Kathmandu. Thousands of protesters held a second major round of demonstrations against Donald Trump and his hardline policies in New York, Washington and other cities across the United States on Saturday.
In New York, people carrying signs targeting the US president, with slogans such as ‘There is no king in America’ and ‘Resist tyranny’, gathered outside the city’s main library. Many took aim at Trump’s deportation of undocumented immigrants, saying “No ICE, no fear, immigrants are welcome here,” in reference to the role of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency in detaining immigrants.
Demonstrators in Washington expressed concern that Trump was threatening long-held constitutional rights, including the right to due process. “The administration is directly attacking the idea of the rule of law and the idea that people living in the United States should be prohibited from being abused,” Benjamin Douglas, 41, said outside the White House.
Douglas, who wore a keffiyeh and carried a banner calling for the release of Mahmoud Khalil, a pro-Palestinian student protester who was arrested last month, accused the individuals of “spreading xenophobia and long-standing They are being targeted as ‘test cases that undermine legal protections’.
“We are in great danger,” said New York protester Kathy Valli, 73, the daughter of Holocaust survivors, who said their stories of how Nazi leader Adolf Hitler came to power were “happening here.” “One thing is for sure, Trump is more stupid than Hitler or other fascists, he is being used… and his own team is divided.”
Daniella Butler, 26, said she wanted to draw special attention to the government’s “cutting of funding for science and health work.” She was carrying a map of Texas, covered in spots, in reference to the ongoing measles outbreak there, while she was studying for a doctorate in immunology at Johns Hopkins University.
Robert F. Kennedy Jr., a prominent vaccine skeptic and Trump’s health chief, has falsely linked the measles, mumps, and rubella (MMR) vaccine to autism for decades. “When science is ignored, people die,” Butler said. In the ultra-conservative Texas coastal city of Galveston, a small gathering of anti-Trump protesters was seen. “This is my fourth protest and normally I would sit back and wait for the next election,” said Patsy Oliver, a 63-year-old writer. “We can’t do that now. We’ve already lost too much.”
A few hundred people gathered on a beach in San Francisco on the West Coast to chant the words “Impeach + Remove,” the San Francisco Chronicle reported. Others nearby carried upside-down American flags.
The upside-down flag is traditionally a symbol of crisis. Organizers hope to turn Trump’s immigration crackdown, his drastic cuts to government agencies and his pressure on universities, news media and law firms into a permanent movement. The main organizer of Saturday’s protests – a group representing 50,501 people and representing a movement – said it planned about 400 demonstrations, with 50 protests in 50 states.
Its website says the demonstrations are a “decentralized rapid response to the undemocratic and illegal actions of the Trump administration and its wealthy allies” – and it insists that all demonstrations must be nonviolent. The group had called for millions to participate on Saturday. However, the numbers were smaller than the “Hands Off” protests that took place across the country on April 5.
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