The “No Kings” movement, once touted as a grassroots juggernaut, now appears to be losing steam — leaving Democrats with fewer excuses to continue the shutdown.
President Trump’s top economic adviser, Kevin Hassett, predicted Monday that moderate Senate Democrats may soon break ranks and move to reopen the government, following a weekend of underwhelming “No Kings” protests that failed to galvanize the liberal base.
Kevin Hassett, director of the National Economic Council, argued on CNBC that enough Democrats in the Senate could move toward reopening the government to bring the shutdown to an end.
“A lot of our friends in the Senate have said that it was just bad optics for Democrats to open the government before the ‘No Kings’ rally,” Hassett said. “And that now there’s a shot that this week things will come together, and very quickly the moderate Democrats will move forward and get us an open government, at which point we can negotiate whatever policies they want to negotiate.”
Americans gathered at events across the country on Saturday for the second day of “No Kings” rallies this year to protest the Trump administration and its policies.
Millions were expected to attend the nationwide demonstrations aimed at denouncing the Trump administration. But turnout was sparse in many cities, with smaller-than-promised crowds and little of the energy that defined earlier liberal protest movements. Even left-leaning outlets acknowledged that enthusiasm appeared to be waning — a possible sign of fatigue among activists after years of anti-Trump theatrics.
The Hill reported that some Democrats privately acknowledged concerns about getting hit by their liberal base if they vote to fund the government following those demonstrations.
“There’s sort of cracks in the Schumer armor. I think the Schumer Shutdown is likely to end sometime this week,” Hassett said, referring to Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.).
“But I can tell you that if it doesn’t … if the story that we’ve basically been hearing from moderates that we just can’t do it in front of the ‘No Kings’ rally, if that ends up not being true, then I think the White House is going to have to look very closely along with Russ Vought at stronger measures that we can take to bring them to the table,” he added, referring to the director of the White House Office of Management and Budget.
The government shutdown, now stretching into another week, has been driven largely by Democratic leaders’ refusal to engage with the White House over spending priorities — a move many see as an attempt to appease their progressive base rather than serve the American people. The Senate Minority has faced mounting criticism, even within his own caucus, for allowing the shutdown to continue without meaningful progress.
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