Anti-Trump protests spread across US

People from all ages, faiths and nationalities assembled at landmark locations in New York, Chicago, Philadelphia, Boston, California, Colorado, Seattle, Los Angeles, Portland, Atlanta, Austin, Denver, San Francisco and other cities, protesting against Trump, barely a day after the 70-year-old businessman billionaire registered a stunning victory in the polls against Hillary Clinton. 

The protesters were seen walking on roads and highways between moving traffic, holding a multitude of placards and expressing their resentment for Trump through slogans such as ‘No more Hate’ and ‘Trump is not our President’. 

In Washington, protesters gathered outside the White House. A candle light vigil was also held outside the White House on Wednesday evening. In New York, protesters walked about 40 streets from 14th Street to Fifth Avenue, where Trump’s campaign headquarters The Trump Towers is located. Streets surrounding the towers  were completely shut off due to the protests. Thousands of protesters blocked entry to the Trump Tower in downtown Chicago. ‘No Trump, No KKK, No Fascists USA’ and ‘Not my president!’ were some of the chants shouted by those participating in the rally. 

“I’m disappointed, shocked, a little panicked for my friends and family — for everything that will be  unleashed, the hate that will be unleashed,” Marion Hill, 22, who joined thousands who amassed outside the Trump Tower in downtown Chicago, told The Chicago Tribune. 

Some Californians also took to the social media and the state Capitol to voice their opinions that California should secede from the United States after Trump’s win. #Calexit was trending nationally. Hundreds massed in downtown Seattle streets with many holding anti-Trump and ‘Black Lives Matter’ signs and chanting slogans, including ‘Misogyny has to go’, and ‘The people united, will never be defeated’. Meanwhile, five people were shot and injured in an area near the protest. However, police said the shootings and the demonstration were unrelated. 

In Austin, media reports said protesters blocked a highway, while protesters gathered in downtown Los Angeles. In Los Angeles, demonstrators held aloft a burning effigy of Trump. KPIX TV reported that in Oakland and California, protesters lit fires in the street and stood around them chanting. 

One member of the crowd near the White House held an upside-down American flag, alongside the LGBT rainbow flag, in silent protest, a media report said. Kelly Lopez, a young Latino said, she has been upset since when it was clear that Trump will be the next US President. She said a person who throughout his campaign has resorted to racism, bigotry, fascism and insulting women and minorities, cannot change overnight and say that he will work for all American people. “You have based your entire electoral race on bringing down people, you cannot suddenly change that,” she said. John Jacob, referring to Trump’s victory speech, said he does not trust Trump when he said he will “bind the wounds of division”. “How does he take back everything he said in his campaign and the debates,” Jacob said, adding that Trump does not have the experience or the intelligence of Clinton. A young African American student Elaz Iben said Trump will be president of the country for the next four years and “while I will respect the institution of the presidency, I will also respect my right to protest.”