'We hate fascism’: Las Vegans join nationwide ‘No Kings’ protests

The "No Kings" protest against President Donald Trump's administration in downtown Las Vegas today brought residents together around multiple causes rather than a single issue.

Demonstrators and speakers voiced concerns ranging from the administration’s mass deportation efforts and deployment of the National Guard to attacks on transgender Americans, along with numerous other grievances.

There was a unified rejection of how Republicans have framed the demonstration. Earlier this month, Speaker of the House Mike Johnson, R-La., called the Washington, D.C., “No Kings” protest a “hate America rally.”

Michael Towne, 69, who still considers himself a “Reagan Republican,” left the GOP and registered as a Democrat over Trump’s claims that the 2020 election was stolen. Towne said he’s fed up with Johnson, claiming that his rhetoric is designed “to divide the people.”

“The billionaires’ boys club has taken over the government right now, with an idiot in charge who’s willing to do anything to stay in power,” Towne said. “Hate is coming out of the White House … I’m supposed to believe what they say when they call me a Marxist? An Antifa?”

Signs at the protest also leaned into the patriotic aesthetic, with references to colonial America winning its independence from the British crown. “We don’t hate America,” one sign read. “We hate fascism.”

Police say around 2,000 people attended the protest near the Lloyd D. George U.S. Courthouse, making only one arrest for “disorderly conduct.” Kathy Blair — co-founder of Indivisible Las Vegas, which put on the event — gave the Sun a count of 8,000 to 10,000 attendees.

The demonstration is one of five in Southern Nevada, spanning from Mesquite to Pahrump. National organizers for “No Kings” said around 2,500 protests were scheduled across the country, according to NBC, with at least one in all 50 states.

Like many in attendance, Gloria Leon, 66, and Andrea Arrue, 42, tried to buck the narrative around anti-Trump demonstrations.

In Portland, Ore., people protesting the administration’s immigration policies have been dressing up in inflatable animal costumes to counter Trump’s rhetoric about the city being a warzone. In Las Vegas, both Leon and Arrue spent the day dressed as cows.

“We love America and we want to see America be better. And in order to do that, we have to uphold the Constitution and the amendments,” Arrue said. “We’re not here against Republicans. We’re really just here to try to uphold the values that made America great.”

U.S. Rep. Steven Horsford, D-Nev., told the Sun that Rep. Johnson’s comments were “irresponsible” and “reckless.”

“To refer to peaceful protest as anything else as pro-American is speaking against the ideals of our country,” Horsford said. “At a time when there’s so much political violence and division and partisanship, Speaker Johnson is creating the environment for that division to occur.”

Johnson also said the event in D.C. would attract “Antifa,” which means anti-fascist. Trump last month designated Antifa as a “domestic terrorist organization” despite a 2020 Congressional Research Service report calling it an “organization of loosely affiliated individuals.” 

Arrue took issue with the idea that “all of a sudden, being anti-fascism is anti-American.” It’s an oxymoron, she said, because of America’s history of fighting against fascism.

Trump also recently signed a presidential memorandum which lists “anti-Americanism,” “hostility towards those who hold traditional American views on family, religion and morality” and “extremism on migration, race and gender,” as indicators of supposed anti-fascist violence.

The memo alleges that many instances of violence since 2022, including the assassination of conservative activist Charlie Kirk last month, were not isolated, but connected to “organized campaigns” of radicalization.

“It’s very dangerous,” Horsford said of the memo, “because there are powers within the executive branch that, if used inappropriately, could very well create the environment by which they can declare (the) Insurrection Act.”

Alexis Esparza, an SEIU union member who is running for a seat in the Nevada Assembly, emphasized to the crowd that the First Amendment is theirs to exercise and not the government’s to control.

“This rally today is a moment, but that’s all it is,” Esparza said. “It’s what we do after today that truly matters … That is when we build stronger communities, and that is when we hold the line, not just against those who oppose us, but against anyone in power who turns their back on working people.”