About

"No Kings" Protest Signs refers to handmade signs created and held by protestors at "No Kings" rallies in mid-June 2025. Many of the signs were adorned with funny slogans, puns and insults aimed at U.S. President Donald Trump and other Republican and right-wing leaders and establishments. Many found the signs humorous and inspiring on social media platforms like Twitter / X, Reddit and Instagram, among other sites, as they trended online. Other internet users found the signs to be cringe and a symbol of ineffective protesting. This negative reaction focused on what critics perceived as unserious tones and led to a critique of how white people, in particular, protest, as many of the people pictured with the signs were white. The "No Kings" protests occurred shortly after the June 2025 ICE Protests in LA, which was used as a comparison for critics of the signs.

Origin

On June 14th, 2025, protestors organized across American cities to participate in the "No Kings" protest, which correlated with the estimated $45 million parade held in Washington, D.C. for the U.S. Army's 250th anniversary and U.S. President Donald Trump's birthday.^[1]

On that day, many people shared photos on social media of signs made by "No Kings" protestors. For instance, on June 14th, X^[2] user @daakardior tweeted a photo of a sign that read, "You sucked in Home Alone 2," referring to Trump's role in the movie. The picture was captioned, "A friend sent this to me from the Chicago No Kings protest. Thank you to the patriot [who] made that sign." The tweet gained over 147,000 likes in two days (shown below).

Spread

Others on social media shared similar photos in the following hours. For instance, on June 14th, 2025, X^[3] user @ArtCandee tweeted a photo of a dog wearing a shirt reading, "Nobody is eating the dogs," concerning Donald Trump's quote, "They're Eating the Dogs," about the Haitian Immigrants Eating Pets and Geese Hoax. The post received over 77,000 likes in two days (shown below).

On June 14th, 2025, Redditor ggism3 shared several photos to the /r/okc^[4] subreddit taken at the "No Kings" protest in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, gaining over 1,600 likes in two days. One photo showed a sign reading, "Dog tick, deer tick, luna tick. Know your parasites" (shown below).

On June 15th, Redditor invis2020 posted a slideshow to the /r/popculturechat^[5] subreddit, showing, "Some of the best signs at the 'No Kings' protests across America this weekend." The post gained over 141,000 upvotes in a day.

Similar slideshow posts compiling "No Kings" signs were shared elsewhere on social media, like a post from Instagram^[6] user @modernnotoriety on June 15th, receiving over 29,300 likes in a day.

Instagram users also shared photos of their own signs, like one post from Instagram^[7] user @heytherejenny on June 15th, 2025, whose sign had the Pokémon Mewtwo and text reading, "The circumstances of one's birth are irrelevant." The post gained over 3,800 likes in a day (shown below).

Backlash

Some internet users critiqued the "No Kings" signs going viral online as they spread across social media platforms in mid-June 2025.

For instance, on June 14th, 2025, X^[8] user @milkyymiii quote-tweeted @daakardior's tweet,^[2] saying that they do not like white people because they "think everything is a god damn joke." Over two days, the post gained over 13,000 likes (shown below).

On June 15th, X^[9] user @st4rborn4ngel posted a similar quote-tweet, concerning a photo of two women at a "No Kings" protest. @st4rborn4ngel wrote, "They think TS is a little game, bro. WHITE people irk my SOUL," amassing over 109,000 likes in a day (shown below).

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References