Hundreds of people crowded along Heber City’s Main Street for a rally against the Trump administration on Saturday morning, one of 17 “No Kings” demonstrations in Utah and thousands held nationwide.

They held signs reading witticisms like “IKEA makes better cabinets” and chanted, “Hey, hey, ho, ho, Donald Trump has got to go” as supportive honks from passing trucks nearly drowned out their voices.

A ski patrolman could be spotted in the crowd, despite it being a hot morning without a snowflake in sight. He stood near another protester who was wearing a ski jacket and helmet and holding a sign reading, “Skiers against ICE.” The ski patrolman hoisted a single ski pole in the air. Suspended from it like a flag was the Red Cross-emblazoned jacket of the Park City Professional Ski Patrol Association.

Protester and Midway resident Lauri Sibulkin has been a ski patrolman for the association for 25 years. 

“My nature is to help people. It’s not to go stomping around in big boots,” he said. “I want the world to know the people that serve, whether they’re in the military or in emergency services, or our brothers in (police) uniform … we give a damn. We pay attention. We know right from wrong.”

He said the Trump administration has “utterly lost touch” with the notion that those in positions to enact harm must do everything in their power to avoid doing so. 

He expressed frustration that the U.S. and Israel launched surprise airstrikes on Iran in late February in the middle of the U.S. and Iran’s nuclear negotiations, thereby beginning the 2026 Iran war. He added that it was Trump who first withdrew from the United States’ previous nuclear agreement with Iran in 2018.

“Now, I’ve never managed to read The Bible because it’s terribly written. But that doesn’t make me an unbeliever,” he said. “But I’m told, in it, somewhere, it says, ‘Turn the other cheek.’ That doesn’t mean, ‘Be a coward.’ That means if somebody flicks your shoulder, you don’t punch them in the mouth. You find out why they did that, and if there’s a way to meet in the middle, do so.”

Fellow Midway resident Ron Lee also attended the protest to speak out about the Iran war, particularly the fact that it was started without congressional approval.

Lee called Trump an “immoral” and “corrupt” person who has displayed a level of “criminality” unlike any other president. 

President Trump was found guilty of 34 felonies related to falsifying business records in 2024. 

Lee also referenced Trump’s longstanding relationship with child sex offender and trafficker Jeffrey Epstein while holding a sign that read, “GOP: Guardians of Pedophiles.”

The protester added that he considered the Watergate scandal President Richard Nixon was involved in to be “minor stuff compared to what’s going on today.”

“The Republicans in Congress today do nothing to curtail what Trump is doing,” Lee said. “He’s not following the Constitution. He swore to the Constitution, and all he does is lie every day.”

Lee, 83, was involved in his local Republican party when he previously lived in Illinois. He became a Democrat when he moved to Utah 26 years ago because he saw that Democrats were being “overrun by the Republicans” in Congress, which he didn’t consider representative of all constituents in the state. 

“It’s just a smaller microcosm of what’s going on nationally today,” he said, referring to the Republican party’s current control of the state’s Senate and House of Representatives.

Park City resident Kim Hennemen attended the Heber City protest to show support in a majority-red county. 

She wore a sky blue unicorn costume that made her look as if she was riding the animal. She held a sign with red balls taped to it reading, “Balls for congressional members who’ve lost theirs.”

Standing next to Hennemen was her close friend, Ellen Guthrie, who is also from Park City. Guthrie wore a frog costume and a crown, which she had also worn at the previous “No Kings” rally in Heber City in October. Her sign read “No kings, only frog queens.” She was inspired by protesters who had worn frog costumes at anti-ICE protests in Portland last year. 

The pair have been attending protests together since George W. Bush’s administration.

“Right now, I’d vote for Bush,” joked Guthrie, who is a Democrat.

Hennemen and Guthrie weren’t the only longtime protesters at the demonstration. 

