MS NOW White House correspondent Jake Traylor on Saturday reported live from one of the many “No Kings” protests being held in opposition to President Donald Trump, capturing part of an altercation that one demonstrator said was started by a couple of angry MAGA fans.
Traylor reported for “Velshi” from West Palm Beach, Florida, where thousands of protesters gathered near Mar-a-Lago to make their voices heard. He told host Ali Velshi that a group of Trump supporters were counterprotesting the event, however, just 100 yards down the road.
“I’d say right now, Ali, there are 2,000, 3,000 at the ‘No Kings,’ said Traylor.
He continued, “Over at the Trump protest, there are about a couple dozen. But moments ago, we actually saw a protester from the pro-Trump protest come over here and initially just say a lot of defamatory things towards the peaceful protesting.”
Traylor said that “it got physical for a moment” when a Trump supporter “jumped the caution tape” to enter the “No Kings” protest, despite being asked to leave, with footage of an ensuing altercation being shown on-screen. A local man corroborated the claim.
“These two gentlemen were yelling and screaming at a bunch of us, and our side was remaining completely quiet, wasn’t even responding,” said a “No Kings” protester identified only as Michael, who told Traylor that he witnessed it himself.
He continued, “And a young woman started taking pictures of him with her camera and one of the guys walked over and, it looked like it was an open fist, actually, like, took such a swing, knocked the camera out of her hands, and I believe it actually cracked.”
Michael added that he told the man, “Now you’re going to jail,” before informing local authorities.
He told Traylor, “I ran over around to the parking lot, there was about a dozen cops hanging out, and I said, ‘There’s an assault in progress,’ and they all came running.”
Michael said the man then “started running from the police,” who purportedly gave chase.
OCTAVIO JONES via Getty Images
Trump has frequently blamed “the left” for political violence across the country, despite regularly and actively stoking it himself. He infamously suggested last year that a group of Democratic veterans in Congress should be hanged for making an innocuous video.
Lawmakers from both sides of the aisle have called for an end to the bipartisan blame game about whose party commits more political violence than the other.
A study published in 2024 by the National Institute of Justice, which was prominently available on the Justice Department website, found that “the number of far-right attacks continues to outpace all other types of terrorism and domestic violent extremism.”
The study was quietly removed from the Justice Department website in September.
