From rally to resistance: Here’s what happens next for ‘No Kings’ in Mass. and beyond

John L. Micek

Wed, October 22, 2025 at 12:05 PM UTC

8 min read

For Debbie Paul, the massive " No Kings" rally that brought more than 100,000 chanting, cheering, sign-waving people to Boston Common last weekend to protest President Donald Trump and his policies is just the beginning of the story and not the end.

Now, it's time to take all that enthusiasm and energy and translate it into action. If that sounds like a tall order, that's because it is.

"We're at a place where we really need to leverage people power and educate ... people to understand they have power and they only have it if they use it and apply it," Paul told MassLive.

Paul, of Wellesley, is the chairperson of the Indivisible Massachusetts Coalition , a progressive advocacy group with 100 chapters across the state, that worked with a constellation of organizations to pull together the day of speeches, music and activism.

U.S. Sen. Ed Markey, D-Mass., speaks at the "No Kings" protest on Boston Common on Saturday, Oct. 18, 2025.

U.S. Rep. Ayanna Pressley speaks at the "No Kings" protest on Boston Common on Saturday, Oct. 18, 2025.

John Hoyer, 63, of Lynn, dressed as a lobster to dispel the idea that anti-Trump protesters were violent during the "No Kings" protest at Boston Common on Oct. 18, 2025.

Laura Simpson, 52, of Cambridge, left and Tommy Savage, 31, of Boston were some of the very few counter-protesters on Boston Common Saturday, Oct. 18, 2025 during the "No Kings" protest.

Boston Mayor Michelle Wu speaks on the Boston Common at the "No Kings" protest Saturday, Oct. 18, 2025.

U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Massachusetts, tells the crowd at the "No Kings" protest on the Boston Common, "Donald Trump is not a king. Donald Trump is a bully" on Saturday, Oct. 18, 2025.

Karma Zaike, 57, of Seattle, Washington, and her daughter, Ella Joseph, 21, said they want to reclaim the color red at the "No Kings" protest on the Boston Common on Oct. 18, 2025.

Will Finklea, 19, of Dorchester, was selling T-shirts for "I Love Sports Boston" during the "No Kings" protest on the Boston Common on Saturday, Oct. 18 2025. The frog is a reference to inflatable frog costumes worn by protesters at other events, which began in Portland, Oregon.

Jonah Philibert, 30, of Foxborough, walks around the "No Kings" protest on stilts in order to create a spectacle on the Boston Common on Saturday, Oct. 18 2025.

Protesters gather at Boston Common for the "No Kings" protest held around the world Saturday, Oct. 18, 2025.

A view from a building on Tremont Street of the Boston Common, as thousands gather for the "No Kings" protest in Boston Saturday, Oct. 18, 2025.

Protesters gather Saturday, Oct. 18, 2025 on Boston Common for a "No Kings" protest, one of many throughout Massachusetts and the world.

Protesters gather on Boston Common at the "No Kings" protest on Saturday, Oct. 18, 2025.

Laurie Langelo, 62, wore a Scooby Doo costume for the "No Kings" protest as a way to keep up a "festive" atmosphere on Saturday, Oct. 18, 2025.

Protesters gather on Boston Common at the "No Kings" protest on Saturday, Oct. 18, 2025.

Tiffany Glaiser, 49, of Westborough, far right, brought her two kids, Violet, far left, and Gunner, center, to Boston for the Saturday protest, Oct. 18. 2025.

Protesters gathered near The Embrace statue on Boston Common during the "No Kings" protests Saturday, Oct. 18. 2025.

Protesters gather on Boston Common at the "No Kings" protest on Saturday, Oct. 18, 2025.

The next chapter of the "No Kings" campaign started Tuesday night with a nationwide organizing phone call for people who attended the rallies across the country, Paul said.

"And that is a call to, I'm sure, thank everybody and talk about next steps," she said.

As Paul explains it, it's the key groundwork for building networks of "courage collectives" or interlocking circles of people from all walks of life who can take small actions that, when combined, have a large collective impact.

"Are you a college graduate? What college did you go to? And now you're a college alumnus," she continued, citing one such example. "How can you influence your sphere of people ... to push and say 'Please, college that I went to, I'm not going to give you any more donations unless you show me that you are not complying with No DEI ... or [are] removing books off your shelf.'"

"That kind of thing, where you're pushing back and asking people that you have influence over, or are in connection with, not to support the regime in whatever way it is they're being asked to support or acquiesce or comply ahead of time," she said.

That training and engagement could one day result in a nationwide strike, similar to those used by European activist groups to signal resistance to an unpopular government.

One took place in France earlier this month , where citizens protested austerity policies and demanded higher taxes on the wealthy.

"So we're getting ready and building the movement and creating the backbone and the support necessary to one day host a national strike," she said. "Because you have to have support."

Political observers told MassLive that sustained engagement is key if the "No Kings" protests , one of the three largest one-day demonstrations in American history, are going to have a lasting impact.

"It's like painting a wall," political consultant Matt L. Barron said. "You put black paint on a white wall, you get instant change."

And then you have to keep it going, Mary Anne Marsh, a Democratic analyst from Boston, offered.

Organizers should "continue the marches every three months," she said. "You have the next one in January, and another in April. Then you're well into the [2026] midterms and primaries ... Last weekend was a quantum leap. Everyone knows someone who went. It's just going to increase the participation."

Over time, those attendees "have been trained, and you can ask them to weigh in with their local member of Congress, or you can ask them to volunteer for a campaign," she said. "And you have a true army of citizen-patriots," Marsh continued.

"If you can't stop [Trump] from tearing down the Constitution, you can stop him from tearing down the White House," Marsh said, referring to Trump's well-publicized destruction of a section of the White House's East Wing to build a new ballroom.

Those efforts are unfolding, on varying scales, across the state.

In Quincy, Indivisible organizer Chuck Tryon said his group is working with chapters in nearby Scituate and Hull/Hingham to "collaborate on calling attention to the harms the Trump administration has done."

"We saw it the next day with the demolition of the White House and the AI video," Tryon said, also referring to a social media video that showed Trump, in fighter pilot garb, dumping excrement on protesters .

"People need to know that what we did was meaningful," Tryon said, "The conservative press and politicians will try to spin it as ineffective and meaningless."

For Paul, the fact that the weekend's events were nonviolent was also a rebuttal to Republican critics who had painted them as "Hate America" rallies .

Trump downplayed the rallies, denying he was a would-be monarch or dictator. The Guardian reported .

"They say they're referring to me as a king. I'm not a king," Trump told Fox News .

The rallies were "fun, joyful, peaceful, supportive, with lots and lots of people, not afraid," she said. "And that's the opposite of what they wanted."

"... We need to keep pulling people in and teaching them about what little piece they can do," Paul continued. "Because if everybody's doing something, that's how we push back, and pushing back means not supporting when you're asked to support, right? It takes a lot of guts and courage not to comply. That's what we need."

History shows that when enough people stand up and say 'No more,' that's how regimes fall, she observed. And civil action gets translated to action at the ballot box.

"The effort now should be to focus on the midterms and taking back Congress," political consultant Anthony Cignoli said. "Massachusetts protesters have opportunities to help accomplish that by volunteering in Maine, New Hampshire and Ohio," where there are key races, he said.

Marsh offered a similar analysis.

"Participation begets action," Marsh observed. "What you get is a true movement for democracy to weigh in on the races that will determine the fate of our country. And we are not far from spontaneous combustion on that."

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From rally to resistance: Here’s what happens next for ‘No Kings’ in Mass. and beyond

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