Reporters from news organizations around the world were performing their due diligence on Saturday when they sought comment from White House officials on the “No Kings” demonstrations.
After all, they proved to be no small news story, drawing millions to cities both large and small throughout the United States to protest President Donald Trump and what they deemed as his authoritarian tendencies since taking the Oath of Office in January.
In response to more than a handful of those inquiries, Trump’s deputy press secretary Abigail Jackson offered the same two-word comment: “Who cares?”
Remarkably, that stood as the administration’s most thought-out response to the protests, the one that it could have offered from the beginning.
It’s a mindset one area Trump supporter should have had, but allegedly didn’t exercise, during a “No Kings” protest in Wilkes-Barre.
Scranton resident Michael Paul Kolarik was arrested after several protesters told Wilkes-Barre police he flashed a weapon and threatened protesters with it just before noon on Saturday.
When they stopped him on Public Square, police say they saw Kolarik putting a pistol into the center console of his Trump-flag-adorned Jeep.
When they searched the vehicle, police say they found two loaded pistols.
It should be noted that in protests organized throughout the region on Saturday, that was the only reported arrest and it wasn’t a “No Kings” protester being detained.
On Courthouse Square in Scranton, a small group of counter-protesters led by staunch conservative business owner and noted Trump supporter Bob Bolus was present and ready with a few barbs for the “No Kings” protesters.
In Pottsville, a group of megaphone-wielding supporters of the administration marched through a “No Kings” rally on Garfield Square; They carried a cardboard cutout of the president with them.
Although tempers flared, there was no violence — a reality that held true nationwide.
Thousands gathering to air grievances with the government. A slew of others showing up to vocally support that same government.
That’s as American as apple pie, rights our founding fathers would be proud to see are still exercised 249 years after they went about rejecting a king’s rule.
After all, they weren’t naive; the most important tenets of the Constitution and Bill of Rights were written not with hopes that Americans would always love their government, but with the understanding a healthy percentage of them likely wouldn’t.
Government not caring about protests even this large, and going about its business by ignoring what the people demand — even with the real risk doing so will eventually haunt you at the ballot box — is a similar reality of government.
And it’s one we’d like to see Trump administration officials exercise more liberally, especially if it has no intention of hearing protesters’ concerns and compromising.
Instead of shrugging shoulders and letting it be as Jackson did, Trump and his top allies demonized, even mocked, those protesting.
Trump shared an AI-generated video on his social media account Saturday in which he flew a war plane emblazoned with the words “King Trump,” and while wearing a golden crown, dispatched what appeared to be a payload of feces on protesters clogging the streets of a major city.
Speaker of the House Mike Johnson also chimed in, calling the protests “the Hate America Rally.”
“Let’s see who shows up for that,” the Louisiana Republican said Oct. 15. “I bet you you’ll see Hamas supporters. I bet you’ll see antifa types. I bet you’ll see the Marxists in full display. The people who don’t want to stand and defend the foundational truths of this republic.”
Trump has every right to ignore the protests, to argue in his own defense that the protestors’ arguments aren’t valued. He even has a right to post that video.
But it’s unbecoming of a man in his position, and it rings as a far more un-American sentiment than the peaceful protests themselves.
There were large crowds and pointed chants and constituents expressing significant concern about the state of American democracy.
But this is hardly the violent uprising in the streets that Trump and his team tried to portray.
Likening what was estimated to be more than 5 million protesters nationwide as Hamas supporters and Marxists and antifa-types is an illogical approach to building bridges.
It’s simply a way to demonize and divide, by pointing out that people have the audacity to disagree with you.
Standing up for what you believe, assembling in peaceful unity in a public setting to make that point heard, is at the top of the list of truly American rights.
It should be respected as such.
(Photo: Protesters in front of the Lackawanna County Courthouse on October 18.)
NewsClip:
-- Republican Herald Editorial: Attacks On Peaceful Protesters Are Wholly Un-American [PDF of Article]
[Posted: October 21, 2025] PA Environment Digest
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