Close to four hundred people, many of them wearing plastic gold crowns, assembled in the Hudson Valley town of New Paltz, New York, on Saturday morning for one of the first “No Kings” rallies of the day.
It was a large turnout for the town of roughly 15,000, which is part of a key swing district represented by Democratic Congressman Pat Ryan.
Trump’s shredding of the Constitution and his unprecedented deployment of the National Guard and Marines in response to the protests in Los Angeles were key themes of the rally.
“We are celebrating the 250th anniversary of the American Revolution next year,” said Jen Metzger, the county executive of Ulster County, which includes New Paltz. “That was a war against tyranny. We are fighting a war against tyranny again.”
Democratic State Senator Michelle Hinchey, who represents the area, gave a fiery speech denouncing the militarized response to the LA protests against ICE immigration sweeps in the state and the attack on California Democratic Senator Alex Padilla.
“We are watching history unfold in real-time, when US senators are being thrown to the ground for asking a question,” Hinchey said. “When we are watching the very fabric of our country unravel, this is the moment in history where we will look back on and say where were you when? Where were you when we were watching dictators take over?”
Ryan, a former Army intelligence officer who is the first West Point graduate to represent the Academy in Congress, sharply criticized Trump’s speech to troops at Fort Bragg this week, where he said he would rename military bases after Confederate generals and announced that the military would be used to stop “an invasion” in California.
“Donald Trump has done more damage to our apolitical military just this week than every other President combined,” Ryan wrote on X.
Hinchey called the Hudson Valley “a bellwether” that would be critical to the Democrats’ chances of retaking the US House in 2026. “We will take back our flag,” Hinchey said at the rally, “and show what democracy looks like.”
