A car comes to a stop at the roundabout around the court in the center of the Texan city of Weatherford. The warning lights come on. It takes a moment before the passenger door opens and first a walking stick and then Donald Treter (82) get out. Treter, he explains a little later, not only has difficulty walking, he is blind in his right eye and can only see 20 percent with the left.
Yet today the veteran is taking part in a demonstration “for the first time in my life”: against President Donald Trump. “I’ve had it all,” he says, as he shuffles along to about a hundred others. “With everything from this government, but especially with the senseless war.”
On Saturday, the third ‘No Kings’ protest brought together millions of Americans to demonstrate against Trump. They took to the streets in more than three thousand places against the president who, according to the demonstrators, behaves like a monarch. From St. Paul, neighboring city of Minneapolis, where Bruce Springsteen performed, to places like Weatherford, where more than eighty percent of voters voted for Donald Trump in 2024.
“My neighbors are for Trump,” says Treter. “We are extremely friendly to each other, as long as we don’t talk about politics.” It’s nice to be among like-minded people today, he says. In Weatherford, as elsewhere in the country, these are mainly middle-aged white women. They are the driving force behind these demonstrations.
No one serving now dares to resist, so it is all the more important that we are here on their behalf
“I don’t think we can bring about major changes with this,” says Treter. “But it is important to show how great the resistance is to what is happening. And to show people in this red area that there is an alternative.”
That resistance is against everything: the deportations by immigration police ICE, the attacks on the rule of law, on the press, the attempt to introduce a restrictive national election law, the demolition of part of the White House, budget cuts and, this time, the incomprehensible war against Iran for many people.
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Treter served as a Marine in Cambodia in the 1960s, where he conducted secret missions before the Vietnam War. “Until now, Trump has done all the terrible things he promised his voters. But right now he is breaking the promise of ‘no new wars’. It is unbelievable that he is attacking Iran so that we no longer talk about the Epstein files,” he is convinced. According to Treter, the war was clearly not planned militarily. “Because then preparatory work would have been done to ensure that the Strait of Hormuz could not simply be closed. We send soldiers there without game plan.”
Veteran Donald Treter protests in Weatherford on Saturday during the third ‘No Kings’ protest. “I have had it with everything about this government, but especially with the senseless war.”
Photo Emilie Van Outeren
Here on behalf of soldiers
At almost every protest against Trump, there are veterans who served their country in previous armed conflicts. Usually their war experience is from a distant past. Those who share their military background through caps and protest signs, including at a protest in nearby Fort Worth, are around or over 70. In the fifty kilometers between these two places there is a military base where mainly reservists work. So far they have not been deployed. Actively serving soldiers understandably do not show up during the demonstration against Trump and his war.
Dan Brodle (69), spent a year of his life as a soldier in the demilitarized zone between North and South Korea, he says. “I know how nervous many soldiers are now: they want to serve their country, but are worried that their unit will be sent to the Middle East. Even though they are now all MAGA” (Make America Great Again, a slogan of Trump’s supporters). In his day, he says, the military was still politically mixed, but now “only Republicans and immigrants sign up” — the latter category can become citizens more quickly through the military. “No one serving now dares to resist, so it is all the more important that we are here on their behalf.”
Veterans Colon Gilbert (left) and Dan Brodle during the ‘No Kings’ protest.
Photos emilie van outeren
It’s unclear whether it’s the un-Texan cold and drizzly weather, but this Saturday there are fewer demonstrators than at previous No Kings protests in both Weatherford and Fort Worth. Navy veteran Colon Gilbert, 78, broke his back during military training, he says. In recent months, he has mainly been busy convincing one of his sons, “a Trump fan”, that the country is going in the wrong direction. “I think I’m almost there.”
For the first time in my long life, I really fear for our democracy
Despite lower turnout, the protests in North Texas are important, organizers say. As the demonstration in Fort Worth approaches, voters can be informed and register to participate in the elections next time. Because the midterms Winning Congress in November, they know here, is not done by convincing opponents, but by mobilizing more anti-Trump people. In Fort Worth, a Democrat recently won a seat in the state Senate. The opposition party is optimistic that Texas can appoint a Democratic senator in November.
Fear of democracy
At the protest in Weatherford, Donald Treter encounters another veteran standing on the other side. Daniel Nation (75) served almost a quarter of his life in the military. “I fought to defend their right to demonstrate. I don’t agree with them, but I’m glad they can be here,” says the Trump supporter who is here as a counter-protester.
Both Nation and Treter have signed up to help count votes in November, when the midterm elections take place. Because that is the next battleground for Trump’s supporters and opponents: will every American who wants to be able to vote? And will their votes be counted? “For the first time in my long life I really fear for our democracy,” says Treter.
