Laura Benanti sings at the No Kings rally in Montclair, on Oct. 18, 2025.
Laura Benanti, who has played Melania Trump in skits on “The Late Show With Stephen Colbert,” sang a humorous song about President Trump — in character, as Melania — at the No Kings rally at Brookdale Park in Montclair, Oct. 18. You can watch it below.
Benanti, like Colbert, is a Montclair resident.
She took the stage in character. “Hello my fellow, totally normal, you-didn’t-also-just-escape-from-the-White-House Americans,” she said. “I was just coming to Montclair to see my best friend Stephen Colbert but instead I came across this Antifa insurrection. It is so scary. I have never seen so many mandolins. Oh, this is terrifying. Cute children. Old people who cannot believe they are still doing this. Oh no!”
She was backed by guitarist Dave Lockhart on the song, which is titled “The Toddler Song” and was written by Miranda Ferriss Jones. The song mocks President’s thin skin and childishness. “Who put the toddler in the center of the room?/Handed him a rule stick, to lead us to our doom … The White House is not where a toddler belongs,” Benanti sang.
“Suck it, Donald,” she said at the end of the song.
Benanti, who grew up in Kinnelon, has been nominated for five Tonys and won the Featured Actress in Musical Tony in 2008, for playing Louise in a revival of “Gypsy.”
Speakers at this No Kings event included U.S. Sen. Andy Kim, U.S. Rep. and gubernatorial candidate Mikie Sherrill, and former U.S. secretary of homeland security Jeh Johnson.
I have also included, below, Cindy Stagoff’s video of jazz singer Melissa Walker singing “The Star-Spangled Banner” at the start of the Montclair event. Walker founded and runs the Montclair-based educational organization, Jazz House Kids.
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