Kate Harrod, 71, is the former Government Affairs Committee chair for the American College of Nurse Midwives. She’s done plenty of lobbying in D.C. During Saturday’s protest, she wore a sparkly hat with an American flag pattern on it, one of several in her wardrobe.

She also owns a red-white-and-blue cheesehead hat, which she would have worn in her hometown of Lake Geneva, Wisconsin, where she had planned on attending a “No Kings” protest — that plan changed when she and her other daughter, Mikaela, decided to make a trip to Heber City to visit her daughter, Megan. 

“You notice how many grandparents are out here. I was the generation that came after the protesters because I was too young in the ’60s,” Kate said. “But we learned from them, and a lot of those people are out here because the grandparents have to protect the young.”

Her daughter Mikaela lives in Minneapolis. She shared some of her firsthand experiences during U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Operation Metro Surge, which occurred December through February and garnered nationwide attention for ICE agents’ shootings of civilian protesters Renée Good and Alex Pretti.

Mikaela called it a “nightmare” and “like living in a civil war.”

“The craziest thing were the cars that were just abandoned on the road everywhere because they would just rip people out of their cars, and they would be left there,” she said. “One of the cars had a baby in the back that they discovered later.”

Mikaela is a postpartum doula and works with a client whose husband was arrested by ICE at a hospital during a prenatal appointment. He was later deported to Ecuador. 

“She had to deliver all by herself. She doesn’t have anyone else in the country, so I’ve been helping her a bit, just to be able to afford groceries and do her laundry,” Mikaela said. “The baby is a month and two weeks (old) now and still hasn’t met his dad.”

Mikaela said that is just one example of the lasting effects of the operation even after the February withdrawal of most of the ICE agents who had been deployed to Minnesota.

“People are scared to leave their houses and everything, still,” she said.

The biggest thing that stuck out to Mikaela as she participated in protests and barricades during the operation was the sense of community solidarity. 

Giving that community solidarity to Wasatch County residents was the reason why Interlaken resident Terri Goodall organized the protest. It’s the sixth protest she’s organized in Utah since April.

“I still believe in hope. I think we can change things,” she said.

Her husband, Bill, is more pessimistic on that front. He held a sign that said, “Not usually a protester, but geez.”

“How do you enact change when your country is being overtaken by mobilization of armed forces with masks?” he said, referring to ICE agents. “I honestly believe that it’s too late, that Trump has already taken things so far that we may never have another election in the United States.”

He pointed to the recent deployment of ICE agents in airports amid an ongoing government shutdown and the federal agency’s purchasing of a warehouse in Salt Lake City to develop into a detention center as examples of recent news items that have enhanced that feeling of doom and gloom.

Despite his pessimism, Bill could see the positive effect the demonstration his wife had organized had on the protesters.

“Most of the people that are here, you see, they’re pretty peaceful, but they’re also smiling,” he said. “This is a way to relieve some pressure and some tension and to feel good about being around other people that share your sense of the situation. … By organizing something like this, you provide people an outlet.”

The post Heber City ‘No Kings’ protesters rally against war in Iran, ICE tactics appeared first on Park Record.

Juliana Allely still remembers listening to the radio as a little girl in her mother’s Oldsmobile. 

Though her family moved around a bit growing up — Indiana, Pennsylvania, New York — Allely’s mother always found the NPR station to make sure they were connected so they’d know what was happening in the community and to stay in touch with the world.

Now the president and general manager of KPCW, Allely recognizes just how important public media is. KPCW Radio was founded on July 2, 1980, by Blair Feulner. 

“I loved ‘Sesame Street’ and ‘The Electric Company’ … when I was little, too, but it was definitely NPR in my household,” she said. 

The federal government contributes about $1.60 per American taxpayer each year to the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, which then invests the money into programming produced by National Public Radio (NPR) and Public Broadcasting Services (PBS). This includes shows such as NPR’s “Morning Edition” and “Tiny Desk Radio”, PBS’ “Frontline” and “Antiques Roadshow” series, plus locally produced content like KPCW’s “Local News Hour” and emergency alerts.

