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The Republican response to this weekend's massive No Kings demonstrations showed they're ready to crown President Donald Trump as absolute ruler, an analyst wrote Monday.

The president dismissed the protests, which drew an estimated 7 million people at 2,600 events nationwide, as "very small, very ineffective," posted AI-generated video of himself dumping feces on attendees' heads and threatened to invoke the Insurrection Act.

But Salon's Sophia Tesfaye argued the GOP response was even more revealing.

"The right’s response to No Kings wasn’t just politically telling. It was conceptually damning," Tesfaye wrote. "If a protest warns that someone is behaving like a king, and the accused responds by laughing, wearing a crown and declaring 'You’re just mad I’m winning' — you have your answer."

Vice President JD Vance shared a doctored video of Trump placing a crown on his head while Democratic leaders bowed, and the White House official account shared his post. House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) claimed the protesters "hate America" and wanted to "dismantle capitalism" and "erase our founding principles.”

"He may not be a king by law," Tesfaye wrote. "But in posture, and in the eyes of his defenders, Donald Trump already wears the crown. So he wants to define criticism as disloyalty. Mike Johnson wants to define protest as hate. Fox News wants to define mass mobilization as marginal. And yet none of it is working."

Millions protested Saturday against the president and his policies, but Tesfaye said the Republican reaction shows why those demonstrations are necessary to preserve democracy.

"The important questions now aren’t whether Trump will continue to act like a king," Tesfaye wrote. "They are whether the right can continue to pretend he isn’t — and if the press will let Republicans claim they haven’t seen Trump’s absurd reaction before he abuses his power to exact revenge."

The U.S. Marine Corps — under the watchful eyes of Vice President JD Vance and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth — staged a demonstration on Saturday in southern California.

It wasn’t a No Kings demonstration, though. It was more like a Yes Kings demonstration.

Some of the Marine Corps’ shells that were fired by M777 howitzers across California’s Interstate 5 prematurely detonated, sending shrapnel down on what could have been hundreds of motorists.

Why the hell did the Marine Corps fire artillery shells over Interstate 5 anyway?

Interstate 5 is the largest and most-traveled north-south freeway in California.

The military demonstration was part of an exercise marking the Marine Corps’ 250th anniversary.

Beforehand, the military predicted that the exercise would be safe, but California Governor Gavin Newsom disagreed.

“Firing live rounds over a busy highway isn’t just wrong — it’s dangerous,” Newsom said last week.

Newsom was so concerned about the plan that he ordered a 17-mile stretch closed of the freeway closed between Los Angeles and San Diego — which caused significant backups on that portion of the interstate, used by approximately 80,000 people daily.

Before the mishap, Vance’s office disputed Newsom’s claim that the live rounds were dangerous, saying the Marine Corp’s demonstration was “an established safe practice.”

“If Gavin Newsom wants to oppose the training exercises that ensure our Armed Forces are the deadliest and most lethal fighting force in the world, then he can go right ahead,” Vance’s communications director said in a statement. “It would come as no surprise that he would stoop so low considering his pathetic track record of failure as governor.”

After the round prematurely exploded on Saturday, the whole exercise — which was expected to include the firing of approximately 60 155-millimeter shells — was terminated.

An active-duty Marine artillery officer and a former Marine artillery noncommissioned officer who spoke to the New York Times described the exercise as “unusual.”

They said the only howitzer training they had previously observed at Camp Pendleton had taken place at approved artillery ranges on the main side of base, east of the interstate, which they said were a much safer option for training.

A highway patrol official based in the area also described it as “unusual and concerning.”

Tony Coronado, the highway patrol’s border division chief, said in a statement that “it is highly uncommon for any live-fire or explosive training activity to occur near an active freeway.”

So what’s going on here? Why did the Marine Corps decide to fire live artillery shells across California’s major interstate freeway on Saturday?

Could the decision have had anything to do with the planned No Kings demonstrations in California on Saturday — the heart of anti-Trump country — and the well-known fact that Trump hates California?

Just asking.

• Robert Reich is a professor of public policy at Berkeley and former secretary of labor. His writings can be found at https://robertreich.substack.com/.
• Robert Reich's new memoir, Coming Up Short, can be found wherever you buy books. You can also support local bookstores nationally by ordering the book at bookshop.org.