The Money Behind The Left’s ‘No Kings’ Movement

Summary

Federalist Radio Hour
Episode: "The Money Behind The Left’s ‘No Kings’ Movement"
Date: March 31, 2026
Host: Matt Kittle (Senior Elections Correspondent, The Federalist)
Guest: Parker Thayer (Investigative Researcher, Capital Research Center)

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Episode Overview

This episode delves into the organizational and financial underpinnings of the “No Kings” movement, a recent series of left-leaning protest actions. Host Matt Kittle and guest Parker Thayer discuss who’s funding these demonstrations, the true nature of their organization, why their crowds look the way they do, and the movement’s actual impact on politics and public perception. Together, they unpack the complex web of left-wing nonprofit funding—with a sharp focus on Indivisible and connected networks—while offering candid commentary on the effectiveness and authenticity of these protests.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. What Is the ‘No Kings’ Movement?

• The “No Kings” protests lack a coherent, specific goal, morphing from general anti-conservative, anti-Trump messaging into a vague anti-authoritarian (and sometimes anti-war) stance.
• Rather than a true grassroots surge, the movement is described as “political theater” dominated by older activists and organized by professional progressive networks.

Notable Quote

“No Kings has no clear goal. They don’t like Kings and they all protest about it. Except, I mean, ironically, one of the things that they protest mainly over... was the removal of Kings.” – Parker Thayer (04:04)

2. Who’s Behind the Movement?

• Indivisible operates as the central organizing affiliate for “No Kings,” with Mitch Greenberg and Ezra Levin as key figures.
• This network is part of what’s been dubbed the “protest industrial complex” or “megaphone philanthropy,” meaning professional activism funded by nonprofit structures.
• Hundreds of allied nonprofits, PACS, for-profit outfits, and donor-advised funds participate, making tracing exact financial sources complex.
• Crowd demographics: Predominantly Baby Boomers—few young activists, unlike 2020, and often lacking visible enthusiasm.

Notable Quote

“No Kings is kind of an amalgamation of all the left-leaning activism groups in the country, kind of all screaming in rage all at the same time... I think the most clear group behind it is a group called Indivisible.” – Parker Thayer (06:15)

3. Astroturf vs. Genuine Grassroots

• Many protesters are paid organizers, but a significant portion are simply older activists with “nothing better to do”—not a genuine mass movement.
• The majority of current protests are non-violent, with little traction among young people, and minimal public resonance.
• These actions are described as “Astroturf,” meaning highly manufactured rather than spontaneous or widespread.

Memorable Moment

“For them, protesting is a free source of entertainment... This is essentially just a retirement home outing.” – Parker Thayer (27:20)

4. Money Flows and Donor Networks

• Funding is routed through donor-advised funds (DAFs), making exact origins difficult to trace.
• A broad spectrum of progressive megadonors (“many Soroses”) participate, including: Fidelity Charitable Gift Fund, Sandler Foundation, Schmidt Family Foundation (Google’s Eric Schmidt), Merle Chambers Fund, Tides Foundation, and Barbara Picower’s organizations, among others.
• These systems allow for anonymity and delayed disclosure, often years after the money has been disbursed.

Notable Quote

“The left has many Soroses. They have many people who are funding all the same stuff as him, who have just as much money as him, probably more, who are also funding these things.” – Parker Thayer (16:21)

• Funding often isn’t solely for “No Kings,” but for a network of allied activist projects, making attribution difficult.

5. Protest as Data Collection and GOTV (Get Out the Vote) Engine

• Core function of many such events is to funnel protesters’ data (phone numbers, emails, addresses) into voter registration and turnout pipelines—a major factor in Democratic campaign strategies.
• Events double as list-building and mobilization activities, especially for lower-propensity voters (though “No Kings” is skewing older than intended).

Notable Quote

“The no Kings movement seems heavily focused on, shall we say, data collection. When you sign up for your no Kings protests, you hand in your phone number and you tell them you know, your address and, etc... to make sure that you’re registered to vote. And if you’re not, they’re going to harass you until you do.” – Parker Thayer (31:08)

6. Impact, Effectiveness, and Media Portrayal

• Actual crowd size and enthusiasm are often exaggerated by friendly media, and sometimes boosted by “AI manipulation.”
• The movement is described as predominately about optics and PR (rather than effective, galvanizing activism).
• As the 2026 midterms approach, hosts expect the left’s tactics to become even more theatrical, but doubt their authenticity and impact.

