Last Friday, new talking points were seemingly rolled out across the MAGA sphere. Top GOP leadership, from House Speaker Mike Johnson to Minnesota Rep. Tom Emmer to Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy, began seeding a narrative about today’s “No Kings” protests.

Rather than describing them for what they are — First Amendment-protected rallies where millions of Americans are expected to peacefully stand against the Trump administration’s unconstitutional, authoritarian, and un-American agenda — Republican leadership is framing the upcoming demonstrations as “Hate America” protests. Party leaders also called the gatherings “terrorist” and “Soros-funded” events that would be filled to the brim with “the antifa crowd, the pro-Hamas crowd, and the Marxists.”

This trial-balloon messaging is meant to get ahead of what organizers say could be one of the largest days of mass protest in U.S. history, with events planned in every state. Millions of Americans are projected to attend some 2,500 rallies to oppose the illegality and immorality of the Trump agenda, the destruction of hard-won civil and constitutional rights, and the fascist ambitions of the MAGA movement. Republican leaders are attempting to preemptively cast this protest within the framework Stephen Miller has been working to aggressively mainstream since the assassination of Charlie Kirk, where all who oppose the extremist MAGA agenda are “domestic terrorists.”

To their credit, Democratic and Independent leaders responded quickly. Sen. Bernie Sanders issued a statement pointing out that the No Kings protests are protected under the First Amendment and, contrary to right-wing smears, protesters are standing up for American values. Former Republican and now Independent Joe Walsh called out the GOP’s attempt to vilify half of the American electorate as “shameful” in a post on Twitter and urged his followers to attend the protests, emphasizing that his former party is “scared to death” of the looming rallies.

It’s true: MAGA is terrified of the specter of massive nonviolent protest — and for good reason. Nothing threatens their agenda more than millions of ordinary Americans mobilizing to put a face to the opposition.

The Impact of Images of Dissent

The administration has been working overtime in recent weeks to vilify and alienate its opposition, painting Democrats and left-leaning activists alike as violent extremists. With their media footholds and tight messaging discipline, they’ve had some success in painting a picture of a fictional, widespread antifa threat, which is already serving as a pretext for the Trump’s administration’s Justice Department to file terrorism charges against its foes.