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No Signs Of Slowing Down As Thousands Protest Donald Trump In DC, NYC, SF, Palm Beach

by Gabe Ortiz on

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With protests in DC, New York City, San Francisco, and just feet from his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida, the reactions to Donald Trump’s hugely-unpopular policies and proposals show no signs of slowing down.

In DC last Saturday, thousands chanted “No ban, no wall,” “Move Trump, get out the way,” and “No hate no fear, refugees are welcome here!” in a demonstration that began at the White House and then spread to the streets.

In New York City, thousands rallied at the site of the 1969 Stonewall Riots. Led by trans women of color, patrons of the Stonewall Inn fought back against police brutality and launched the start of the modern-day LGBTQ rights movement.

But as LGBTQ activist Michelangelo Signorile recently wrote, Trump and his administration are dead-set on trying to eviscerate the historic gains LGBTQ Americans have made, particularly from the Obama years. At the rally Saturday, LGBTQ, Muslim, and immigrant New Yorkers pledged to fight back Trump’s attacks.

“We’re here today for an LGBT solidarity rally to stand up to this demagogic, anti constitutional administration,” said New York City Councilmember Corey Johnson.

“Stonewall is the modern birthplace of the gay rights movement. And we come here in times of celebration, and we come here in times of anger and in protest. And that’s because people bled here. People put their bodies on the line here. People stood up to oppression here.”

“And that’s what we’re doing today. We are saying you are not going to oppress us. We know our self-worth. We know our self-value. And we’re going to push back.”

In San Francisco, thousands rallied in front of City Hall chanting “No ban, no wall!” and “Hey hey, ho ho, Donald Trump has got to go!” “By nightfall,” notes the LA Times, “hundreds remained in the area waving signs that read ‘We are all immigrants’ and dancing among giant bamboo lanterns lit to celebrate the lunar New Year.”

In Florida — where Trump was taking a taxpayer-sponsored weekend off at Mar-a-Lago after an entire two weeks of governing via executive order — some 3,000 protesters marched to the gates of his resort:

While Donald Trump was enjoying a Trump-business-hosted Red Cross charity event featuring Donald Trump’s staff dressed up “in powdered wigs and satin knee breeches or Marie Antoinette dresses”—because nothing screams either economic populism or benefiting the needy like dressing up like pre-revolution French nobility—his guests threaded in past protesters and lines of police dressed in riot gear. It must have really heightened the Les Misérables vibe inside the club gates, don’t you think?

As the New York Times noted in a must-read piece earlier, Trump is feeling the protests, and even cancelled a recent Milwaukee visit in fear of one. Keep it up.