“The value that child or listener is going to get from the content is way more valuable than $1.60,” Allely said.

Yet an executive order signed by President Trump earlier this month puts NPR and its member stations as well as PBS at risk. 

The executive order seeks to prohibit the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, a private, nonprofit corporation established by Congress in 1967, from using previously appropriated funding for NPR and PBS. It also applies to direct and indirect spending by stations like KPCW carrying the programming. 

The federal government contributes $535 million annually in appropriations to the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. That’s less than 0.01% of the $6.9 trillion federal budget.

KPCW received around $264,000 from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting in 2025, which represents about 14% of its annual budget. The radio station is also scheduled to receive that amount for fiscal years 2026 and 2027. 

However, the current administration wants to rescind the appropriations now and in the future. More than 1,500 stations across the country — including KPCW — would be affected.

“CPB is forward-funded by two years to protect public media from any sort of political influence. So, that’s why (member stations are) all just scratching our heads here,” Alley explained. 

She said the Corporation for Public Broadcasting does not create the content, but rather acts as a funding mechanism for non-commercial programming, telecommunications services and emergency alerts. The disseminated funds can also pay for infrastructure, music, licensing rights and professional development programs. 

A primary goal of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting is to promote an educated, informed and inclusive civil society by sharing local, regional, national and international fact-based news and educational programming.

“We’re trying to provide material to the country, the nation, without any kind of bias, without any kind of influence,” Allely said.

The executive order, signed May 1, said that, unlike when the Corporation for Public Broadcasting was established, the media landscape today is filled with “abundant, diverse, and innovative news options.” Government funding of news media was characterized as outdated and unnecessary. It was also critical of NPR and PBS, saying neither organization presents a fair, accurate or unbiased portrayal of current events to taxpayers regardless of the viewpoints the stations promote.

KPCW News Director Ashton Edwards emphasized that while the radio station provides live news via radio broadcast and online, there are also weather and traffic updates as well as emergency alerts for storms, fires and more, as well as bilingual reporting, that are “tremendously beneficial” to the listener. 

Federal funding to the Corporation for Public Broadcasting also supports KPCW’s public affairs programming, including “Mountain Money,” “This Green Earth,” “Lost & Found,” and “The Community Campfire,” as well as all the music played. Allely said those programs were created based on interests and community needs across Summit and Wasatch counties.

About 25% of the $264,000 KPCW receives is restricted to national programming such as NPR and the BBC. The rest is used for public media, programming, arts and education. Salaries are the biggest line item for KPCW, which employs 19 full-time staff, including reporters and producers.

“Whatever the community says is important, we try to make that a priority,” Edwards said. “That’s why this funding cut is extremely concerning, because to continue to offer the services that the community has told us are important, we’ll have to look at some of those and determine what the priorities have to be if we lose that funding.”

So far, the Corporation for Public Broadcasting has opted to ignore the executive order, saying there is no legal validity. 

President and CEO of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting Patricia Harrison said in a statement the day after the order was signed that Congress directly authorized and funded the private nonprofit corporation “wholly independent of the federal government,” and it is therefore not subject to the president’s authority.

“In creating CPB, Congress expressly forbade ‘any department, agency, officer, or employee of the United States to exercise any direction, supervision, or control over educational television or radio broadcasting, or over [CPB] or any of its grantees or contractors…’ 47 U.S.C. § 398(c).” the statement said.

KPCW is financially sound right now, but it would have to ask the community for help making up what it lost if the executive order stands. Donor support makes up about 60% of the budget.

Allely said the radio station would look at other grant opportunities related to news organizations. She’s looking at budgeting now and has been relying on a flow chart of possibilities to determine potential avenues. 

