‘No Kings’ protests coming to Idaho. Keep the military out of it | Opinion

“No Kings” protests are scheduled this Saturday in cities all across the country and Idaho, including Boise, Nampa, McCall, Moscow and Coeur d’Alene.

It’s a protest against President Donald Trump’s authoritarian actions and the use of Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents to round up suspected undocumented immigrants at places like Home Depot, elementary schools and Italian restaurants.

The “No Kings” protests coincide with a military-style parade to celebrate his birthday, which only serves to confirm protesters’ complaints about Trump’s authoritarianism.

Further earning him that label, Trump called up the National Guard, and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth foolishly ordered 700 Marines to respond to protests in Los Angeles.

Trump also threatened that any protesters who show up at his military parade or protest his policies are “going to be met with very big force.”

We might remind the president of the First Amendment, which protects “the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.”

But the president is using the actions of a few bad actors to justify sending in the military to beat back, and likely incite, protesters in Los Angeles.

Taxis have been set on fire, rocks and Molotov cocktails thrown at police, looting, graffiti, protesters blocking a freeway and vandalism.

Trump invoked Title 10 of U.S. code, section 12406, to justify his action.

Under that code, the president can call up the National Guard if the U.S. is invaded, there is a “rebellion or danger of rebellion” or the president is “unable with the regular forces to execute the laws of the United States.”

This is hardly a rebellion. It is confined to a small area of an incredibly large city. And there’s every indication that police are able to handle the protests without military intervention, as California authorities have said. They even sued him.

We’ve seen more violence after the Chicago Bulls won an NBA championship.

This is clearly a political move by Trump to go after a political rival (California Gov. Gavin Newsom) and gin up his base over issues they claim to hold near and dear — “law and order” and immigration.

And spare us the comparisons with the Jan. 6 Capitol riots, in which rioters were seeking to use violence to overturn the legitimate results of the national election and thereby depose the duly elected president. They also threatened to hang the vice president if he didn’t do what they wanted.

Trump has called the Los Angeles protesters “insurrectionists,” which means he’d probably pardon them if they ever got arrested. He’s fine with large gatherings of like-minded people only if they are on his behalf.

Kidding aside, we fear Trump’s use of the word “insurrectionists” is to lay the groundwork for invoking the Insurrection Act, which authorizes the president to deploy military forces inside the United States to suppress rebellion or to enforce the law in certain situations, according to the Brennan Center for Justice.

Trump’s use of hyperbolic rhetoric to justify military action is the very tactic Adolf Hitler used to invoke emergency powers and suspend civil liberties after the Reichstag fire in his quest to fight “enemies of the state.”

Trump is now creating the same kind of fear, anger and division to justify military action against U.S. citizens.

Luckily, chances of a violent protest in Idaho are slim, and we doubt Trump would even need to call up the military to quell protests here.

But the Trump administration has opened up that door.

“So, part of it is getting ahead of a problem,” Hegseth testified to Congress, according to The Hill. “So that if in other places, if there are other riots, in places where law enforcement officers are threatened, we would have the capability to surge National Guard there, if necessary.

“And thankfully, in most of those states, you’d have a governor that recognizes the need for it, supports it, and mobilizes it, him or herself.”

In Idaho, chances are greater that Gov. Brad Little, who has earned Trump’s endorsement this week even though he hasn’t even announced he’s running again, would call in the Guard himself if a drastic situation required it.

And in Idaho, chances are greater that the military then would clash with the crazily-armed far-right militias who show up to threaten and intimidate the peaceful protesters.

Idahoans have a rich history of opposing federal government overreach. The president ordering the military into a state to stomp on the rights of its residents is perhaps the height of federal overreach. If anyone should oppose Trump’s use of the military in this way, it should be Idahoans.

No doubt, there will be many more protests in many more cities in the days, months and years to come, as long as Trump is defying courts and the Constitution, which he said he’s not sure he needs to uphold.

The use of military violence — even the very threat of it — could have a devastating, chilling effect on the citizens’ absolute right to protest.

We can’t normalize this.

Use of the U.S. military to respond to protests on U.S. soil is unconstitutional, unneeded, dangerous and just plain un-American.

This story was originally published June 12, 2025 at 10:23 AM.