Notable Quotes

“No Kings ends up being basically a PR operation. And this is why they’re so insistent on the size of the crowds. They’re so insistent that this is the biggest protest ever to happen, even though it’s just... a whole bunch of very small protests happening at a thousand different locations.” – Parker Thayer (33:27)

“My guess is they get more shrill. They get more, more obviously astroturf. They get more obviously artificial.” – Parker Thayer (35:10)

7. Predictions and Satire

• Hosts banter about the likelihood of ever-more desperate or absurd tactics from the left as public enthusiasm wanes.
• Questioning whether the movement might soon “jump the shark,” referencing pop culture.
• Satirical speculation about “No Kings” being a boon to the Cat Sitters Union due to the average protester profile.
  “Maybe that’s what this is. Maybe no Kings is just an operation by the Cat Sitters Union of America to try to beef up their own business.” (35:24)

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Important Timestamps

• [03:51] – What the “No Kings” protests are and who is behind them.
• [06:15] – Indivisible’s role and how the protest network operates.
• [08:45] – Breakdown of protest demographics (mostly older participants).
• [10:19] – Comparison to the 2020 “Summer of Love” and differences in activism.
• [15:23] – On media coverage, actual crowd sizes, and the use of technology to exaggerate support.
• [16:09, 20:13, 22:08] – Details on key donors, including Soros, Schmidt, Sandler, and others.
• [25:39] – Pay-for-protest industry and the dynamics of professional organizing.
• [29:36] – Parallels to earlier Democratic organizing (e.g., Barack Obama as a community organizer).
• [31:08] – The movement’s main purpose as a voter data-gathering and turnout machine.
• [33:27] – The PR nature of the movement and diminishing returns.
• [37:40] – The prediction of increasingly desperate and theatrical tactics leading to the 2026 midterms.
• [41:06] – Satirical “consulting” on leftist protest strategies.

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Tone and Commentary

Both Kittle and Thayer are sharply critical, often sarcastic, toward left-wing activism. Their commentary is openly skeptical about the grassroots nature of “No Kings,” painting it as a top-down PR operation by professional activists and big donors. The language is direct, occasionally humorous, and frequently alludes to pop culture and political history.

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Selected Notable Quotes

• On the Movement’s Identity:
  “It is very much Astroturf. And they’re relying upon essentially people who don’t have anything better to do.” – Parker Thayer (11:34)

• On Soros and Anonymous Donors:
  “Everyone is funding no Kings in some way or another, which makes it very hard to trace what actually is being spent on this protest.” – Parker Thayer (18:45)

• On Protest as Entertainment:
  “For them, it’s—this is free bowling night. Except instead of bowling, you go and you stand around and wave signs at things.” – Parker Thayer (27:50)

• On Astroturf vs. Grassroots:
  “It’s not quite that... it’s also not anything near what the media insisted is that this is all some organic protest movement that just emerged from the ashes of people’s tears and spoiled hopes because, you know, Trump is so evil.” – Parker Thayer (28:13)

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Conclusion:

The episode offers a critical, at times sardonic, look at how the “No Kings” movement is built and funded—not as a spontaneous uprising, but as a professional, top-down campaign marshalling institutional money and organizers. Thayer emphasizes the chronic lack of genuine enthusiasm, the difficulty in tracking donor flows due to nonprofit opacity, and the likely diminishing impact of such efforts as the left seeks to recapture momentum for the 2026 midterms. The hosts close with predictions that these tactics will only become more theatrical and artificial, while poking fun at the movement’s lack of authenticity and originality.

Transcript

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[C]

And we are back with another edition of the Federalist Radio Hour. I'm Matt Kittle, senior elections correspondent at the Federalist and your experience Sherpa on today's quest for Knowledge. As always, you can email the show at radio the federalist.com follow us on XDRLST. Make sure to subscribe wherever you download your podcast and of course to the premium version of our website as well. Our guest today is Parker Thayer, investigative researcher at Capital Research Center. The folks that bring you influence. Watch the trackers of the nonprofit organizations across the country, across the the globe and what they do and who funds them on that line. Who's behind the political theater of no kings and is it working? Parker, thank you so much for joining us in this edition of the Federalist Radio Hour.

[D]

Oh, it's good to be back, Matt.

[C]

Always glad to have you along with with us here as we break down where the money is coming from, where it's going and so many places involved. Oh yeah, so many places indeed. Before we get started though, on today's quest for Knowledge, I did want to recognize an individual I had a opportunity to talk to over the weekend in in Phoenix, Arizona late last week. I should say a very nice gentleman. If he's listening in today. He said he and his son tune in dutifully to the Federalist Radio Hour. And they always consider themselves to be Sherpas, experienced Sherpas as well. It's always good to have an experienced Sherpa along with us. And I think Parker Thayer is that experienced Sherpa when it comes to tracking these nonprofits. So let's begin with what we saw over the weekend. Of course, what the accomplice media pandered to the big crowds of no Kings, the, the Democrat politicians across the country who turned out for this political theater. Who is really behind this? Parker, let's, let's begin there.

