Protesters flooded American streets last weekend claiming to stand against "kings and billionaires."
But organizers didn’t want anyone digging into who was actually funding the operation.
And No Kings protest organizers were terrified of the public discovering this ugly truth about their billionaire backers.
The second round of "No Kings" protests kicked off nationwide
Saturday marked the second wave of so-called "No Kings" protests, with demonstrators gathering in more than 2,500 locations across all 50 states.¹
Organizers claimed millions turned out to protest what they called President Trump’s "authoritarian" policies.²
The movement markets itself as grassroots resistance to billionaire influence and monarchical power.
But investigative research from Peter Schweizer and Seamus Bruner of the Government Accountability Institute exposed a very different reality.
These supposedly spontaneous demonstrations are actually a professionalized protest-industrial complex funded by the exact billionaire networks the protesters claim to oppose.³
The "No Kings" banner sounds noble enough — no thrones, no crowns, no kings.
Yet the people waving anti-billionaire signs have no idea who’s actually paying for their buses, their training sessions, and their protest materials.
Follow the money trail and you’ll find George Soros and friends
Schweizer and Bruner traced a staggering $294,487,641 flowing to official "No Kings 2.0" partners and organizers.⁴
The money came through the same dark-money networks that have been financing left-wing activism for years.
The breakdown tells you everything you need to know about who’s really pulling the strings.
The Arabella network kicked in more than $79.7 million.⁵
George Soros’s Open Society network added $72.1 million.⁶
The Ford Foundation network contributed $51.7 million, while the Tides network pumped in $45.5 million.⁷
The Rockefeller network added $28.6 million, and Warren Buffett’s network threw in another $16.6 million.⁸
"Obviously No Kings 2.0 isn’t grassroots," Bruner wrote on X. "This level of coordination takes serious cash."⁹
The protesters are holding up anti-billionaire signs funded by billionaires.
Either they’re being dishonest or they’re completely ignorant about who’s actually financing their movement.
The Arabella network operates as the Left’s dark-money machine
The Arabella Advisors network has perfected the art of disguising political operations as grassroots movements.¹⁰
The Atlantic once called Arabella’s Sixteen Thirty Fund the "indisputable heavyweight of Democratic dark money."¹¹
The network raised over $1.3 billion in anonymous donations in 2023 alone, then distributed nearly $1.5 billion to other organizations.¹²
Three massive funds funnel billionaire cash to professional protest groups — the New Venture Fund, the Hopewell Fund, and the Windward Fund.¹³
These fiscal sponsors create shell nonprofits that generate countless sub-projects with noble-sounding names but zero accountability to the public.
The organizational structure is deliberately designed to obscure money trails and hide who’s making decisions.
Swiss billionaire Hansjorg Wyss has dumped more than $245 million into Arabella, making him the largest foreign financier of America’s protest complex.¹⁴
Bill Gates’s foundation added over $100 million to the Arabella-Tides-Ford network backing this weekend’s protests.¹⁵
Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff threw in another $20 million-plus.¹⁶
Authentic grassroots movements run on shoestring budgets with disorganized volunteers who argue about strategy.
The "No Kings" operation runs like a Fortune 500 company with professional staff, coordinated messaging, and hundreds of millions in the bank.
Indivisible runs the show with billionaire backing
The Indivisible organization coordinates "No Kings" demonstrations while managing data and communications with participants.¹⁷
Led by activists Ezra Levin and his wife Leah Greenberg, Indivisible has organized numerous anti-Trump protests since 2017.¹⁸
The group reported $14.06 million in contributions in its most recent financial disclosure.¹⁹
Soros’s Open Society network has provided at least $7.61 million directly to Indivisible since 2017, while Wyss’s political action fund funneled $2.5 million to the operation.²⁰
LinkedIn founder Reid Hoffman funded Indivisible’s "Truth Brigade," and the Tides network has contributed more than $3 million.²¹
The connections to Soros run even deeper than the direct funding.
Tom Perriello served as executive director of the Open Society Foundations from October 2018 to July 2023.²²
Leah Greenberg previously worked as policy director for Perriello’s failed 2017 campaign for Governor of Virginia.²³
The web of relationships reveals a tight-knit network of professional activists recycling through the same organizations.
Republicans called out the coordinated operation
U.S. Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX) was among the first to sound the alarm about Soros connections.
"There’s considerable evidence that George Soros and his network are behind funding these rallies, which may well be riots all across the country," Cruz told Fox News.²⁴
Cruz introduced legislation in July that would allow the Justice Department to impose RICO charges against individuals funding violent protests.²⁵
House Speaker Mike Johnson branded the demonstrations a "Hate America Rally" and said he expected the crowd would include "pro-Hamas supporters" and "Antifa types."²⁶
Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy claimed the protests are "part of Antifa."²⁷
President Trump dismissed questions about the rallies when asked by Fox News.
"They’re referring to me as a king. I’m not a king," Trump said.²⁸
Republican governors prepared for potential violence by deploying National Guard troops.
Texas Governor Greg Abbott directed the Department of Public Safety and National Guard "to surge forces into Austin ahead of an Antifa-linked protest," writing on X that "Texas will NOT tolerate chaos."²⁹
Virginia Governor Glenn Youngkin authorized state active duty training for the Guard "to help ensure the Guard will be ready to respond if needed to keep people safe."³⁰
The protest-industrial complex operates like information warfare
The coordination is too smooth, the branding too professional, and the timing too strategic for this to be spontaneous.
Professional agitators don’t just show up spontaneously with matching signs, trained organizers, and coordinated media strategies.
