US Politics
John Cusack says Trump should ‘go to hell!’ at ‘No Kings’ protest in Chicago
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John Cusack spoke out against President Donald Trump at the “No Kings” protest in Chicago today, saying the city’s message to his administration is: “Go to hell!”
The 59-year-old High Fidelity and Say Anything star is a longtime resident of the city.
In an interview with CNN at the rally, Cusack claimed that Trump misunderstands Chicago. The president has asked the Supreme Court for permission to send troops into the city, arguing they are needed to protect federal border and immigration officials. Officials in the city insist they are not needed.
“What’s interesting is that he doesn’t understand that all the labor rights around the world came from this town, this place,” said Cusack “So if he thinks this place is going to be a fascist hub – no chance!”
Addressing the president directly, Cusack continued: “No, you can’t put troops on our streets. You can’t create enough chaos to invoke the Insurrection Act so you can stay in power. We all know what your plan is.”
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The protest in Chicago is just one of the massive rallies underway across the country as millions turn out for the second “No Kings” protests against President Trump’s administration.
With the government shutdown in its third week, demonstrators are participating in protests in more than 2,500 locations across the United States — and some abroad — on Saturday to stand up to what organizers called Trump’s “authoritarian power grabs.”
In June, over 5 million people turned out for the first “No Kings” protests. Organizers predict Saturday’s demonstrations could draw even larger crowds.
“There is no greater threat to an authoritarian regime than patriotic people-power,” Ezra Levin, a co-founder of Indivisible, one of the organizers, said.
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Ahead of the marches this week, the president insisted he was “not a king.” Meanwhile, some administration officials and Congressional Republicans labeled the demonstrations “Hate America rallies” and blamed Antifa for being behind the protests. In reality, a coalition of civil rights and advocacy groups organized the demonstrations.
Several figures in the Trump administration have dismissed the protests.
“Marked safe from kings in DC, since there aren’t any here,” Harmeet Dhillon, the U.S. assistant attorney general for the Civil Rights Division, wrote on X.
Hollywood star Cusack has consistently used his voice to speak out on political issues throughout his career.
In 2023, he spoke out about unfair wages for actors as the performers’ union went on strike. “The greed is almost a legendary comic trope,” he wrote on X, claiming that Fox used creative accounting to make it appear that Say Anything lost millions of dollars.
“I thought wow, I almost bankrupted Fox! (not really),” Cusack continued. “The film cost about 13 million to make – and money spent to release was minimal at the time. 30 years in – that film lost millions every year! A neat accounting trick don’t ya think?”