[D]

That is a great question, I think. Is it? No. I like to number them as if they're movies. I think we're on like no kings 5, 6. There seem to be as many of them as there are Fast and Furious movies.

[C]

That's right.

[D]

So no Kings is a complicated question when you're talking about funding flows. Traditionally, when you see, you know, protests happening, it's usually, you know, in one place. Maybe, you know, some group wants the university that they're at to divest from fossil fuels or something like that. And so they go and they, you know, march around one location with one clear goal. No Kings has no clear goal. They don't like Kings and they all protest about it. Except, I mean, ironically, one of the things that they protest mainly over, especially this past weekend, was the removal of Kings. They have kind of morphed into this anti war movement. Not even, there's not even necessarily an indication that the US is involved in a war right now. But that, that, you know, that point is neither here nor there. One of the things that they don't like is that we have redo removed Maduro, who was essentially the king of Venezuela, and that we blew up Khomeini, who was essentially the king of Iran. They don't like that we blew up these Kings. They're against Kings except when we remove them. But the goal of no Kings is very vague. It is mostly a protest movement of being non conservative and against Donald Trump. That is that those are about the two most clear goals of no Kings. And since it's so wide in scope and wide in location, no Kings protests happen all over the country. There's not a very clear, you know, this group was behind the protest. But in, in the case of no Kings, I think the most clear group behind it is a group called Indivisible. Indivisible is a kind of a professional organizing group. It's one of the members of what you might call the Protest Industrial Complex. I've seen some people call it, I usually call it Megaphone Philanthropy, which is. There are. It's a nonprofit group. It has 501C3 status. Indivisible Civics is the official legal name of it. Although they also have a dark money quote, dark money 501c4 that they operate alongside. And I think they also have PAC divisions, which is political action committee. So it's a network, but it is essentially one nonprofit. It's run by a lady by the name of Leah Greenberg. I think there's also. They have a decent sized staff, but these are all professional organizers. Ezra Levin is another name you might remember or recognize who is running Indivisible. And what Indivisible is doing is they're not really running the protests. They are in that they're setting up, you know, they're. They are working with people on the ground to set up, you know, locations and times and maybe conduct trainings with one or two people to actually run these protests and, you know, kind of shepherd the protesters around. But in a lot of ways, no Kings is kind of an amalgamation of all of the left leaning activism groups in the country, kind of all screaming in rage all at the same time. No Kings works with a coalition of I think hundreds of different nonprofit and some for profit and some PAC organizations that are have, you know, combined, I think Fox News just reported the other day, Ezra Nomani reported that there's a coalition of 500 groups behind this with something like billions in revenues. Now, is all of that revenue going to no Kings? Definitely not. But the, the scope of that, of the network of groups that's behind no Kings makes it very hard to actually trace what is and isn't funding for no Kings. It can be confusing for the person who's not, you know, plugged into money and politics in this way. So it is run by Indivisible, but there's dozens, hundreds of groups involved with it. And essentially there are the professional organizers who work for these groups who make, make a living in Megaphone or the protest industrial complex, whatever you want to call it. And then as we saw from this weekend and as we've seen at no Kings protests repeatedly, there's not exactly a lot of enthusiasm. Most of the people showing up to these protests are. How to put this delicately? Well, let's not put it delicately. They're old. They're really, really old. Right.

[C]

Most of them are, most of them are baby boomers and who don't seem to have like to quote from an officer and a gentleman. They have no place else to go, and this seems to be it. Yeah, let's delve into to that a little bit more. But to me, I would define this movement and these protests as a gathering of the profoundly mentally ill. A lot of these folks, most of these folks, although some are just really, truly are paid to be there and protest. They don't really have a dog in the fight other than they're cashing a check at the end of the day. Yeah, but, but that said, this is just a mass concentration of Trump Derangement Syndrome. A group of people that really don't understand what a constitutional republic is. And as you mentioned before, they're. They're people who really don't understand what a king is.

[D]

Yes, they're opposed to it, but they don't really understand it. And when we removed to actual, you know, as close to actual kings as you can get, they didn't like it at all. Yeah, it's. There are, as you mentioned, the average age of these protests is like 60. I mean, it's. It. This is not what we saw in the. For example, everyone remembers the, the Summer of Love quote in 2020.

[C]

Sure, sure.

