“I don’t feel like a king,” President Donald Trump told Republican lawmakers at the White House on Thursday in advance of the “No Kings” rallies happening around the country on Saturday. Lest you think the president was acknowledging the restraints on his power, it actually sounded more like he was bemoaning those constitutional guardrails and giving voice to kingly ambitions.
It sounded like he was bemoaning constitutional guardrails and giving voice to kingly ambitions.
He has made his kingly ambitions known on social media this year. “LONG LIVE THE KING!” he posted on Truth Social in February. The White House account on X upped the ante by posting an AI-generated image of a coronated Trump on the cover of Time magazine with the headline “LONG LIVE THE KING!” In March, he reposted an AI-generated image of a lion wearing a crown labeled MAGA with the caption “Kings!”
Though Saturday is expected to be a high tide of authoritarianism — Trump is staging a $45 million birthday military parade even as he deploys the National Guard and Marines to squash political dissent in Los Angeles — the more than 2,000 “No Kings” rallies scheduled across the country should reflect an equally high tide of resistance.
I’m attending the flagship march and rally in Philadelphia, the city where the founders of the United States declared independence from the king of England and where we will declare our refusal to cower to a would-be king in the White House.
For the Philadelphia protest, Faithful America, an online community of progressive Christians, is bringing its giant Trump Golden Calf balloon. It’s a reference to the Exodus passage about the ancient Israelites worshipping an idol they created while Moses was away on Mount Sinai receiving the Ten Commandments.
The Trump Golden Calf sends the unmistakable message that Christians worshipping Trump is idolatrous, and we rebuke our siblings in Christ who are providing spiritual cover for Trump’s authoritarian destruction of American democracy. Trump shows no evidence of personal piety or of an attempt to follow Jesus Christ — recall when he said he never had to ask God for forgiveness — and has made it a priority to aid the wealthy and attack the most vulnerable in our society. He exhibits the polar opposite of Christian social ethics.
And yet Trump rode back to the White House with Christian support, and many evangelical and Catholic leaders continue to stand by him even now.
At this pivotal moment, every Christian must ask whether their allegiance is to Christ or to Trump.
“Religious actors and communities have historically played key roles in both propping up and in dismantling authoritarian systems,” pro-democracy organizers Dr. Maria J. Stephan and Chris Crawford write in the “Faithful Fight” toolkit published by Protect Democracy. “Religious symbols, slogans, rituals, organizing infrastructure and communications networks have been important sources of power for autocrats and pro-democracy movements alike.”
As we march today, the Trump administration continues to terrorize communities in Los Angeles. Consider this account in The New York Times from a pastor there: The Rev. Tanya Lopez, senior pastor of Downey Memorial Christian Church, said she was in her office on Wednesday when three SUVs with tinted windows pulled up to her church. Then, Ms. Lopez said, five men, some wearing badges and tan bulletproof vests that said “POLICE,” rushed out of the vehicles and detained a man in the parking lot. The men, Ms. Lopez said, refused to identify which agency they worked for, and they did not share their names or badge numbers when asked. Their vehicles had out-of-state license plates. They also did not provide a warrant, she said. They took the man into a black SUV. And, Ms. Lopez said that as she shouted instructions in Spanish to the man inside the vehicle, an agent drew a rifle at her. When an officer pulls a gun on a pastor, it’s clear that Christians need to take sides. And yet Trump is sending an unmistakable signal: Christians who step out of line will be targeted. The Trump administration has already attacked the Catholic bishops, the Lutheran Church and Episcopal Bishop Mariann Budde. Trump’s congressional allies this week launched an aggressive investigation of a wide range of faith-based groups for their work with migrants. There are signs of growing Christian resistance to Trump’s authoritarianism. Majorities of all Christian groups oppose Trump’s military parade, according to a new poll by the Public Religion Research Institute. This includes Hispanic Catholics (87%), Black Protestants (85%), Hispanic Protestants (78%) white mainline Protestants (72%), white Catholics (65%) and white evangelical Protestants (64%). In the Gospel of Luke, God sends the angel Gabriel to Mary who tells her that Jesus will be given “the throne of David, his father. He will rule over Jacob’s house forever, and there will be no end to his kingdom.” Christians believe Christ’s kingdom will reign forever. As American Christians in the year 2025, we must also believe and work to ensure that Trump’s power, granted to him by voters, ends at the end of his second term in accordance with the Constitution. And every day, until the end of his presidency, he must be prevented from acting like a king and made to remember that we live in a democracy.
Guthrie Graves-Fitzsimmons
Guthrie Graves-Fitzsimmons is vice president of programs and strategy at Interfaith Alliance and the author of "Just Faith: Reclaiming Progressive Christianity." 