There likely wouldn’t be dramatic cuts for the next couple of years if public media is defunded, according to Allely. However, the money for the next two years has already been planned and allocated.

NPR reported that the White House intends to request that Congress rescind the funding for the Corporation for Public Media, which would require a vote within a 45-day window to approve the funding cuts or allow the money to be restored. Legal action surrounding the executive order is also expected.

“What the White House and Washington seem to be attacking is journalism. No matter whether it’s Town Lift, KPCW or The Park Record, it’s just tragic that they feel the need to attack like that,” Allely said.

Community members concerned about the proposed rescission are encouraged to contact their congressional representatives. Visit www.protectmypublicmedia.org to send an email and access more resources.

The post What does President Trump’s executive order targeting public media mean for KPCW and stations like it? appeared first on Park Record.

The crowd at a City Park rally on Saturday listened and cheered as critics of President Trump ticked off a litany of grievances they have with the nation’s leader.

Demonstrators expressed dismay with Trump’s agenda at the outset of his second term, and the speakers, drafted from the ranks of Democrats and left-leaning advocates, condemned the president.

The final featured speaker of the event, though, delivered a broadside against Trump with some of the most pointed words of the rally. Caroline Gleich, a Democrat from the Snyderville Basin who unsuccessfully sought a seat in the Senate in 2024, spoke for seven minutes as she tore into the administration. She covered topics that have wide interest in the Park City area and at the forefront of the national discussion. Gleich at moments picked apart certain aspects of the president’s agenda and at other times called for action.

“We’re here, not because we actually really want to be here, but because of a moral obligation. How many would rather be skiing today? Let’s be honest. How many would rather be running, biking, doing anything, cleaning our garage? We are here because our country is in crisis. And it is up to us to keep showing up and speaking up,” she said.

The crowd, estimated at 200, repeatedly applauded as Gleich spoke. The event was held on the same day as numerous others across the country. Gleich and the other speakers seemed emboldened even as Republicans control the White House and both chambers of Congress.

Her remarks sometimes resembled a political stump speech, even as she spoke more than five months after being trounced on Election Day by now Sen. John Curtis, who previously represented much of Summit and Wasatch counties as U.S. representative. She said books and pride flags have been banned as she also contended public lands have been put on the market.

“What we’re witnessing today — the erosion of our democratic institutions, the gutting of science and environmental protection, the political purges — it’s not just a bad policy agenda, it’s authoritarianism plain and simple,” she said.

Gleich, a ski mountaineer and advocate for the environment, said the administration’s policies “are already hurting Utah families and many more are going to suffer” as he weakens environmental programs and public health agencies. She said the country is “deeply vulnerable to future pandemics” after the president “hollowed out” the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the National Institutes of Health.

“He’s fired public servants and replaced them with political loyalists. And once these agencies are gone, once they’re stripped to the bone, we may never be able to rebuild them,” she said.

She briefly addressed foreign policy, saying Trump is a “national embarrassment” who is “straining our international alliances and shaming the ideals we claim to stand for.” She also said Trump is “silencing scientists, criminalizing dissent and dismantling the very machinery of democracy.”

“So what do we do? We don’t wait for someone to save us. We save each other,” she said.

Gleich rattled off a series of issues and how people could respond to the administration. They included:

• “Because when Trump guts the CDC, we become the public health response, distributing supplies, checking on our seniors, sharing trusted information.”
• “If he dismantles the EPA, it is up to our community to protect our air, water and land with local policies, grassroots resistance and hands-on stewardship.”
• “If he fires scientists, it’s up to us to amplify them.”
• “If he silences teachers, we teach truth in our communities.”
• “If he strips away labor protections, we organize unions and we strike together.”
• “If he dismantles democracy, we become the grassroots government of care, justice and love. Because when the safety net disappears, it’s up to our community to become the safety net.”

Gleich also spoke of a desire for Democrats to ensure the party has candidates in all campaigns in the heavily Republican state.

