‘No Kings’ movement in Las Vegas stands firm under nationwide watch

Editor's note: Este artículo está traducido al español.

Under fresh scrutiny from the Trump administration, Las Vegas activists with Indivisible are preparing for what could be the city’s largest protest of the year.

The local “No Kings” rally Saturday comes as President Donald Trump’s new national security directive broadens federal investigations into left-leaning groups accused of promoting political violence — and as top Republican leaders deride the nationwide demonstrations as “hate-America” and “un-American” rallies organized by extremists.

The coalition behind “No Kings” says the movement is a patriotic stand for democracy, describing its protests as peaceful, celebratory expressions meant to remind Americans that “the nation has no kings and the power belongs to the people.”

The Las Vegas rally, part of a coordinated “No Kings” movement with events in more than 100 cities, will take place at 11 a.m. outside the Lloyd D. George U.S. Courthouse downtown. Organizers say they expect an even larger turnout than June’s demonstrations, which drew thousands locally and millions nationwide.

In Southern Nevada, companion “No Kings” rallies are also planned at 10 a.m. near Coronado Center Drive and South Eastern Avenue in Henderson, and outside Mesquite City Hall, where residents plan a smaller gathering they describe as “a peaceful stand for free speech in small-town America.”

For Indivisible Las Vegas co-founder Kathy Blair, the new federal posture only underscores the stakes of Saturday’s demonstrations. She said the administration’s attempt to link activism with extremism is meant to intimidate dissenters but has instead energized the movement.

“He’s trying to scare anybody who fights back, especially in large numbers,” Blair said, recalling the growing interest since June’s rally that filled downtown streets. “If he’s still calling us out months later, that tells me we’re being effective in holding power to account.”

Blair emphasized that her group was working closely with organizers and local agencies to ensure the protest remained peaceful and within legal bounds. Indivisible has expanded safety measures, including instructing participants to stay out of the street and prohibiting items that could be mistaken for weapons.

While June’s “No Kings” rally here resulted in a reported 15 arrests, Blair described them as “nothing super major” and said preparations this time were focused on keeping the spotlight on the movement’s message, not confrontation. Metro Police have confirmed awareness of Saturday’s protest and said standard safety protocols will be in place.

Indivisible is relatively new to activism in Las Vegas, forming in December in the wake of Trump’s second presidential victory. It has 500 members — and an email list of around 5,000 people, Blair said.

Trump on Sept. 25 issued a National Security Presidential Memorandum that said many incidents of political violence in the U.S. since 2022 were not isolated but a result of “organized campaigns of targeted intimidation, radicalization, threats, and violence.”

That memo — known as NSPM-7 — goes on to list “common threads” motivating purportedly “anti-fascist” terrorism: anti-Americanism, anticapitalism, anti-Christianity, supporting the overthrow of the government and “extremism” on migration, race and gender.

It also includes “hostility toward those who hold traditional American views on family, religion, and morality.”

Trump’s memo seeks to reshape law enforcement’s priorities by directing the roughly 200 Joint Terrorism Task Forces nationwide to investigate “domestic terrorist organizations” accused of “recruiting or radicalizing” people for political violence, as well as those alleged to be aiding or funding such efforts.

Three days before issuing the memo, Trump labeled antifa as a domestic terrorist organization despite a 2020 Congressional Research Service report calling it a decentralized movement consisting of “independent, radical, like-minded groups and individuals.” The report noted that domestic terrorism was not a chargeable federal offense under current law, and that designating antifa as a singular group would prove difficult given its decentralized nature.

The Joint Terrorism Task Force in Las Vegas is a multiagency partnership between several federal agencies, the Nevada Department of Public Safety and a handful of local agencies, including Metro Police, and the Henderson and North Las Vegas police departments.

Chris Peterson, legal director for the Nevada American Civil Liberties Union, said anyone who believed in freedom of speech and civil liberties “should be worried right now about” Trump’s memo. While the list is “left-coded,” Peterson said the memo’s language could be massaged to include any dissident.

“What does it mean to be un-American?” Peterson asked, saying he sees the country as incredibly diverse. “It is pretty clear to me that, from this order, they have a very different idea of what it means to be American. And I don’t know if I fully understand what their definition … is.”

Along with speech itself, Peterson said the First Amendment also covers “expressive association,” which is when a group gathers for activities protected under the amendment.

As an example, he highlighted a case challenging the Metro’s gang database. Some people had been added to that database based on “protected activity,” Peterson said, such as going to funerals.

“The reality is, when the definition of ‘What is a gang?’ changes, just like when the definition (of) ‘What is a terrorist?’ changes, and you suddenly find yourself within the boundaries of that definition, you’re going to want to have really strong case law and a really strong precedent saying, ‘Yeah, you can’t do that,’” he said.

Metro did not respond to a request for comment regarding the department’s awareness of NSPM-7 and whether any officers had been assigned to investigate the links described in the presidential memorandum.

“It’s ridiculous, honestly,” Blair said of the memo. “We’ll see what happens. He’s trying to stop crime before it happens. And that’s strictly un-American, the way he goes about it.”

But she also distanced “No Kings” from a June protest against Immigration and Customs Enforcement, which ended with police using pepper balls and tear gas on the dwindling crowd. Police arrested 94 people, and four officers were injured, according to Metro.

“It was right on the heels of what happened in Los Angeles, which we were already worried about because, again, that’s another one that — not unprovoked — but that got out of hand and made it look bad for every protester in the country,” Blair said.