[D]

Horrible time to be in America. It was, it was. Things were not safe. There were protests, it seemed like every other day. And these protests were mostly populated by young people, angry young people. That was who was at these protests. The angry young people aren't angry anymore. They seem to be actually relatively content. They're not showing up to these demonstrations in nearly the same way or the same numbers. There's no, you know, these. No kings. Protests aren't devolving into riots almost for the most part. I think there is a few rare exceptions in these cases, but which is good not to get. Don't get me wrong, that's good. But I think the left probably would prefer that there were more riots. They seem to. Historically, they, they like the tactic of the riot and they don't seem to be able to marshal those forces into the field anymore. And it's because they have, as I mentioned there. There's no enthusiasm for these protests. It is very much Astroturf. And they're relying upon essentially people who don't have anything better to do. You know, you and I, we don't really understand, you know, and lots of people in the conservative movement see these, you know, large protests. You know, they say, clearly these protesters must be being paid. And some of them are. I don't want to, don't want to give any misleading. There is a massive industry for paying people to organize and show up to protest. It's a huge industry. But most of the people at the no Kings protest simply have nothing better to do. And people in the conservative movement often have jobs to go to. They have important things to do. They have families to raise. The people at the no Kings protest, visually you can see they don't have any of those things going on. And there's a lot of mental illness among the young people who are showing up. And there's a lot of nothing better to do among the older people who are showing up and indivisible civics and the nonprofit networks that are kind of orchestrating the whole thing and, you know, providing the small amounts of funding here and there around the country that are needed to make these things happen. They're more than willing to cash in on whatever amount of enthusiasm they can, as small as it is. So, you know, it's. You end up with this huge, for lack of a better word, maybe Star Trek fans will get the reference, but you end up with a Borg. It's a giant hive mind organization. That's what, that's what no Kings is. It's hard to point to one leader aside from indivisible. It's hard to point to one leader or one mastermind. It's kind of the collective outrage of a large professional class of left leaning activists who have been totally shut out from the control rooms of power in America for several years now. And they're very angry about it.

[C]

Very angry indeed. I mean, that's what marks this movement in general. And that's, I guess, as you mentioned, there's not a lot of violence that we've seen, although we saw some of that once again in Los Angeles. Perhaps a different crowd, different string strain of this group. If there are, there are a lot

[D]

of the hard left, the hard left, you know, kind of people for socialism and liberation, which is organization types. These, those groups, they love the summer of love. They love 2020. They are desperately hoping that that sort of thing happens again. But the, you know, the younger people that they relied on to make those things happen just aren't here. They're not there. And so these protests are very boring and they happen. I, I don't, I think most people probably didn't even realize that the no Kings protests were happening this weekend. You know, it's, it is interesting to see that the, the hard left groups are starting to try and do make something happen as their favorite dictators all get either kidnapped or blown up.

[C]

Yes, well that's. I guess that's the question then. Ultimately, as I asked before, I mean is, is this stuff working? Clearly the usual suspects in corporate media are all on board. Look at these huge crowds. And I guess that's another question too. I don't know if you've tracked that. You certainly do track the, the people behind it and the money. But are these crowds that they're showing? I, I have seen some, that in some places AI manipulation is involved. Are these getting through these no Kings demonstrations really getting through to actual Americans with jobs?

[D]

I don't think so. And I'm a very plugged in person, you and I both are. And I didn't. And you know, I'm also doing a. Trying to stay away from social media for lent this year. But even with those things going on, even with those things going on,

[C]

I

[D]

don't think I heard about these. I knew that they were happening. I didn't hear any details about them. I saw a few photos. That was about the extent of it. These, these crowds, are they big relative to, you know, other political crowds of the past? Potentially. But even if they are, it doesn't seem like anyone's particularly excited about them. It's, it's frankly it's a little disappointing. You know, I, it would give me more to write about. So I, I do think there's a huge interest in, you know, inflating these numbers. And this, you know, is. It would not be the first time that left leaning groups have tried to, you know, inflate the appearance of public support when they don't really have it.

[C]

Yeah. Amazing. Soros money. Is there a lot of Soros money involved in this?

[D]

So there we at we at Capital Research center, we have a saying there.

[C]

The.

[D]

