Thousands take to streets in Washington to protest Donald Trump inauguration
Thousands of protesters greeted President-elect Donald Trump when he arrived in Washington DC ahead of Sunday’s indoor inauguration.
It’s quieter than the days before Joe Biden’s 2020 inauguration, when the January 6 riot saw Trump supporters storm the Capitol building in a bid to overturn the results.
Dangerously cold temperatures have forced the ceremony inside for the first time since Ronald Reagan in 1985.
But the snow hasn’t kept Trump’s critics off the streets carrying banners saying ‘We will not be silent’, ‘We rise, we resist, we march’, and ‘We make our future’.
Cassie Dominicis, a 33-year-old financial analyst from Charlotte, said: ‘When you have so many millions of Americans voting like you don’t matter, it’s good to be in a big crowd of people that that make you feel like you do matter.’
Some at the People’s March singled out the threat posed by Donald Trump to abortion, with signs saying ‘Keep abortion legal’ and ‘Keep your politics out of my uterus’.
Although Trump promised to leave the issue to individual states, he previously stacked the Supreme Court with conservative judges who overturnedRoe v. Wade, which protected the right to an abortion.
Others highlighted the accusations of racism that have dogged Trump for decades since he was sued for allegedly discriminating against Black prospective tenants in the 1970s.
During the election campaign, Trump questioned the ethnicity of his Democrat rival Kamala Harris, who has an Indian mother and Black father.
‘Respect women of color’ and ‘stop racism now’, the placards said.
Some posters showed Trump behind bars, branded a ‘convicted felon’.
Trump avoided jail time after he was found guilty of 34 charges of falsifying business records linked to a 2016 hush money payment to porn star Stormy Daniels.
He would not have got off without punishment if he wasn’t due to be sworn in as President, according to Judge Juan Merchan.
Last week, he said: ‘The only lawful sentence that permits entry of a judgment or conviction without encroaching upon the highest office of the land is an unconditional discharge.
‘Sir, I wish you godspeed as you assume your second term in office.’
One protester, Brooke, told the BBC: ‘I’m really not happy with the way our country’s voted.
‘I’m really sad that our country’s leaned towards a president that’s already failed us once and that we did not nominate a female candidate.’
Melody Hamoud, a Washington resident, wore the same pink hat she had at a 2017 protest against Trump’s first inauguration.
‘I just didn’t want to sit home and fret in front of the TV’, she said. ‘I wanted to feel like our movement still has energy and be around others who felt the same.’
Susie, from the San Francisco, was also there in 2017. She said: ‘This time the stakes are higher. Trump has been emboldened.
‘He’s got the billionaire class and the tech class bowing down.’
But, she said, ‘we’re still here, and we will resist’.
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