John Cusack showed up at Chicago’s “No Kings” rally over the weekend and, true to form, turned his celebrity into a political microphone, telling reporters the city’s message to the president was to “go to hell.” For those who built careers here, it’s a predictable, entitled performance: grandstanding to the cameras while lecturing the rest of America about patriotism.
The No Kings events were big, organized demonstrations that drew thousands to Grant Park and Daley Plaza — part of a nationwide day of action led by groups like the ACLU and Indivisible that demanded resistance instead of dialogue. These marches were billed as moral crusades, but in practice they shut down streets and disrupted the lives of working people who were just trying to get home.
Megyn Kelly rightly called out this kind of Hollywood self-righteousness on her show, arguing that veterans of the celebrity circuit should show a little gratitude for the freedoms and opportunities that made their success possible. There’s nothing radical about reminding public figures that with great platform comes a responsibility to be humble, not sanctimonious — a point Kelly has made consistently on her syndicated program.
Let’s be blunt: these celebrity protests have become a ritual of grievance, coordinated and amplified by partisan organizers who would rather score cultural points than solve real problems like crime, education, and economic stagnation. The No Kings movement may have gone national, but mass virtue-signaling won’t keep neighborhoods safe or put food on the table for hard-working Americans.
Cusack’s fiery rhetoric — the same dramatic, apocalyptic phrasing he’s adopted online for years — is emblematic of Hollywood’s disconnect from everyday life. When an actor with a lifelong career built on American freedoms tells citizens and local leaders to “go to hell,” it’s not courage; it’s contempt for the country that enabled his success.
Conservatives aren’t asking celebrities to be silent, just honest and thankful. If you want to lecture the nation, at least live among the people whose lives you’re trying to remake. Megyn Kelly’s blunt pushback is the kind of no-nonsense common sense America needs right now — a reminder that patriotism is more than a protest sign; it’s gratitude, service, and a willingness to defend the rule of law.