WASHINGTON // Their grievances varied from climate change to the injustices suffered by Palestinians but they were united in a wish to show their displeasure at the incoming president on his inauguration day.
Lively demonstrations unfolded at various security checkpoints close to the Capitol building as police in riot gear helped ticket-holders get through to the inaugural ceremony. Signs read “Resist Trump Climate Justice Now”, “Let Freedom Ring”,” “Free Palestine”.
But in the capital – as opposed to the Capitol – things turned ugly as black-clad activists smashed shop and car windows.
Washington police fired pepper spray and made arrests after youths waving anarchist flags stepped away from the peaceful marches to go on a rampage of vandalism. Riot police deployed pepper spray and made several arrests. At least one person needed treatment from paramedics for a head wound.
As Mr Trump, his supporters, former presidents and other dignitaries gathered on the National Mall for the swearing-in ceremony, opponents marched in nearby streets and were confronted by a heavy police presence.
Marchers chanted: “No deportation, no KKK, no fascist USA!”
The DisruptJ20 coalition, named after the date of the inauguration, had promised that people participating in its actions in Washington would attempt to shut down the celebrations, risking arrest when necessary. Organiser David Thurston warned, “Our goals are to have massive protests and to shut down the inauguration if at all possible, and if not possible – if we can’t shut the inauguration down – then make it as difficult as possible for Trump to act as if he has a mandate.”
Disruption was not everyone’s intention. For one DisruptJ20 event, a march beginning at Columbus Circle outside Union Station, participants were asked to gather at noon, the same time as Mr Trump’s swearing-in as the 45th president. The route for the march, which organisers called a “Festival of Resistance”, ran about 2.5 kilometres to McPherson Square, a park about three blocks from the White House, where a rally featuring the filmmaker and liberal activist Michael Moore was planned.
Lines for ticket holders entering two gates stretched for blocks at one point as protesters clogged entrances.
Trump supporter Brett Ecker said the protesters were frustrating but were not going to put a damper on his day.
“They’re just here to stir up trouble,” said the 36-year-old public school teacher. “It upsets me a little bit that people choose to do this, but yet again it’s one of the things I love about this country.”
At one checkpoint, protesters wore orange jumpsuits with black hoods over their faces to represent prisoners in US detention at Guantanamo Bay. Eleanor Goldfield, who helped organise the DisruptJ20 protest, said protesters wanted to show Mr Trump and his “misguided, misinformed or just plain dangerous” supporters that they would not be silent.
Black Lives Matter and feminist groups also made their voices heard.
Most Trump supporters walking to the inauguration past Union Station ignored protesters outside the train station, but not Doug Rahm, who engaged in a lengthy and sometimes profane yelling match with them.
“Get a job,” said Mr Rahm, a Bikers for Trump member from Philadelphia. “Stop crying snowflakes, Trump won.”
Outside the International Spy Museum, protesters in Russian hats ridiculed Mr Trump’s praise of president Vladimir Putin, marching with signs calling Trump “Putin’s Puppet” and “Kremlin employee of the month”.
.
.Along the parade route, the ANSWER Coalition anti-war group planned demonstrations at two locations.
The demonstrations will not end when Mr Trump takes up residence in the White House. A massive Women’s March on Washington is planned for Saturday. Christopher Geldart, the District of Columbia’s homeland security director, has said 1,800 buses have registered to park in the city on Saturday, which could mean nearly 100,000 people coming in just by bus.
Jim Bendat, an expert on the history of inaugurations, said significant protests surrounding inauguration day go back at least to 1913, when suffragettes marched down Pennsylvania Avenue calling for women to have the right to vote.
Richard Nixon’s first and second inaugurations drew memorable protests, he said, with demonstrators at the second ceremony angry about the Vietnam War. During the inauguration of president George W Bush in 2001, demonstrators along the parade route turned their backs as the president passed by and others held signs like “Hail to the thief”, suggesting Mr Bush had stolen the election from Democrat Al Gore. At least one egg thrown from the crowd hit the presidential limousine. Demonstrators disrupted Mr Bush’s second inaugural address again in 2005.
Mr Bendat said such demonstrations were to be expected after such a contentious election. “That’s part of democracy, too,” he said.
In New York, A-list celebrities joined several thousand protesters on the streets of New York late on Thursday night to demonstrate against Mr Trump on the eve of his inauguration.
Hollywood actors Robert de Niro and Alec Baldwin, Oscar-winning director Michael Moore and singer Cher were among those who joined the noisy gathering close to the Trump International Hotel on Central Park South.
A crowd of several thousand people thronged Columbus Circle and Central Park West, the boulevard outside the five-star hotel.
“Fight Trump every day” and “justice and civil rights for all” read placards at the rally in the president-elect’s hometown, where a majority of people voted for his Democratic rival Hillary Clinton in the November election.
Baldwin, who lampoons Mr Trump in a regular slot on the comedy TV show Saturday Night Live to rave reviews and repeated Twitter drubbings from the thin-skinned Republican billionaire, took to the podium to do his Trump impression.
“Are we going to have 100 days of resistance?” he said, revving up the crowd and switching to his regular voice. “Fantastic!” he hollered.
“He does not rule with a mandate,” Moore said in reference to Mrs Clinton’s win of the popular vote and Americans who voted for independent candidates.
“We are the majority. Don’t give up. I won’t give up,” he said.
“He will not last four years.”
De Niro also sought to inspire the crowd to not waver in their convictions.
“Whatever happens, we Americans, we New Yorkers, we patriots, will stand united for our rights and for the rights of our fellow citizens,” he said.
Mayor Bill de Blasio, a Democrat, issued a rallying cry for progressive politics and urged Americans across the country to rise up and make their objections to the incoming administration heard.
“Donald Trump always liked to say he built a movement, well now it’s time for us to build our movement and that starts tonight and it’s all over the country, tonight, tomorrow and in the days to come,” Mr de Blasio said.
He championed universal health care, protecting the world from climate change and preserving rights gained under the outgoing Barack Obama administration.
“Look at the thousands here tonight and that is only the beginning,” he said.
From Toronto to Sydney, other anti-Trump events outside America were planned throughout the day. In London, a banner reading “Build Bridges Not Walls” was draped across London’s Tower Bridge. “We won’t let the politics of hate peddled by the likes of Donald Trump take hold,” said a statement from the Bridges Not Walls group, in a reference to Mr Trump’s pledge to build a wall on the Mexican border.
* Associated Press and Agence France-Presse
