It’s almost poetic — if unintentional irony counts as poetry — that the same generation who once warned us against the creeping reach of big government has now donned matching t-shirts and marched under the name Grantifa to defend… well, whatever it is they think they’re defending.
This weekend’s “No Kings” protests were supposed to be a stirring moment of mass democratic resistance against President Donald Trump. What we got instead was a nationwide display of cosplay activism — part street theater, part nostalgia, and 100% astroturfed. Cue the inflatable frogs, the dinosaur costumes, and now, the latest installment of left-wing branding desperation: “Grandparents Against Fascism.”
Yes, Grantifa is here — a gaggle of aging protesters with professionally printed shirts that read like bumper stickers from 1974, bolstered by the emotional potency of AARP: The Resistance Edition. Social media was quick to amplify them, with activist Shane Claiborne breathlessly posting, “I met Grantifa today. We’re gonna be alright.” Really? If grandma in a homemade visor and orthopedic sandals yelling about “fascism” is your firewall against tyranny, you might not be as alright as you think.
This movement would almost be charming if it weren’t so transparently coordinated and so utterly disconnected from the reality it claims to resist.
Fox News Digital’s investigation traced the movement’s funding to the usual suspects: left-wing nonprofits, union-backed PACs, and of course, George Soros’s Open Society Foundations. You don’t need a corkboard and string to figure this one out — when Chuck Schumer, Cory Booker, Adam Schiff, and Beto O’Rourke all show up at your protest, it’s not grassroots. It’s payroll.
And while the media clutches its pearls over “threats to democracy,” they continue to ignore the glaring hypocrisy: the same groups waving American flags while denouncing Trump as a “king” are perfectly fine aligning themselves with Antifa-adjacent organizations known for destruction, doxxing, and masked violence. The Trump administration has called it what it is: a network of anarcho-militant fronts operating under different banners, funded through complex and opaque channels — now with matching retirement-age cosplay units.
The rise of Grantifa is more than just a footnote in this increasingly unserious movement — it’s a window into how deeply the left has leaned into theater over truth. These aren’t just protests. They’re productions, carefully curated and pre-funded, complete with costume departments and talking points. Grandmas and grandpas holding “anti-fascism” signs while marching alongside Antifa-backed orgs funded by Soros — that’s not resistance. That’s marketing.
And the product? Fear. Confusion. Division. All wrapped in an emotional appeal to nostalgia and victimhood, with zero acknowledgment of the actual policies that have improved lives — from record-low unemployment under Trump to energy independence, rising wages, and a foreign policy that didn’t include new wars.
But here’s the thing about real Americans — they see through the act.
They’re not buying the “No Kings” narrative, because they remember who locked them down, who called them nonessential, who shut their churches and silenced their voices. They remember who called them fascists for wanting a secure border and inflation relief. And they know — deep down — that a man who deregulated the economy, returned power to the states, and got impeached for not abusing power is a lot of things, but a “king” isn’t one of them.
