Fox News host Jesse Watters has slammed No Kings protesters as ignorant trend-chasers who had “no idea why they’re there” — after admitting that his own mother was among their ranks.
Between 4.5 million and 6.5 million people are estimated to have marched in a second day of nationwide anti-Trump demonstrations on Saturday, reportedly including celebrities such as Pedro Pascal, Jamie Lee Curtis, John Cusack, Spike Lee, Ben Stiller, and Nancy Pelosi.
Those numbers would potentially make it the largest single-day protest in the nation’s history, rivaling the estimated 3.3m to 5.6m people who attended the 2017 Women’s March, which was also against Trump.
That cut little mustard with Watters, who accused the protesters of having “lost their minds” on Fox News’s The Five on Monday.
“I know my mom was there,” he admitted. “Can you believe my mom was there? Sometimes I think I was adopted.”
He went on: “They do these things: the Women’s March, BLM, the Musk stuff. The issues change, but the one thing that stays the same is Trump.
“They think this guy’s like crack cocaine. They get these big bursts of energy every once in a while, but long term this has been bad for their health.
“They’ve lost the culture, they’ve lost the media, they’ve lost two of the last three elections, they’ve lost all power in Washington, and they’ve lost their minds…
“You go into these rallies and you interview these people: they have no idea why they’re there. I mean some of do; my mom knew.
“But if you stick a mic in front of their face, they have no clue. They’re just kind of walking around.”
This is far from the first time Watters has skirmished with his Democrat-voting mom over about politics. In fact, at times he’s read out their text exchanges in a regular segment called “Mom Texts”.
In July 2023, on his first night after replacing Tucker Carlson, she told him: “Do not tumble into any conspiracy rabbit holes. We do not want to lose you, and we want no lawsuits, OK?
“I want you to seek solutions, versus fanning the flames… perhaps you could suggest that your people take less interest, for example, in other people’s bodies.”
In 2024 he said he had not been invited to Thanksgiving following Trump’s second election victory, saying his mom had told him there “wasn’t enough room”.
Organizers have estimated that about 7m people attended Saturday’s protests, while independent data journalist G. Elliott Morris and Atlanta-based science news outlet The Xylom put the total lower at probably around 5m.
In at least 2,500 rallies in cities and towns across the country, demonstrators marched in colorful costumes — including the inflatable animal suits made famous by anti-ICE protesters in Portland, Oregon.
Organizers called the protests “overwhelmingly peaceful,” though there were scattered reports of violence and arrests, especially in Portland and Chicago where crowds protested outside ICE facilities.
Trump responded by insisting he was “not a king”, before posting an A.I.-generated video of himself wearing a crown while flying a “KING TRUMP” fighter jet and bombing a crowd of No Kings protesters with brown liquid.
Watters’ reaction was at least less scatological. “Democrats love kings! They love the government telling them what to do,” he said.
“‘Give me a shot! Take over my healthcare! Tell me what not to stay!’… Democrats love it! They love to submit. They love to conform. It’s what they do…
“And Trump’s no king! If Trump was a king you wouldn’t have had a rally like this. You wouldn’t have people going on TV calling him a Nazi, and you wouldn’t have the government shut down.”
