Demonstrators attend a "No Kings" protest against U.S. President Donald Trump's administration policies, in Portland, Oregon, March 28, 2026. REUTERS/John Rudoff
President Donald Trump is increasingly unpopular, as the No Kings protests demonstrate — and this means that right now “the public is leading the elites” in standing up for democracy, at least according to one conservative commentator.
“This all ends with enough of us saying no,” conservative commentator William Kristol said on his website The Bulwark on Sunday. “The bad news is that Trump is president for the next almost three years, and in the sense that we don't have a parliamentary system, his poll numbers could go down further and people could turn out even more.”
Kristol added, “But hopefully the elites — I feel like the public is now leading the elites by quite a lot. It's so striking, right? In terms of turning against Trump, you see it in the polls, but also in the turnout for 'No Kings.' And the elitist institutions are still accommodating Trump to a somewhat shocking degree.”
According to polling analyst G. Elliott Morris, an October No Kings event drew at least 5 million people all over America, marking it as the “largest single-day political protest ever.” Even though repeatedly claims he won the 2024 presidential election in a “landslide” (in fact he won the popular vote by roughly 1.5 percent, with less than a majority of 50 percent). MSNBC reporter Antonia Hylton found that one October event in New York City “far exceeded” the original estimated turnout of 200,000.
Kristol, despite being a lifelong conservative Republican, has repeatedly and emphatically criticized Trump for what he argues are the president’s assaults against American democracy. In February, as Trump continued dragging his feet on releasing the Jeffrey Epstein files and said he was “sad” at the arrest of the UK’s former Prince Andrew, Kristol wrote that “there is no evidence the Trump administration has any interest in seeing justice done, or any intention of having the truth come out. We have an executive branch that is on the side of the Epstein class, not the Epstein survivors.”
In February, Kristol praised Americans like Minneapolis residents who protected Trump’s ICE and its brutal deportation of immigrants.
“The American people are better than our current government,” Kristol said. “Civic spirit and enlightened patriotism are by no means dead in the United States. As the people of Minnesota have again reminded us.” He also argued that Trump administration officials do not understand the principles of the American revolution that they claim to honor.
“The administration in which Rubio serves pretends to celebrate that revolution, but hates the abstract truth which animated that revolution and which elevates it above merely another mundane struggle for power or profit,” Kristol said. “The Trump administration hates that fact because it is a reminder that there is more to life than power and profit. And it hates that truth precisely because it remains a stumbling block to tyranny and oppression.”
Kristol has also blisteringly denounced Trump’s rationale, or lack thereof, for declaring war against Iran earlier in March.
“Why did we go to war four days ago?” Kristol asked. “And why are we going to continue this war, apparently for weeks or longer? The Trump administration can’t answer either question.”