We like to say we do love talking about George Soros. I'm probably the one of the leading experts on George Soros in the world. The left has many Soroses. They have many people who are funding all the same stuff as him, who have just as much money as him, probably more, who are also funding these things. For example, with indivisible civics, you have one of their biggest donors is what's called the Fidelity Investments Charitable Gift Fund, which has given them something like $10 million over the years. These are anonymous donors, usually extremely high wealth or high net worth people. This is Fidelity Charitable Investment or Fidelity Investments Charitable Gift Fund is what's called a donor advised fund. Some of your listeners might be familiar with it. It's essentially just a bank account that you can direct your Charitable giving through. So you deposit your charitable donation in a daf, which is a charity, you get your charitable deduction for that contribution, and then whenever you like, you tell the daft to administer that money to whoever you want. So a lot of the money behind Indivisible is coming from donor advised funds like this. So it's really hard to trace who the money is coming from. This goes back to those many Soroses I was talking about. There's a lot of donors, but Soros is also involved in this deeply. Lots of money to Indivisible specifically in the past. But then we talk about the Borg and the network of organizations surrounding no Kings and surrounding Indivisible. That is kind of. That was already there and is being used, you know, because the left has a professional organizing infrastructure already in place, something that the right really doesn't have. Not nearly at the scale at least. The left kind of just used the existing infrastructure and kind of stapled no Kings onto that and said, hey, look, this is no Kings. Now this nationwide network, this is no Kings. Even though, you know, two years ago it was a vast network of very disparate organizations that had many different goals. Now they all have one goal, which is no Kings, which isn't really a goal. That's just something you say. But yes, Soros money. People who have heard of the Arabella Advisors Network before that is all over this. The no Kings protest, the people who are doing the local organizing, they all have various state affiliate organizations which are all funded by a large network. All of the usual suspects. So basically everyone is funding no Kings in some way or another, which makes it very hard to trace what actually is being spent on this protest. But I would guess it is, you know, a not insubstantial amount of money, something like tens of millions of dollars.

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[C]

I'm curious too, how many of the very wealthy oligarchs, in the phraseology of the Bernie Sanders of the world, I'm talking about the JB Pritzkers, people who have a lot of money on the left who also have very big aspirations about higher political office. Is there any money coming from the Pritzkers and Crews out there?

[D]

I don't know about the Pritzkers. Let's see. I have a short list of organizations here. We have money from the Sandler foundation, which is the money of the late Herb Sandler. I think his wife may also have now passed. But the Herb Sandler gave them lots of money in, in past years. And he was essentially, he made his money off of the Madoff scam. Really? Wow. So I, I believe it was the Madoff scheme. It might have been one of the other scams, but I know that they had a. I'm fairly confident it was them.

[C]

Well, we, we do know Bernie Madoff made off with a lot of Americans money. Of course.

[D]

Yes. Let's see. In recent years though, we've got the, some of the top donors. Schmidt Family foundation, which I believe and I should verify here real quick, but I believe is the family of foundation of Ron Schmidt or Rob Schmidt. Let me see. I can confirm this really quick, but he is one of the investors in Google. So we've got, got the Schmidt Family foundation behind this. We also have the Merle Chambers Fund, another, you know, kind of a more famous big money pocket. Also, everyone has heard of the Tides foundation before. Yeah, they're giving indivisible civics $20,000 in 2024, which is, you know, isn't an enormous amount of money, but that is, they are funding it. And again, the way that nonprofit financing works, you'll often not hear about the story until after it has already happened. You might notice this trend with, for example, the Black Lives Matter Global Network foundation, which bought all the mansions. We didn't find out they were buying the mansions until after because Form 990s or IRS disclosures for nonprofits are backdated by two years.

[C]

Yes.

[D]

So what's happening now in 2026? We won't actually see the finances of those organizations unless they voluntarily disclose it until 2028. So it's, you know, indivisible. Could be getting $100 million right now as opposed to the $5 million they received last year or not last year in 2024. And we just wouldn't, we wouldn't know about it. So it's, it's a little bit hard to trace funding flows in nonprofits because of that. But in 2024, let's see some other big donors. Obviously Fidelity Charitable Investments, Gift Fund which I mentioned a donor advised fund. They also have a decent amount of money coming to them from the Freedom Together foundation which I don't know the donor behind that one actually. But they got $600,000 from the Freedom Together foundation which is based in New York and seems to be. Oh, it's Barbara Pickauer is on the board who is a more famous donor on the left and lots of other people who I think Deepak Pergarva who used to be in the Biden administration if I'm remembering correctly. But I could be wrong about that.

[C]

No, I think you're right.

[D]

Yeah, he's on the board of this, of the Freedom Together Foundation. It was formerly known as the JPB foundation, which. So it is the Barbara Pick Our foundation essentially JPB stood for. I think it was John Paul Barbara or Pick our or something like that. So that, that is the donor behind the foundation. But there's a lot, there are a lot of donors giving various amounts of money and a lot of them are also just doing it anonymously. So it's impossible to tell who is funding.

[C]

Yeah, that's, that's has been the difficult part about tracking that and it takes time, no doubt about that. As you mentioned, we, we don't have this in real time and so it becomes extremely difficult. But we do know about a lot of these groups in their past and where their commitments have been and it is safe to assume that they are back again in many of these cases. Our guest today is Parker Thayer, investigative researcher at Capital Research Center. They're the, the great group behind my go to in tracking the nonprofit charity sector and that is called Influence Watch. Whatever you're looking for online, you can follow the money there and the connections the associ. And you'll find that a lot of these groups have ties on the left to the Obama administration, which is the Biden administration. The Biden administration of course took in a lot of the folks from the Obama administration because some would say that it was really just Barack Obama's third term and in the auto Penn presidency era. I don't think that is a conspiracy theory by any means. How much of this really is astroturfing? And again, I know it's impossible to track the money but yeah, there are indeed. The left keeps saying no, this is not the case at all. And then of course you get the fact checkers from the media. But you do know you have tracked some of this money going to wages for people to protest.

