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At a “No Kings” rally in Los Angeles on June 14, 2025, held in protest of Donald Trump, participants hold up signs critical of the US president. (Reuters/Yonhap)

By Seo Bokyeung, director of The Possibility Lab

In the days and hours leading up to the announcement of the 2025 Nobel Peace Prize, US President Donald Trump would not stop boasting about how much he deserved the honor. When he was not awarded the accolade, he lashed out by declaring a 100% tariff on China, only to now reportedly be trying to backtrack.  

Trump simply would not and will not stop singing his own praises after he visited Israel to work out a ceasefire in Gaza. While Trump is set to come to Korea for the 2025 Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum in Gyeongju, he may not participate in the actual summit. Whether he will hold a summit with China’s Xi Jinping is also up in the air, as he continues to hem and haw on the issue.
 
The Trump we are exposed to via the media is a temperamental tyrant who spouts vitriol as he pleases, only to turn around and say, “No offense.” He dispatches armed soldiers all around the US and treats his enemies as if they were vicious, violent criminals. His rhetoric, however, is almost laughable, as he never seems to understand that certain language must be used in certain situations.
 
Alas, democratic citizens across the world are subjected to this ghastly display of black comedy in real time every single day, simply because he is the president of the world’s most powerful country. Whenever the leader of this hegemonic power so much as sneezes, it puts the leaders of countless countries on edge. 
 
This situation isn’t going away any time soon. We must not hang on to any far-fetched expectations that the US will return to its “original” state once Trump’s second term is over. He tasted defeat in 2020, but he returned with a flashy comeback. With MAGA on his side, he is brandishing deadlier weapons has he embarks on his ambitious plan to transform the world into MAGA-land. 
 
I do not believe that he will be able to carry out all his plans as successfully as he hopes. He may find himself ousted from his throne before his official term is over. But even if Trump is out of the picture, MAGA will remain. The unequal world full of uncertainty, which is what sustains MAGA, will also remain. Unless a miracle happens, the Republican Party’s new leader following Trump will be affiliated with MAGA. Therefore, it is imperative that activists around the world consider the big picture. They should stand up against Trump and his MAGA cronies to stand in solidarity with each other. We desperately need the activists in the US to continue their efforts to protect democracy.
 
“No thrones. No crowns. No kings.” So reads a slogan on the “No Kings” official website. US activists christened June 14, 2025 —Trump’s 79th birthday and the date of the US Army’s 250th anniversary parade — as “No Kings Day.” That day, US civic groups around the country stood together to coordinate “No Kings” protests.
 
“In June, we did what many claimed was impossible: peacefully mobilized millions of people to take to the streets and declare with one voice: America has No Kings,” the “No Kings” organizers declare. The movement gained traction starting from June 14 and is preparing for a second nationwide “No Kings” protest on Saturday.
 
Indivisible, a civic group initiated in 2016 before Trump’s first inauguration, describes itself on its official website as “a grassroots movement of thousands of local Indivisible groups with a mission to elect progressive leaders, rebuild our democracy, and defeat the Trump agenda.” The organization currently has thousands of branches around the US and more than a million members. It is also a key organizer of the “No Kings” protests.
 
“50 protests. 50 sites. 1 movement. Join us in the fight to uphold the Constitution and end executive overreach,” is the slogan one is greeted with when introduced to the official website of the 50501 movement. The 50501 organization came into being after an anonymous Reddit user pitched the idea for the group as soon as it became clear that Trump would, yet again, set foot in the Oval Office.
 
It organizes anti-Trump rallies on state levels and is another organization vital to the No Kings grassroots movement. These groups also stand along with various other organizations, including the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), the American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL-CIO), MoveOn and Third Act.
 
As a citizen of a country that has no choice but to hang on to Trump’s every godforsaken word, I can only pray for the safety and good fortune of those in the US who are fighting for democracy. I sincerely hope that your efforts to ensure that the US is once again established as a democratic country are fruitful, and that you can stamp out the forces who are trying to “make America great again” by exploiting the rest of the world.

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