“We run for office and we make sure we take the power back. We contest every single seat up and down the ballot in every county in Utah. We do not let any Republican run for any seat unopposed,” she said.

Gleich said people “may be scared, but we do the hard thing anyway, because the alternative is so much scarier.”

“Park City, I believe in you. I believe in us. And I believe that, together, we can fight authoritarianism and we can win,” she said.

The post Park City-area Democrat Caroline Gleich rails against Trump appeared first on Park Record.

A giant crowd marched in Park City the day after Donald Trump was sworn into office as the president in 2017, protesting the election of the nation’s new leader as thousands descended on Main Street.

A similar scene does not appear to be in the cards later this month as Trump returns to the White House following his election in November.

Park City late in the week indicated it had not received applications related to the inauguration for demonstrations or other events protected under the First Amendment. Applications can be processed rapidly, but the lack so far of any submittals to City Hall, as well as the absence of chatter in the community about an event, seems to point to the likelihood of the inauguration passing without any organized gathering in opposition or support of Trump.

It was a different scenario in late 2016 and early 2017. There was momentum after Election Day in 2016 as critics of Trump planned a demonstration that would become the largest of Park City’s modern era. The organizers of the Women’s March on Main by mid-January of 2017 had secured the necessary permit from City Hall to stage the event on Main Street and Swede Alley.

The demonstration occurred on the first Saturday of the Sundance Film Festival, typically one of the busiest days of Sundance, and people pressing a variety of causes of the political left marched on Main Street before rallying on Swede Alley.

The Summit County Sheriff’s Office calculated the crowd at between 7,000 and 9,000, far outdistancing any known demonstration in Park City. The Women’s March on Main was not designed as a specific protest to the inauguration of Trump, which occurred the day before, but the crowd widely condemned the new president nonetheless. The march was not affiliated with Sundance even as many festival-goers participated in the demonstration.

The calendar in 2025 appears to have made a demonstration less likely as Trump takes office again. The inauguration is scheduled Jan. 20, while Sundance does not start until Jan. 23 since 2025 is one of the years when the festival shifts dates by a week to account for the Martin Luther King Jr. Day holiday.

The post Park City march drew thousands in 2017, but no demonstrations are planned as Trump takes office again  appeared first on Park Record.

Former President Donald Trump is scheduled to visit Park City in late August for a fundraiser, another in a string of high-profile political trips to the community during the 2024 White House campaign cycle.

The South Summit regional chair of the Summit County Republican Party, Jerry Heck, said the event is slated for Aug. 29 at the St. Regis Deer Valley. The local Republican Party is not involved in the organizing and he does not anticipate attending, he said.

If he were in attendance, Heck said, he would like to hear Trump address issues like the former president’s plans to put America first, his support for the middle class and his platform plank regarding manufacturing in the country.

“It’s great,” Heck said about the upcoming Trump appearance. “I wish we had a real rally. … It’d be great to have one in Utah.”

He predicted Trump will perform “really well” as he raises funds during the event in Park City.

Heck, meanwhile, said he is disappointed in Republican Gov. Spencer Cox and U.S. Rep. John Curtis, a Republican who is mounting a campaign for the Senate this year.

“They’re getting in on coattails without really earning it,” he said.

Trump won Summit County by a wide margin in a Republican presidential preference poll held in March. He has struggled in Summit County on Election Day, though. Trump lost in Summit County in 2016 and then again as he sought reelection four years later. Summit County is one of the state’s most reliably Democratic counties, with the Park City area attracting large numbers of newcomers in recent decades from Democratic strongholds like California and New York.

Trump would be the latest in a string of high-profile political figures to visit the Park City area – Republicans and Democrats — hoping to tap the wealth of full-time residents and people who own vacation homes.

Vice President Kamala Harris traveled to The Colony for a fundraiser in June, shortly before President Biden ended his own reelection bid. Speaking before she became the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, the vice president told the crowd of the stakes of the election and the contrasts between Biden and Trump.

