Far-Right Extremists Prepare Violence for “No Kings” Protests

Far-right groups are humming with talk of potential violence ahead of massive “No Kings” Day demonstrations that are expected to attract millions of protesters Saturday, according to The Wall Street Journal.

In a Telegram channel used by groups affiliated with the Proud Boys, a violent white nationalist group, users have sent posts promoting violence.

“Shoot a couple, the rest will go home. I promise,” said one meme, featuring a photograph of Kevin Costner’s character in The Highwaymen, a 2019 film about Texas rangers tracking down Bonnie and Clyde, holding a shotgun.

“HANG THE TRAITORS, EXPEL THE INVADERS,” said another post.

Jon Lewis, a research fellow at George Washington University’s Program on Extremism, told the Journal that the posts were alarming as they might inspire one to “get off the couch, pick up a gun and go out to one of these cities.”

Donald Trump has actively empowered far-right paramilitary groups by pardoning their leaders for crimes related to the January 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol, including Proud Boys leader Enrique Tarrio. Upon release from his 22-year prison sentence, Tarrio vowed retribution.

Earlier this month, a coalition of Proud Boys leaders filed to sue the federal government for $100 million—plus 6 percent interest—alleging that, in light of their pardons, their arrests and various charges had violated their constitutional rights.

Rallies opposing Trump’s agenda are expected at roughly 2,000 locations across the country Saturday, according to the No Kings Day map. The demonstrations are a planned opposition to the massive military parade planned on the Army’s 250th anniversary (and also Trump’s birthday) in Washington, D.C.

Trump has previously said that any protesters at his precious parade would be “met with very heavy force.”

A clear majority of Americans disapprove of President Trump’s militant handling of the Los Angeles protests, and his approval ratings have firmly fallen into the red.

Journalist G. Elliot Morris collected numbers from various major polls (YouGov/Economist, Quinnipiac, Washington Post/GMU, and AP-NORC) regarding Trump’s response to protests in L.A. and his indiscriminate, quota-based crackdown on immigrants. And while most participants disapprove of the protests themselves by a slim margin, the polls are a resounding rejection of Trump’s federal involvement in them.

An average of 45 percent of Americans disapprove of Trump’s deployment of the Marines and National Guard in Los Angeles, while only 37 percent approve. And an overwhelming 56 percent of respondents thought that state governments should “take the lead” in responding to protest, while just 25 percent thought the federal government should be in charge of it.

More than half of respondents also disapprove of Trump’s immigration policies and the way he is handling deportation. Outrage toward the administration’s draconian activities—masked agents snatching people from their jobs and their homes, tearing children from the arms of their mothers and fathers—continues to grow. Even Trump seems to have noticed, as he backtracked ever so slightly in a post, acknowledging that his deportations were causing farmers to lose “very good, long time workers.”

Only time will tell if something gives before midterm elections in 2026.

Despite what the White House previously said, the United States is absolutely working with Israel after it launched strikes on Iran, according to Israeli and U.S. officials.

The report contradicts messaging issued by the White House late Thursday, when Secretary of State Marco Rubio claimed in a statement that “we are not involved in strikes against Iran and our top priority is protecting American forces in the region.”

But by Friday afternoon, another U.S. official had confirmed the country’s involvement in the emerging conflict.

“The official said there are hundreds of thousands of American citizens and other American assets in Israel and the U.S. is working to protect them,” reported Axios’s Barak Ravid.

Israeli strikes have so far killed four senior Iranian commanders, including Hossein Salami, the commander in chief of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, Iranian state media confirmed late Thursday, though regional sources told Reuters that up to 20 senior commanders had been killed.

Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the supreme leader of Iran, said there would be “severe punishment” for the strikes. Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi rejected calls for restraint Friday in the wake of Israel’s large-scale attack.

But why the U.S. is embedded in a new global conflict is unclear. Donald Trump earned national support in part due to his isolationist campaign promises and his pledge to swiftly end the wars in Ukraine and Gaza. Six months into his second term, he has not only failed to do either but has seemingly embroiled America in a dire situation in the Middle East.

Trump publicly stoked tensions between Iran and Israel for days, reportedly under the assumption that it would encourage Iran to return to the negotiating table over a potential nuclear deal. That hasn’t happened. Instead, Iran has backtracked out of discussions that were scheduled to take place later this weekend.