Someone pays for the buses, the training sessions, the digital advertising, and the signage.
Real grassroots movements struggle for funding and deal with messy internal disagreements.
The "No Kings" operation runs like a well-oiled corporate machine because that’s exactly what it is.
The playbook mirrors color revolutions overseas — Western NGOs pulling strings with money, media, and messaging working in perfect sync.³¹
The 2020 summer protests followed similar patterns, with millions flowing into bail funds tied to political PACs.³²
Election-year civic engagement drives always hit the same swing states with the same donors behind them.
Former Lieutenant General Michael Flynn nailed it when he described what’s really happening.
"What is presented as a grassroots movement is instead a hollow spectacle driven by a web of dark money and hidden agendas," Flynn wrote.³³
Nearly $300 million from Arabella and Soros networks doesn’t buy genuine activism — it buys manufactured outrage with professional organizers reading from the same script.
The organizers hyped massive turnout numbers
Organizers claimed more than 5 million people showed up for the first round of protests back in June.³⁴
By Saturday they were predicting even bigger crowds, billing it as potentially the "largest protest in US history."³⁵
Approximately 200 organizations partnered for the October protests, including the ACLU, American Federation of Teachers, MoveOn, and United We Dream.³⁶
Events took place from major cities to small towns with populations under 3,000 people.³⁷
But here’s what the organizers don’t want you to know.
The first "No Kings" protests in June drew attention primarily because they coincided with Trump’s military parade celebrating the Army’s 250th anniversary.³⁸
By October, nobody cared anymore and media outlets struggled to generate the same buzz.
When you’re running a corporate-style operation instead of a real movement, the energy fizzles out fast.
The irony couldn’t be more obvious
A movement calling itself "No Kings" and claiming to oppose billionaire influence is completely bankrolled by billionaire kings.
The protesters holding anti-billionaire signs are literally being paid for by George Soros, Bill Gates, and other mega-wealthy donors.
One faction of billionaires simply hates another faction of billionaires.
So they fund their nonprofit soldiers to create a front group, brand it with an appealing name, and deploy an army of paid protesters.
This is the permanent protest-industrial complex in 2025 — manufactured outrage financed by the very elite class the demonstrators claim to oppose.
The "grassroots" activists are either being lied to or they’re willfully ignorant about who’s actually funding their movement.
Either way, Americans deserve to know the truth about who’s really pulling the strings behind these coordinated demonstrations.
¹ "No Kings protests (October 2025)," Wikipedia.
² Ibid.
³ Seamus Bruner, "FUELED BY THE FILTHY RICH: Seamus Bruner Exposes Dark Money Networks Behind ‘No Kings’ Protests," The Drill Down, October 17, 2025.
⁴ Seamus Bruner, Twitter post, October 16, 2025.
⁵ Ibid.
⁶ Ibid.
⁷ Ibid.
⁸ Ibid.
⁹ Ibid.
¹⁰ "Dark-Money Network Funneled Millions Into ‘No Kings’ Nationwide Color Revolution Operation," American Partisan, June 14, 2025.
¹¹ Peter Schweizer and Seamus Bruner, "Dark-Money Network Funneled Millions Into ‘No Kings’ Nationwide Color Revolution Operation," ZeroHedge, June 14, 2025.
¹² "Dark-Money Network Funneled Millions Into ‘No Kings’ Nationwide Color Revolution Operation," American Partisan, June 14, 2025.
¹³ Peter Schweizer and Seamus Bruner, "Dark-Money Network Funneled Millions Into ‘No Kings’ Nationwide Color Revolution Operation," ZeroHedge, June 14, 2025.
¹⁴ Seamus Bruner, "FUELED BY THE FILTHY RICH: Seamus Bruner Exposes Dark Money Networks Behind ‘No Kings’ Protests," The Drill Down, October 17, 2025.
¹⁵ Ibid.
¹⁶ Ibid.
¹⁷ "’No Kings’ protests being funded by foundations run by George Soros: report," KATU, October 18, 2025.
¹⁸ "Dark-Money Network Funneled Millions Into ‘No Kings’ Nationwide Color Revolution Operation," American Partisan, June 14, 2025.
¹⁹ Peter Schweizer and Seamus Bruner, "Dark-Money Network Funneled Millions Into ‘No Kings’ Nationwide Color Revolution Operation," ZeroHedge, June 14, 2025.
²⁰ Ibid.
²¹ Ibid.
²² "Soros foundations helping fund anti-Trump ‘No Kings’ protests nationwide," Fox News, October 17, 2025.
²³ Ibid.
²⁴ Ibid.
²⁵ Ibid.
²⁶ "What to know about nationwide ‘No Kings’ rallies protesting Trump," ABC News, October 18, 2025.
²⁷ Ibid.
²⁸ Ibid.
²⁹ "No Kings protests: Saturday marches underway around the U.S.," NPR, October 18, 2025.
³⁰ Ibid.
³¹ Michael T. Flynn, "No Kings, No Secrets," Gen Flynn Substack, October 17, 2025.
³² Ibid.
³³ Ibid.
³⁴ "No Kings protests: Saturday marches underway around the U.S.," NPR, October 18, 2025.
³⁵ "’No Kings’ Rallies Against Trump Authoritarianism Could Be ‘Largest Protest in US History,’" Common Dreams, October 18, 2025.
³⁶ "No Kings protests (October 2025)," Wikipedia.
³⁷ Ibid.
³⁸ "No Kings protests: Saturday marches underway around the U.S.," NPR, October 18, 2025.
³⁹ Ibid.
