A few hundred protestors gathered on Amsterdam’s Museumplein in front of the US Consulate for the city’s third “No Tyrants” protest on Saturday. They were out in support of the some 3,100 “No Kings” rallies across the US, where millions shout their displeasure about US president Donald Trump’s policies and increasing authoritarianism.
From the war in Iran to ICE agents on the streets of Minneapolis and other American cities, organiser Hayley Hughes of the grassroots group Indivisible Netherlands says what’s happening in the US effects everyone everywhere.
“With us being in the Netherlands…we’re emphasising Trump’s breaches of international law, including the unconstitutional and illegal war of choice with Iran,” she says. “There is also a focus on peace and maintaining good relationships with allies, so there’s perhaps a more global scope at this rally than the last.”
“As a New Yorker, I’ve hated this guy for 50 years,” says Brooklynite Marian Vitale, who says she’s appalled at what’s happening in the US. “But I also have adult children and a grandchild in the US, and I feel like I can’t even go visit them at this point. I have a big sort of online anti-Trump presence, so my family feels like I could be on somebody’s list.”
King at the White House
Called a “No Tyrants” protest in the Netherlands to avoid confusion with the Dutch monarchy, king Willem-Alexander and queen Maxima will nevertheless be staying with the so-called “tyrant” at the White House when they visit the US on a working trip next month.
“I think it’s ridiculous,” says Vitale. “Trump thrives on attention, so the worst thing for him is to be irrelevant and ignored. By staying at the White House, they are justifying his existence and agreeing that he is somehow a head of state, which he’s just not.”
President Trump has mocked the No Kings protests in the past, posting AI memes on social media depicting himself in a “King Trump” fighter jet wearing a crown and dumping what appears to be sewage on protesters down below.
“I’d like to think that the king and Queen are going to take a dump on the White House floor,” says comedian Pep Rosenfeld of Boom Chicago, who came to the protest “to show support for my lack of support for the administration.”
Still, he says of the royal visit, “you can’t ignore even an idiot. So, I’m in favour of diplomacy.”
Voting is protesting
Sarah Dachos turned out to help Americans register to vote. The former Philadelphia native who now lives in Den Bosch wants to remind Americans abroad that they must ask for an absentee ballot annually, especially important this year with midterm elections coming up in November.
“The best way to protest is to vote,” she says.
“There are 500 other things I would have liked to have done today,” adds her friend Kat Gordan from Rotterdam via Chicago. “But it’s my duty to be here.”
Maurice Blaauw from Groningen lives with his American wife in The Hague, “the city of international justice, and what Trump is doing in the US and the world is unacceptable. He needs to be stopped, and protests can help that.”
Blaauw says he thinks the Dutch government can do more, but he’s not expecting much from he calls the new right-wing government. As for the royal couple, he understands why they are staying at the White House after Trump stayed at the Huis ten Bosch royal palace in The Hague last year.
“But then again, that reminds me of the saying that if a clown comes into a palace, the clown does not become a king, but the palace becomes a circus. And unfortunately, the White House right now is a circus. If our king and queen want to stay in a circus, they are welcome to, but I think they could spend their time more wisely than that.”
A Minnesotan speaks
“I think it’s important for the people who are protesting in today’s US demonstrations to see that those of us who’ve left have not forgotten them,” says Minnesota native Lynn Kaplanian-Buller, co-owner of The American Book Center, who was invited to speak at the rally precisely because she is from Minnesota. “We still carry the situation in our hearts, and we want to be visible and to show them.”
Kaplanian-Buller has been following the protests and ICE crackdowns in her home state, which has become a flash point representing Trump’s anti-immigration policies that have resulted in the deaths of two civilians by ICE agents earlier this year.
“I hate to see it happening anywhere, but if it’s going to happen, my money’s on the Minnesotans,” she says. “I mean, they’re out there pouring fresh water on slick ice because those ICE guys from Texas have no idea how to walk straight up on ice and they’re falling down! And this is typical Minnesota. You don’t take out a gun and shoot them, but you figure out some way to make them uncomfortable. And you take care of your neighbours.”
Kaplanian-Buller has been to her share of rallies over the decades (and has even been pelted with a tear gas canister), including the anti-war demonstrations of the Vietnam era, where she protested the use of cluster bombs in Southeast Asia.
“Now we have cluster rockets being dropping all over,” she says. “But these No Kings protests are sort of a cluster organisation. In other words, we can also use clusters – clusters of all different kinds of people put together to say I may disagree with you on many things, but on this issue, I’m with you. That’s Minnesota. And I like that.”