In a phone call with ABC News’s Jonathan Karl Friday morning, the president referred to the attacks as “excellent,” remarking that Iran “got hit hard, very hard,” and that there was “a lot more” to come.

Israel’s attack, per Trump, was months in the making.

“I told them it would be much worse than anything they know, anticipated, or were told, that the United States makes the best and most lethal military equipment anywhere in the World, BY FAR, and that Israel has a lot of it, with much more to come—And they know how to use it,” Trump posted to Truth Social, promising that if Iran refused to come up with a nuclear deal then there would be “nothing left.”

Despite public opinion, Trump pulled the U.S. out of the original Iran nuclear deal in 2018. That arrangement, signed by several world powers, restricted Iran’s nuclear program in exchange for sanctions relief. Countries and organizations around the world lamented America’s withdrawal, while conservatives and Israel celebrated it.

In the aftermath of the withdrawal, political analysts pointed to three possible reasons for the massive policy reversal: that Trump was attempting to shed the legacy of his predecessor, President Barack Obama; that Trump was cozying up to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu; and/or that he had been influenced by a widening cast of yes-men in the White House.

President Trump thinks that Iran will now somehow be more willing to concede to a nuclear deal after being bombed by Israel, according to Axios.

“I don’t think so. Maybe the opposite,” Trump said when asked if Israel’s attack hurt efforts to close the nuclear deal between Iran and the U.S. “Maybe now they will negotiate seriously. I gave Iran 60 days, today is day 61.… They should have made a deal.… Maybe now it will happen.”

Trump seems to think that Isreal striking nuclear facilities while killing multiple military leaders and scientists—and several civilians, according to state media in Iran—on Thursday evening would cause Iran to retreat with its tail between its legs. But Trump’s comments came roughly at the same time as Iran began raining missiles on Tel Aviv—hardly a sign that it was ready to slink back to the negotiating table.

Indeed, Iran’s refusal to back down in the face of violence, pressure, and sanctions is well documented. Thursday’s strikes make it more likely that Iran will redouble its efforts to acquire a nuclear bomb, not that it would reenter talks. And this was fully demonstrated today as Iran struck back against Israel, launching multiple missiles at Tel Aviv. The extent of the damage is still unknown at this time. But what is known is that American intelligence has helped Israel repel Iran’s missiles—another reason to suspect Trump is being delusional when he clings to hope that he’ll have a deal soon.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement said Friday that it would not release green card holder Mahmoud Khalil, after a federal judge ordered him to be released.

U.S. District Judge Michael Farbiarz of New Jersey had given the government a deadline of 1:30 p.m. on Friday to appeal his ruling, and in a last-minute filing, the government said that it didn’t have to appeal the decision to keep detaining Khalil, a Columbia University graduate and leader of pro-Palestine campus protests.

The government claimed that the judge “did not order” them to release Khalil, but said only that they could not detain him based on Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s determination that he was a threat to U.S. foreign policy interests because allowing him to remain in the U.S. would create a “hostile environment for Jewish students in the United States.”

The government stated that it was well within its rights to detain Khalil on “other grounds,” namely his removability as “an alien inadmissible at the time of entry or admission, to wit.

“And while the court made a factual finding that it was unlikely that Khalili would be detained on another basis … the court never held that it would be unlawful for Respondents to detain Khalil based on another charge of removability,” the filing stated.  

Last month, the U.S. government alleged that Khalil purposefully failed to divulge his work as an unpaid intern for the United Nationals Relief and Work Agency and “withheld his membership of certain organizations” when applying for a visa, which was grounds for his removal. Khalil entered the U.S. on a student visa in 2022, and later applied for permanent residency in 2024. 

UNWRA is a U.S. aid organization in Gaza that Israel has long sought to shut down. Israeli officials claimed that 12 of the organization’s 32,000 staff members had been complicit in Hamas’s deadly incursion into Israeli territory on October 7, 2023. A U.N. investigation found that nine of them could have been involved. 

The U.S. government also claimed Khalil had failed to disclose his work with the Syria office in the British Embassy in Beirut, as well as his involvement with Columbia University Apartheid Divest, a pro-Palestinian activism group at his school. 

But none of this would have likely prevented him from receiving his green card, and it serves as weak pretext for his removal.

Across the country, federal judges have ordered the release of multiple students and faculty detained as part of Donald Trump’s crackdown on pro-Palestinian speech. Mahmoud has remained in ICE custody since March, and missed the birth of his child.