[D]

No. Yeah, I mean there is a whole industry, they like to call it community organizing as that essentially they exist to a big portion of what they. Their work is. Is doing get out the vote work. But in order to get people to get out the vote, they have to get them to show up to a protest where they can be registered to vote. They can go, they can give their information, their phone number, their emails to people who can then use. Put that information into databases where all these people can be tracked and, and make, you know, they can make sure that that person votes. They can bombard them with text messages and calls until they do. You know, this is a big part of what the no Kings protest is doing. I'm. I'm actually signed up for. Just for research purposes. I'm suffering so all of you don't have to. Yes, I am signed up for the no Kings protest text messages. So I. I have been invited numerous times to come out to the no Kings protest in my area. I did not decide to go, believe it or not. But, yeah, they're these, the community organizers, the protest industrial complex, the megaphone philanthropy industry. It's a very real thing. People do get paid to show up to protest. Now, it's not always at the scale that some people assume that it must be because, you know, us being productive members of society, we have jobs and things to do and families to raise. We don't understand how people could just take a whole day and go and protest and not think about it twice. But, you know, these people, it. For them, protesting is a free source of entertainment. You know, this is. I mean, we've already commented about the, you know, the average age of these protests this past weekend and of the no Kings movement as a whole. For. For them, it's. I mean, this is essentially just a retirement home outing.

[C]

Like bowling.

[D]

Yeah, this is. This is free bowling night. Except instead of bowling, you go and you stand around and wave signs at things. Mm. So, you know, it's. It is there. Is there. The truth is always kind of in between what the left and the right will say about things often. And, you know, some more conspiratorially minded people assume that all of the no Kings protesters are getting paid and they're all getting, you know, everyone's handing out $50 checks. It's not quite that, but it's also not anything near. What the media insisted is that this is all some organic, you know, organic protest movement that just emerged from the ashes of people's tears and spoiled hopes because, you know, Trump is so evil. That's not what's happening here. This is a professional organization led by professional people who make their livings organizing protests or organizing, you know, get out the vote groups, organizing demonstrations. This, that is, that is an industry for the left. That is a. There is a group of people who exist and, and that is they, you know, they study the tactics of this. They have, there are think tanks that come up with strategies for them. These are not just people, you know, out on a limb. There's a support system, there's a funding, they're funning funding channels and they are, you know, kind of the shepherds of the left's mobs. That's about the closest analogy you could come up with.

[C]

I think that how these things work. Yeah, I think that's a good way of saying that. And for those who remember their recent history, the 44th president of the United States started out in this business. Barack Obama was a community organizer.

[D]

And yeah, he worked in Project Vote.

[C]

He certainly did. And, and that leads us to the other point when we talk about the efficacy of this or, or not. My colleague this week, Brianna Lyman, wrote a piece and the headline is the Only Midterm Strategy Lamer than No Kings is GOP's plan to do Literally Nothing. So she goes into the. But one of the things that is is noted is this, you know, is looks preposterous to a lot of Americans, you know, a lot of common sense, rational human beings like, are you kidding me? All for all the things we talked about. They look at, you know, what has gone on in Iran over the last nearly 50 and these people are talking about no kings. What has gone on in Venezuela with Maduro and these people are talking about no kings. You know, we have a, a leftist elite in this country that live like kings. And they're saying no kings. But this is a pretty good way to get people to register to vote, to tap into their anger. And that's really what this is at the end of the day, isn't it? May they'd like a few more riots, but ultimately this is about November 2026 and the desperate move from the left to do anything they can to weaken Donald Trump and the MAGA movement in this country.

[D]

