Transcript: Deep in Texas Trump Country, No Kings Cleverly Shames MAGA

She was not someone who would have shown up—I didn’t ask her—but I don’t think she’s someone who would have shown up for the Women’s March. These are people who’ve been activated—I’m not going to say radicalized, I mean, maybe that’s coming—but activated by what’s happening in Washington. They’re not, they’re not, you know, Soros protesters. They probably don’t know who George Soros is.

Sargent: Well, absolutely. Now let’s listen to what Donald Trump said about the protests.

President Donald Trump (voiceover): I think it’s a joke. looked at the people. They’re not representative of this country. And I looked at all the brand new signs paid for, I guess it was paid for by Soros and other radical left lunatics. It looks like it was. We’re checking it out. The demonstrations were very small, very ineffective. And the people were whacked out. When you look at those people, those are not representative, of the people of our country.

Reporter: Mr. President, besides San Francisco…

President Donald Trump (voiceover): I’m not a king. I’m not a king. I work my ass off to make our country great. That’s all it is. I’m not a king at all.

Sargent: What’s striking there is that Trump suddenly finds himself forced to deny that he’s a king. Now, obviously Trump is right now essentially trying to neuter the other branches to give himself unconstrained dictatorial power in various ways. He’s throwing out royal decrees. His advisors are openly asserting that his power is quasi unlimited, etc. But, Ana, at least Trump kind of accidentally illustrated there why these protests are necessary, right? One thing I got from your piece is that people really understand that that’s what’s at stake.

Cox: Yes. I believe that people have internalized the idea that this is an existential threat—that this is America under a kind of threat that we haven’t seen ever, I think. This kind of internal threat.

And I don’t think that the lack of far-left signage and whatnot at this protest should be taken as a sign that they’re not serious. These people are incredibly aware of the stakes. And that’s why they were on Main Street in New Braunfels at 10 a.m. on a Saturday morning, when they probably could have been… there are much more traditional things to be doing. But there were at least a hundred people at this protest.

It was so orderly. There was a woman patrolling the sidewalk, keeping people off the main sidewalk—and one cop, one in shorts, off to the side.

Sargent: That’s amazing. It really doesn’t sound like it was criminals and terrorists. It sounds like a Sunday school picnic.

Cox: It had that vibe. It had like, I said in my piece, either church, a church picnic or band fundraiser, I would say.

Sargent: Yeah, it’s definitely not the caricature. And what I find so strange about it is that they’re really only able to speak in this one key about this, you know? And to that point, I want to play some audio of Mike Johnson. This comes after Trump posted this imagery of him in a plane, literally shitting on the protests, shitting on Americans, shitting on America. Mike Johnson was asked about that and said this.

House Speaker Mike Johnson (voiceover): The president uses social media to make a point. You can argue he’s probably the most effective person who’s ever used social media for that. He is using satire to make a point. He is not calling for the murder of his political opponents. And that’s what these people are doing.

Sargent: So Johnson again calls the protesters criminals and violent, etc. They can only talk to their base on this topic. They’re not allowed to admit that mainstream America is largely turning on Trump. It would infuriate the despot. But his approval is at a new low—he’s underwater on every major issue—but they can’t allow that any popular anti-Trump sentiment is real or authentic.

Cox: I think that this is a mistake on their part—to continue to talk about the protests and mainstream Americans as violent extremists. You know, as paid protesters, as part of Antifa. In doing that, they’re creating a disconnect between people’s lived experience and what the Trump administration is saying.

So one of the most heartening things to me about going out to this protest in red America—in red Texas—is that people were like, Antifa who? As someone who likes the movement, I would prefer that they be able to embrace it. But these people know they’re not violent. They know they’re not paid. They know they’re not members of something called Antifa—although they think Antifa is an organization.