Biden himself visited the Park City area in August 2023 for a fundraising stop, also held in The Colony. The president during the event, held at a private residence, spoke about his longtime view of the importance of the middle class and talked of his optimism for the nation’s future.

Other notable fundraising stops in the Park City area over the years have included:

• Former President Bill Clinton in 2016 on behalf of the White House bid of his wife, Hillary Clinton.

• Former Sen. Hillary Clinton in 2015 as she prepared to compete for the Democratic presidential nomination the next year. 

• President George W. Bush in 2008 to raise funds for Republicans who were campaigning that year.

• Barack Obama in 2007 as he prepared for the Democratic presidential-nominating contests the following year.

• Mitt Romney repeatedly during his presidential bids in 2008 and 2012.

The post Trump expected in Park City in August for fundraiser appeared first on Park Record.

Rina Slade in February registered ahead of time to attend the Republican Party caucus Tuesday night.

Slade, a Canyons Village resident, said she never received a confirmation from the GOP with instructions for participation in the caucus, including the location. She understood the site to be Ecker Hill Middle School, though, and headed there for the gathering.

When she arrived, though, Slade said, the Summit County Republican Party was unable to find her registration. Slade said she registered at the caucus site and ultimately was allowed inside, but the problem she encountered was one example of the issues that beset the Republicans on a crucial day in the 2024 election cycle.

“They were definitely overwhelmed,” she said. “There were just a lot of people like myself — they said they were pre-registered. They had to know a lot of people were going to show up.”

The crowd at Ecker Hill Middle School was larger than Slade anticipated. She eventually was allowed to cast a ballot in the presidential preference poll, the most important business during the caucus. Her vote went to Nikki Haley, the former governor of South Carolina. Haley ended her bid for the Republican nomination in the contest for the White House the day after the caucuses.

“It was disorganized. We should have just been able to go over to a box and put our vote in a box,” Slade said, indicating she has never missed voting in an election since she turned 18.

Donald Trump won Summit County by a wide margin in Tuesday’s presidential preference poll, preliminary results released by the state Republican Party show. The former president received 337 votes, or 57.7%, while Haley received 245 votes, or 42%. The results include votes from approximately half of the precincts in Summit County and will be updated by the party. Trump lost in Summit County, one of the state’s most reliably Democratic counties, on Election Day in 2016 and then again as he sought reelection four years later.

Another person at the Ecker Hill Middle School caucus location, Old Town resident Jeff Pierce, said his attendance on Tuesday was based on a desire to participate at a critical time in Utah and the United States. He declined to identify his selection in the contest for the Republican presidential nomination.

“The state and country are at a crossroads. If I don’t make my voice heard. I shouldn’t expect it to be heard,” Pierce said, explaining that “effectiveness” is an important attribute when he selects candidates.

Pierce said the caucus also provided an opportunity to consider that there will be various offices on the ballot in November, when congressional, Statehouse and County Courthouse posts will be decided at the same time as the White House.

“I think the top of the ticket is the least important reason for me to be here,” he said.

The caucus-goers at Ecker Hill Middle School listened to brief remarks from Summit County party leaders before convening by neighborhood for their deliberations. The Summit County Republican Party said 435 people participated at the Ecker Hill Middle School location.

“We were absolutely thrilled with the attendance at the caucus,” said Jimmy May, the interim Park City regional chair of the party. To the party’s knowledge, he said, the countywide attendance was the best ever,

He said the Republican Party leadership in Summit County “went to great lengths” to publicize the caucuses.

May also said the online preregistration process was “nearly flawless, to my knowledge.” There were issues during in-person check in on Tuesday with “a few people,” he said. May added he is not aware of any registered Republicans being turned away from the caucuses in Summit County.

The post Trump wins Summit County by wide margin amid concern about mechanics of caucuses appeared first on Park Record.