Sure, yeah. The no Kings movement seems heavily focused on, shall we say, data collection. When you sign up for your no Kings protests, you hand in your phone number and you tell them you know, your address and, etc, and, and all this information, you know, that they don't. They're collecting that information to make sure that you're registered to vote. And if you're not, they're going to harass you until you do. And once you're registered, they're going to harass you until you vote. You know, data collection is a huge part of all of the, you know, the reason that this, one of the reasons that this, this protest industrial complex exists is just data collection because the left relies upon kind of lower propensity voters when it comes to election cycles. And so they have a vast network logistically to kind of wrangle their, their voter herders or their voter wranglers. They have low propensity voters. You know, people who are younger often really don't vote at the same rates. But the no Kings movement, as we've seen, that's not reaching those same people. So I think they're really, I, I think they're very much interested in getting out the vote with these protests. And obviously, you know, the, they're starting to appeal to kind of older liberal voters and trying to, which is a very high propensity base and trying to reach them with these non profits. Which, you know, makes an interesting question about the purpose of the nonprofit sector, which is supposed to be nonpartisan, but that's a whole nother discussion. Yeah, but without the ability to, you know, you just mentioned the rights. Without the ability to get that enthusiasm and to get the, you know, the, the, the violent agitators that we saw in the summer of Love out and, and mobilized. You know, no Kings ends up being basically a PR operation. And this is why they're so insistent on the size of the crowds. They're so insistent that this is the biggest protest ever to happen, even though it's just kind of a whole bunch of very small protests happening at a thousand different locations. For the most part. You know, no King seems to be a PR operation and, and that's, they have a catchy slogan. No Kings is catchy, but it doesn't mean anything. It really, they really don't have much of a goal. Their own. One of their main goals seems to be opposing the removal of kings like Maduro and, and the Ayatollah, as you just mentioned. So it's, it's confusing and they're, they're doing, they're doing their best to do their data collection and their usual, their usual, you know, kind of get out the vote minded activities. But the problem is they're not reaching the people that they want to. And so I think that we're gonna see soon in, in the near future. I think no Kings is going to jump the shark. I think they're going to start reaching a level of unauthenticness, if that's a word. I don't think that's actually a word, but I'm going to use it.

[C]

I authentically think it is a word. Yes.

[D]

I think it would be inauthentic. Well, here we are debating grammar anyway. Inauthenticness. The, the astroturf aspect of it is going to shine through more and more the closer and closer we get to midterms. And they're going to be trying to kind of reclaim some of that momentum that they feel they had back in 2020. And it's just, it's not going to be there. And so it's, the tactics are going to get more and more preposterous. You know, the rhetoric is going to get more and more over the top, if that's even possible. So it's going to be interesting to see what happens with no Kings in the near future. But my guess is they get more shrill. They get more, more obviously astroturf. They get more obviously artificial.

[C]

How is that possible? How can, how can they be more shrill? Oh, and how many, how many cats were left at home during the past weekend for these poor people?

[D]

You know, maybe that's what this is. Maybe no Kings is just an operation by the Cat Sitters Union of America to try to try and, and beef up their own business.

[C]

Follow the money. That's right.

[D]

You know, one thing I've, I've learned studying the left, you know, I, I read what they write every day. I read, I follow their social medias, I sign up for all their email campaigns, I read their tax forms. The thing that I've learned is to never underestimate how insane they can be. Every time I think I have found the most ridiculous thing that I will read that day, I usually find something even more insane. And no Kings is going to be no exception to that.

[C]

Yeah, no doubt about that. Well, you had me at Fonzie in a leather jacket. You talked about jumping the shark. That's where that, that phrase comes from. Actually, though, to set the record straight, when Fonzie in happy jump the shark in his leather jacket and, and briefs. That was at the, the height of the, the show's popularity and it stayed popular for a while. This really, though, is. I can see this.

[D]

I think we're on the way down.

[C]

Yeah, I think this is definitely descending. But so is, is it just a matter of time before the, the left and the scientists, the experts were supposed to follow religiously, faithfully? They're going to Release some sort of virus again. I mean, this 2026, of course, smacks of 2020. And I mean that by the desperation, maybe there's not the COVID of COVID to act under, but the, the, the, the leftist movement in America is doing whatever it can by any means to make sure that they a cripple the Trump administration and ultimately put it in, in prison and thereby taking out the, the MAGA movement so that they can, you know, regain power again. Do you see this movement becoming increasingly desperate, increasingly theatrical, of course, as we get closer and closer to the November midterms?

[D]

Yeah, definitely, definitely increasingly theatrical. That is one of the. I've been shocked since 2024. The nonprofit industry has frankly been a little disappointing. I mean, these are the people we saw that materialized the Summer of Love out of thin air in 2020.

[C]

Right.

