make sure that the election in 2026 is free and fair, because if it is, we will win. And I think Donald Trump knows that, and so he is trying to position it in such a way that he can make sure that that doesn’t happen.”
Also in L.A., recently elected WGA West President Michele Mulroney urged writers to use their voices and fight.
In Washington, D.C. speakers Bill Nye and Mehdi Hasan each cited Trump’s attacks on Jimmy Kimmel and other late-night hosts. After the chairman of the FCC warned ABC stations over Kimmel, some affiliate groups pulled the program, and the network took the show off entirely. But it was restored after a backlash.
“The president and his associates cannot tolerate dissent,” Nye said. “To them, our free speech is frightening. They are arresting people and denying due process in courts. They tried to silence television hosts. They’re trying to fire, indict civil servants, prosecutors, judges, even their own cabinet members.”
Hasan, the former MSNBC host who now has his own site Zeteo, pushed back on House Speaker Mike Johnson’s claim that those demonstrating “hate” America.
“I’m here because I love this country,” Hasan said. “I love America. I love the First Amendment. I love our democracy. I love our diversity — yes, our diversity. And I am not willing to sit back and watch our glorious American multi-racial, multi-cultural democratic experiment, our Constitutional republic, destroyed by the guy from Home Alone 2.”
The protests were organized by a coalition of groups — including Indivisible and Common Cause — and were planned in major cities and small communities across the country. Organizers said that some 2,700 events took place. In New York, more than 100,000 participated across all five boroughs, according to New York City police, and there were no arrests.
On MSNBC, coverage focused on how different the atmosphere was than that predicted by Johnson, who said that it would draw Antifa and Hamas supporters. The network’s Jacob Soboroff, reporting from downtown Los Angeles, noted the presence of American flags, some turned upside down to signal distress, and he interviewed one person dressed in an inflatable unicorn. He pressed participants on whether they “hate America.”
“This is a celebratory atmosphere out here,” he said.
“There was such a huge gap between scary GOP rhetoric and the completely peaceful reality,” said David French, the conservative columnist for The New York Times, who attended the Chicago No Kings rally.
See further reactions and participation from such celebrities like Pedro Pascal, Margaret Cho, Billy Eichner, Murray Bartlett, Kathy Griffin, Cassandra Peterson, Jamie Lee Curtis, Lee Daniels, Cecily Strong, Mark Ruffalo and more below: