‘No Kings’ rules Beaufort for a day

Protest draws more than 1,000, remains peaceful

By Mike McCombs

The Island News

More than 1,000 people turned out in Beaufort for Saturday’s “No Kings” protest against the administration of President Donald Trump, one of the largest turnouts for a political rally in northern Beaufort County in recent memory.

The event was one of more than 2,000 across the country, organized, in part, to counter Trump’s military parade in Washington D.C., to mark the 250^th birthday of the U.S. Army – and Trump’s 79^th birthday, as well.

“Awesome, awesome, awesome,” said Barb Nash, Northern Beaufort County Democratic Club President, said about Saturday’s rally and march.

“It couldn’t have gone better, …,” she said. “It was a very peaceful protest, not that we weren’t noisy. But we followed the rules.”

Organizers estimated the crowd at around 1,500. The Island News, which made an effort to count as many participants as possible, couldn’t confirm that number. But the estimated total clearly surpassed 1,000 people when The Island News abandoned its efforts.

While the rally started at noon, the crowd continued to grow for the next hour. At 1 p.m., the protesters – or about half of them, more accurately – took part in a peaceful march, using the sidewalk, down Ribaut Road to Bay Street and to the Henry C. Chambers Waterfront Park in downtown Beaufort.

Nash said a few words to the group gathered in the park before it dispersed.

Linda Teachey, who is originally from North Carolina and has lived in Beaufort for six years, said she’s fed up with what’s going on the country.

“I had to come today,” she said. “I feel like it’s that important.”

Teachey said she was unhappy with how these protests were being twisted by some and portrayed as violent. The protests held in Beaufort since February have been virtually without incident.

“I believe in Democracy, it’s as simple as that,” she said. “Trump is slowly enacting Project 2025 every day, and people are ignorant. They need to see that there are other people who are not buying this. So that’s why I’m here. … People are fed up and willing to come out and say, ‘no.’”

The biggest issues for Teachey are the cutting of medical research and the rollback of environmental protections.

“What really bothers me is what they’ve done to science,” she said. “The [National Institutes of Health, the Environmental Protection Agency], … they’re just gutting science.”

The concerns are more personal for Beaufort’s Holly Mills.

“I am for democracy. We do not want a king who just does whatever he wants,” she said. 

Mills said we simply have a mean-spirited man in the White House.

“He only cares about Trump,” she said. “He doesn’t care about the environment. He doesn’t care about the people that pick our food.”

Beaufort’s Brainerd family – Mike and Jeannie and their daughter Scarlett – attended the protest and made the walk to Waterfront Park.

Mike Brainerd, retired from the U.S. Army after 30-plus years, is new to protesting, while his wife Jeannie has been coming out since the rallies started early in the year.

If they had their way, Jeannie Brainerd said, the family would have been protesting in the nation’s capital. 

“Especially since Donald Trump absconded with the U.S. Army birthday, you know, because it’s his birthday,” Jeannie Brainerd said. “We really wanted to be in Washington protesting, but we’re here and it was happening here.”

“We feel like he’s taking our democracy away every day. I’ve been a conservative Republican my whole life pretty much and MAGA is not what the Republican Party used to be,” Mike Brainerd said. “… He thinks he owns the Congress, feels like he owns the Supreme Court. He’s taken this king thing … he said, ‘If you vote for me, you’ll never have to vote again.’ What does that mean? I’m afraid for our democracy, and I think a lot of retired officers feel the same way, but when you’re on active duty, it’s a little different.”

And Mike Brainerd was clear about the use of U.S. Marines to counter protesters in Los Angeles.

“It’s wrong,” he said.

While a large number of drivers passing the protesters honked horns, shouted, or even held up signs from their cars in support of the protest, there were obviously those who honked or shouted in opposition, waved Trump flags, or even shared obscene hand gestures.

“I expected that there could be some counter protesters,” Nash said. “But we had such a huge turnout, there wouldn’t have really been a place for them. But I thought there would be a few. There were middle fingers, Trump flags, a few shouts, but far more positive honks and waves and thumbs up and reinforcements.”

The presence of the City of Beaufort Police was welcomed, though it was difficult to tell if it was needed. Like all the local protests so far this year, Saturday’s event remained peaceful.

“I knew it would,” Mike Brainerd said. “This is Beaufort. It was gonna be fine. It’s like the Black Lives Matter thing that went on [a few years back], … it looked bad in other places, but here, everybody’s been very appropriate and peacefully protesting.”

“It was a really good day,” said Anne Dickerson of Indivisible Beaufort. “I was really proud of our town and I was really grateful to our police. I think they deserve to be thanked.”

If there was a negative for the protesters, there were two heat-related health incidents involving marchers between City Hall and the Waterfront Park. Both women were tended to by emergency personnel before carrying on under their own power.

Otherwise, the event went off without a hitch.

“I couldn’t be happier,” Nash said. “It was awesome.”

“I don’t know if it does anything to change anything or not,” Dickerson said. “But it shows people are  willing to stand up and be heard.”

Mike McCombs is the Editor of The Island News and can be reached at TheIslandNews@gmail.com.