[D]

You know, they were leading media and, and PR operations like we've never seen before now, you know, partially because there are the. One of the main news social media platforms, of course, Twitter or X formerly Twitter, is now not owned by someone who will censor everyone. That seems to have kind of stymied their, their efforts to replicate that. But yeah, the nonprofits, they got desperate in 2024. One of the things that I write about a lot is the get out the vote operations. And you know, Capital Research center, we have a forthcoming report on what happened with nonprofits and elections and just with, you know, election related advocacy in general in 2024. And one of the things I found was that from 2020 to 2024, the get out the vote industry, the nonprofit get out the vote industry got bigger. It got much bigger. While even while traditional PAC spending actually declined during those years. So the left, they have not given up on the tactics that worked for them in the past. The problem is just that people aren't buying it anymore. The enthusiasm is not there. People saw what happened in 2020. They lived through the fervor of it all. Some people were taken up by it, you know, and kind of consumed by the rage campaign that kind of dominated the country for months on end. And then afterwards, nothing changed. And then there was a Democratic administration and the problems that they wanted fixed weren't really fixed. It turns out that they were being lied to. And they now they know this. So the left is still poor. The all the left's donors are still convinced that the same tactics they used in the past will continue to work. And they're pouring in 2024, they poured money into the same old tactics and then Donald Trump won the popular vote. So I. They're there. I. We haven't seen their tax forms from post 2024 yet. 2025 will be the next year, and then the year after that will be 2026. We'll finally see their tax forms from that year. So it's hard to say what's going on in those board meetings and in those zoom calls, but you have to imagine that they're trying to rewrite the playbook, but they just don't know how because they've been relying on the same playbook since the 1960s. So it's going to be really interesting to see what happens with no Kings. And, you know, they will get more theatrical and even more. You'll see that they really don't have any. They're so. They're so rattled by their loss in 2024 that they just. I don't think they really know what to do yet. And no Kings is kind of their, you know, their first step back into being the machine that they once were. They're still trying to reclaim their former glory, as it were, or, you know, I would say dishonor.

[C]

But let me play consultant for a moment for the.

[D]

Let's. Let's advise them. Let's. Let's tell those things what they can do better.

[C]

Exactly. Here you go. And I'm really serious. They won't listen to me, of course, because. Because I'm a conservative and I believe in making America great again. And so they don't want anything to do with that. But here's the thing that they ought to do. They ought to shut the hell up, stop this nonsense of no kings, because I think that hurts their cause ultimately with the average. Because they're looking at these nuts out in the street going, oh, my God, I don't want to go back to that again. That's why 2024 happened. What they should talk about, keep concentrating on, is affordability, which is a huge lie because they're Marxist and they're never going to make anything affordable. They're going to make it.

[D]

They could at least lie about it.

[C]

And they have. And that. That part is effective. And really what they need to do is just rely on the rhino Republicans that control Congress right now, particularly in the Senate, to not do a damn thing. And then what you would have is you would have what you have right now. A growing number of conservatives who say, listen, I was all in on 2024. I saw the vision, I saw the change, I saw the possibilities. And once again, we have bought and paid for Rhinos who won't do anything. Just like the left found out in, in 2000 with a FAR, you know, radical left found out in 2020. So you, you lose engagement and that' at the polls and that's what happens oftentimes in midterms, the disillusionment. Do you. But, but they won't do that, will they? Because they're just so tied into this, you know, this chaos and you can only keep an anarchy going, a really good anarchy going for so long, can't you?

[D]

Exactly. Yeah, you great, you raise a great point here, which, about the confusion of the no Kings movement and, and the discord in their message, which, you know, on the one hand you would think that it would be an enormously electorally, you know, beneficial strategy to focus on, you know, there is gridlock In Washington D.C. the current administration isn't getting things done that they said they were going to. You know, and there are, they could try and, you know, tell all kinds of lies and spin a big story about that, but they can't because they're also simultaneously trying to present the idea that Donald Trump is acting as a king and a dictator and is unilaterally declaring things into being and you know, is a one man show running the country and we must oppose kings. So, you know, they, they've kind of, you know, they've walked themselves into a corner that they, they really don't know how to get out of and they, they have, you know, this no Kings message, which is not really, I don't think, going to be, you know, very compelling for many people, especially when it comes to, you know, actually voting. But it does get the older, you know, the older liberal demographic out. They seem to like it for whatever reason. So they, they've, you know, they could be focusing on other things, but the no Kings has soaked up so much of their attention and their, their messaging and their focus that they, they're kind of stuck with one path, one, you know, one central point of their message now, which is that they don't like kings. But again, I don't think the average person actually thinks that Donald Trump thinks that he's a king. I don't think anyone really thinks that, but they like saying it and so they're going to keep saying it.

[C]

Yeah. And you know, the consistency of message is very, very important. Obvious. Know, as we have found out over the last several years in this country, once again, as conservatives, you got to thank God for the unhinged left because with, without the unhinged left and what they are doing to turn off voters, Republicans may never have a chance to win electorally. It's just the sad state of affairs going on in America today. Thanks to my guest today, Parker Thayer, Investigative Research, excellent investigative researcher at Capital Research Center. It you've been listening to another edition of the Federalist Radio Hour. I'm Matt Kittle, senior elections correspondent at the Federalist. We'll be back soon with more. Until then, stay lovers of freedom and anxious for the fr.

[A]

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[D]

Com.