Opinion: My thoughts on Father’s Day as Americans say ‘No Kings’
President Donald Trump and first lady Melania Trump attend a military parade commemorating the Army’s 250th anniversary, coinciding with his 79th birthday, Saturday, June 14, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson)
On my screen, Donald Trump stood watching his military toys on parade in DC. Behind him on his left was his co-conspirator in the Florida documents case, his closest Asian American ally from Guam, Walt Nauta. The retired Navy valet turned Trump’s body man could have been every Filipino Trump supporter. His loyalty to Trump is greater than his loyalty to the nation.
Made me wonder what if that case had gone to trial? By virtue of winning an election, the case conveniently went away for Trump and Nauta.
Now Trump has used his power to shape an America to his liking. He’s monetized America so it works well for him. Just not all that well for so many Americans.
That’s why ’s also “No Kings Day” for all those who love Democracy but hate the creeping authoritarianism in America under Trump. In a hopeful sign, there were millions of people who assembled in cities large and small from coast to coast. They were people who care about basic American values like free speech and non-violent protest.
That’s was the real show this weekend that America is still intact and going strong.
They were the patriots of June 14, Flag Day.
Now if only we had a suitable leader who doesn’t see his military as pawns.
It was the Army’s 250th birthday, important sure, but a marching/tank show like the kind they do in North Korea, China and Russia?
The world’s leading Democracy is supposed to be above that. This style of parade is only for those who liked to play with toy tanks and marching Boy Barbies, GI Joes.
Maybe Trump wanted it for his 79th birthday to test all those he’s compelled to genuflect at the mere mention of his name.
Hard to tell if the “birthday parade/show of force” was intended to send a chill among protesters here, or to show the world that Trump is a man with a big, big military.
It’s all about inducing fear to get what you want.
Ugly murderous politics
The day began shockingly with the assassination of the Speaker of the Minnesota legislature and her husband, and the near fatal shooting of another state legislator and his spouse. The suspect got away, but left a manifesto which leads police to say the shootings were politically motivated. It was an assassination on a local level. .
You may like: Minnesota lawmaker shot dead in ‘politically motivated assassination’
But this is America now where public discourse has degenerated into power plays ending with deadly shows of force, not logic or consensus.
The Minnesota deaths were a constant reminder of how America has changed in a Trump era. When the president does unlawful things and makes prosecutors come after him in a court of law, he serves as a model for public lawlessness.
The global picture is also worse than ever. The war in Ukraine started by Trump’s Russian friends has not been ended on day one. The global trade war Trump started with his beloved tariffs continues.
And now Israel and Iran are fighting a new forever war. And Trump wants to broker the peace? Remember: Trump’s the one who pulled the US out of the Iran nuclear deal years ago because it was Obama’s deal. Now if he negotiates, he’ll be glad to get the deal he walked away from.
The woes of a master dealmaker who is not a master dealmaker. If I were Trump, I’d listen harder to the message of the “No Kings” protesters
Trump’s birthday, my Dad’s death day
But for me, the great coincidence of June 14th is how it’s also the day my father died, 47 years ago just prior to Father’s Day.
Willie Guillermo’s story is as American Filipino as it gets, the story of the first big group of Filipinos to the US in the 1920s, the so-called “manongs.” I turned the essay I first wrote, and read when I was the host of NPR’s “All Things Considered” in 1989. Here is a new version as a poem.
My Father’s Day
By Emil Guillermo ©2025 all rights reserved.
The historical black and white picture
shows a Filipino man
holding a box of vegetables and fruit.
The Box, has a label depicting the fields,
with a name draped over it all
proclaiming RIPON,
a town in the Central Valley.
That was not my father.
Another Filipino.
But you know what they say.
My dad was
Born under the American flag,
in a colonized Philippines,
The first colony of the imperial U.S.
My dad was not
A citizen, but still an American.
Legally undocumented.
A “national” they called him,
A euphemism indicating he was
Owned by the U.S.
like a slave but no chains,
chains were in his head.
He must have come from the depths if
America was his best option
During the depression, 1928.
One of 30,000 Filipinos, a
Man to woman ratio of 14-1.
It was a labor force, not a family force.
If things were normal,
maybe he would have started a family in a year
Or two. 1930?
But then I’d be 95 right now.
Not pretty. Not normal.
anti-miscegenation laws prevented
Intermarriage.
Taking white jobs was bad enough.
But not white women.
Others went to the valley to work
But not dad
Who stayed in San Francisco to cook,
lived with other Filipino men 6,7,8 to a room.
America was still better than the Philippines.
That’s Even if Filipino men dancing with white women
Caused
Riots in Stockton,
Lynchings in Lodi
A shooting death in Watsonville.
Got so bad, Filipinos were asked to self-deport.
Some went back.
The majority stuck it out here.
After nearly 30 years, my father met a rare Filipina,
and I was born.
We never talked much, dad and I.
I was too American.
He was too Filipino.
I went to the Pop Warner banquet by myself.
I was MVP. Running back.
Just not an MVP son.
It was only when I went east to college that
I learned the history.
After graduation, my father and I went
To see the Giants play.
He took me once to see Willie Mays.
Now Vida Blue made us cheer.
The Giants won,
And we went home
with pennant fever.
“they will go all the way now,” Dad said.
But they didn’t. And he didn’t.
Hours after the game, he passed.
A happy day in an imperfect life.
He died on Flag Day June 14.
If he were alive today, he’d think that big parade
In Washington, DC was for him.
Maybe it was.
My Dad, once a colonized Filipino,
so proud to be an American,
Of course, an American in its purest form:
freedom, equality,
and no kings.
Emil Guillermo is an award-winning journalist, news analyst and stage monologuist. He writes for the Inquirer.net’s US Channel. He has written a weekly “Amok” column on Asian American issues since 1995. Find him on YouTube, patreon and substack.
