On October 18, demonstrations protesting President Trump’s authoritarian use of power took place at more than 2,700 sites across all 50 states, including Washington, D.C., New York, and Chicago. Under the slogan “NO KINGS,” over seven million Americans voiced their opposition to Trump. In particular, in Chicago—where the deployment of National Guard troops had been authorized two weeks earlier—an estimated 200,000 people marched to denounce the administration’s abuse of power.

National Guard deployments have been approved one after another for cities such as Washington, D.C., Los Angeles and Memphis, on the grounds of deteriorating public safety. The same goes for Chicago, which was described as “rife with crime and riots, in an uncontrollable state of lawlessness.” That said, murders in the first half of this year were down roughly 30 percent year-on-year according to the U.S. Council on Criminal Justice. In fact, major crimes have decreased. Consequently, a court halted the troop deployment to Chicago. But King Trump was not the kind to learn from his setbacks. Facing the assembled senior military officers, he declared, “This deployment is a ‘war from within.’ I want to use these cities as training grounds to quell disturbances. Anyone who cannot accept this mission may leave.”

The states and cities targeted for troop deployment are all Democratic strongholds. Trump supporters call the NO KINGS demonstrations “anti-American rallies,” implying that citizens who oppose the administration are deemed unpatriotic. On his way back from a state visit to the United Kingdom, Trump singled out the host of a TV program critical of him and suggested that TV networks airing such programs should have their broadcasting licenses taken away. The king no longer even tries to conceal his authoritarian instincts.

The U.S. Department of Defense revoked the press credentials of media outlets that refused to comply with the new reporting restrictions. The Department of Homeland Security also announced that the validity of foreign journalists’ visas would be shortened from the current five years to just 240 days. Information is being tightly controlled, while falsehoods are justified and imposed without verification. This is a classic tactic of an authoritarian state. The situation recalls a scene from Steven Spielberg’s The Post, released in 2018. (The film depicts the struggle between a government seeking to hide the truth of history behind national security and journalists maintaining their belief that sharing the truth with the public serves the national interest.) In the end, came “the rolling of the printing presses.” Can today’s world still resist such forces? It is no longer someone else’s concern.

Takashi Mizukoshi, the President
This Week’s Focus, October 19–23, 2025