We might look back on June 14, 2025, as a tipping point. Donald Trump has a long history of transgressing norms, but he appears to have finally gone far enough to awaken mainstream America to the danger of his presidency.

The No Kings day of protest on Saturday had been planned for months, but after immigration agents began nabbing people off the streets, at immigration proceedings and at work places, reportedly without warrants and sometimes without noticing that their targets actually were citizens, people in Los Angeles began to fight back. The first week of June saw more cases of people trying to thwart the taking of their immigrant neighbors.

And that conflict prompted Trump to nationalize the California National Guard without the permission of the governor, the first time that’s happened since Lyndon Johnson took over the Alabama National Guard in 1965. Almost immediately after that, Trump sent in the Marines, another very rare, very dangerous move.

The No Kings protest might have been big in any case, but the aggressive immigration sweep and the use of the military to quell protest added jet fuel to a smoldering fire of resistance.

Estimates of the number of events and the number of protesters have varied widely, but most news sources said at least 1,500 events were planned, and the turnout estimates range from 5 million to 12 million. That’s not very precise, but it’s safe it say a great big lot of people showed up.

The numbers indicate the resistance to the Trump administration has gone far beyond the activist groups that typically engage in protest.

Homewood and Flossmoor residents were among the area No Kings protesters. There always are a few locals at protests in Chicago and area suburbs, but this time, there were more. I talked to one local resident recently who was thinking about renting a big van because so many people wanted to join her.

Carrie Bonanotte and 60 to 70 members of the Bel Canto Community Choir spent 30 minutes at the Homewood train station Saturday morning, serenading people heading into the city with “Resilience” by Abbie Betinis.

The choir sang in the lobby, sang on the platform and then walked through the Homewood Farmers Market nearby, Bonanotte said.

Some of the group then headed to the No Kings protest in Chicago, where they were joined by an estimated 75,000 people.

What appears significant about the event was not only the numbers but who was showing up. In the week between the start of the L.A. conflict and the No Kings protest, there was a flurry of people on social media asking for advice about how to safely participate.

They were first-timers.

I was visiting family, so I attended the rally and march in Lenexa, Kansas, which is a suburb of Kansas City with a population of about 58,000 people. Bestplaces.net reports that the county and Lenexa lean liberal, although the Johnson County election website shows Democrats make up 32% of registered voters and Republicans make up 41%.

I talked to a first-time protester there.

John Goodnow was wearing a Vietnam veteran cap. He told me he was retired from a career in the Army. His sign compared Trump to Italian dictator Benito Mussolini. I asked him what persuaded him it was time to protest.

“How much time you got?” he said.

He listed a number of his concerns, starting with “blatant abuse of power” and appointing unqualified people to key leadership posts.

He said the cruel methods used to round up and deport immigrants was an echo of the treatment of Native Americans in the 19th century. And he objected to the administration’s attack on U.S. AID.

“In one month, the Trump administration destroyed seven decades of building goodwill with developing nations by closing down U.S. AID,” he said, noting that the move had created an opening for China to make inroads in Africa. He said he witnessed the good work of the aid agency while working in Africa after he retired.

“I took the vow to protect and defend the Constitution of the United States, foreign and domestic. What I do now is exercise my free speech (against) the enemies of democracy embodied in Trump and those who are behind him, basically destroying our Constitution,” he said.

June 14 is Flag Day, and the folks in Lenexa brought almost as many American flags and protest signs. The rally began with the whole crowd singing the national anthem.

Before the march, one of the organizers asked that people not block traffic. No one blocked traffic. It was a very polite protest. The chants and signs, however, were expressed the same sentiments seen at Chicago protests this year.

I talked to another local woman, Julie, who declined to give her last name. She said her “hair has been on fire since Trump came down the golden escalator,” referring to Trump’s campaign launch event in June 2015.

She said she was a regular at local protests — she’d been to four this year —and the one on June 14 was by far the largest she’d seen.