On Saturday, an estimated 7 million people poured into the streets to say it loud and clear: No Kings. (No Kings snarks this is 14x larger than both of Trump’s inaugurations combined.) From Anchorage to Atlanta, from tiny towns to huge city squares, the message echoed across the nation — a call back to the founders’ defiance of tyranny and forward to a people-powered democracy.

With over 2,700 cities and towns, the movement continues to break further and further into Trump’s support. As Erica Chenoweth’s and colleagues’ data shows, the protests are the most geographically widespread in US history — “the movement is not just continuing to spread into previously unrepresented parts of the country, but also maintaining its geographic reach.”

The signs were fun. “Make monarchs for butterflies, not presidents.” “I already have one boss (it’s my cat).” “We the People Means ALL the People.” And of course the many frog memes: “Ribbit. Resist. Repeat.”

We just witnessed the largest protest in U.S. history — more than 2.1% of the country mobilized in one day. That’s breathtaking. That’s history in motion.

And despite the threats, the fears, the rumors of chaos — the day was overwhelmingly peaceful, determined, and joyful. That’s worth pausing to appreciate.

So, where do we go from here?

Here are four quick reflections on what next:

1. Note the growing movement — not only in protests

There has never been this many people mobilized over time and geography. We showed the country what a massive, nonviolent protest can look like. Such actions make it easier for people to see themselves aligned with the movement, to consider other actions, and to take courage with this connective tissue we’re making.

Personally, the last weeks had me feeling scared — and being with this many people boosted my courage. I know that’s true for many. It also gives added support for the many other ways of resistance: Chicagoans protecting neighbors with their bodies, Memphis protestors using tents to talk to people about ways to resist National Guard deployments, nurses using their voice and actions to protect transgender patients rights, Adelita Grijalva trying to get sworn in, and many many more. (Find many more of these stories of resistance at Resist List.)

As Hardy Merriman put it recently in a podcast with The New Yorker, we are facing a leader who can wake up each morning and do something terrible. If our only yardstick is can we stop the next headline, we’ll be depressed daily. We have to steadily shift the landscape beneath the regime’s feet. That means we have to show greater unity, greater discipline in the face of violence (because it will grow), greater numbers, and greater ability to provoke defections.

Some of these defections and loyalty shifts are already beginning to take place.

2. Defections are growing

You can already see cracks forming. Institutions and individuals are beginning to say “no” with stronger voices.

• Six universities including Penn, USC, and UVA have publicly rejected the White House’s new “funding compact,” refusing to trade integrity for dollars. Many made a big deal when universities “buckled” earlier — but some are now finding their backbone. Recall Brown University and Penn, which had made a deal with Trump to restore research money, now they have rejected the compact — even early capitulators can transform into resistors.

• En mass reporters walked out of the Pentagon press corps rather than sign loyalty oaths. ABC News, NBC News, CBS News, Fox News, CNN, Newsmax, The Associated Press, Reuters, Bloomberg News, The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, The Guardian, The Atlantic, The Washington Times, Financial Times, Politico, and NPR.

• Major airports are declining to air Kristi Noem’s propaganda videos.

• Joe Rogan, surprisingly, criticized the violence of ICE deportations in no uncertain terms. “Everybody who has a heart can’t get along with that. Everybody with a heart sees that and goes, ‘That can’t be right.’”

• For the first time, pushback was severe enough that a tech titan had to publicly backtrack. Over at Salesforce, CEO Marc Benioff called for the National Guard in San Francisco. Immediately, he was lamblasted by rank-and-file Salesforce employees and his long-time friend and colleague Ron Conway resigned from Salesforce’s board — joining a growing tech-industry dissent. (Salesforce had offered its services to help ICE.) Benioff has now publicly apologized and says he’s changed his mind (hey, it’s a move in the right direction).

• The commander of U.S. Southern Command resigned rather than oversee attacks on civilian boats in the Caribbean. A Marine colonel recently wrote publicly — quite a feat — that he quit rather than violate his oath to the Constitution.

Defections are one of the most powerful ways to erode authoritarian control. They send a signal: the regime’s grip depends on our consent — and that consent is slipping.

Defections often start quietly and then snowball. If we stay organized and keep building moral and social pressure, expect more. Throwing gears in the system is how it slows down.

3. Expand our noncooperation toolbox

Protests capture attention, create a platform, provide cover and encouragement for defections, and give me courage. Noncooperation changes power.

As trainers at Freedom Trainers remind us, every regime relies on pillars of support — the institutions, corporations, media, and civil servants that make it function. When we refuse to cooperate, those pillars start to wobble.

That can look like workers walking off the job, cities refusing unjust orders, or everyday people disrupting “business as usual.”

We’ve seen how this plays out economically. When consumers and workers together withheld cooperation, such as the Disney boycott, it caused measurable financial pain and forced public reconsideration. That’s the power of coordinated withdrawal.

Join the boycott against deportation airlines Avelo and the T-Mobile boycott over its ties with Musk and removing its DEI policies — among others happening right now.

Noncooperation is refusing to participate in our own oppression. It’s students declining to repeat loyalty pledges, artists refusing government commissions, tech workers refusing to build surveillance tools. It’s being on juries and refusing to put away activists standing up for all of us. Every act chips away at the machinery of compliance — and can lead to large mass noncooperation actions.

4. Expect violence

This weekend’s protest faced very little violence. But this country has deep roots of violence. And the media consistently struggles to name where that violence comes from. We’ve seen it dramatically in LA: a few thrown stones and it grabs headlines, while the daily violence of deportations, evictions, and police abuse barely registers.

We can hold two truths at once — that we prioritize safety and that courage, not safety, is what moves history forward. All of us will need to dig into our wellspring of courage and find what actions we are prepared to take.

For now, check in with your local groups. Thank your marshals, medics, artists, and organizers. Hydrate and celebrate. Let’s make this a stepping off point for more. The next steps — strikes, boycotts, refusals — will need all of us.

Because what we’re doing isn’t just resisting. We’re reclaiming the democracy we always should have had from those who would rule us as kings.

In solidarity,

Choose Democracy

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