Women protesters swarm across US

UNITED STATES: Women took to the streets in unexpectedly large numbers in major US cities yesterday in mass protests against US President Donald Trump, in an early indication of the strong opposition the Republican may face in office.

Hundreds of thousands of women - many wearing pink knit hats to evoke comments by Trump that were triggered outrage among many women - filled long stretches of downtown Washington around the White House and National Mall. Hundreds of thousands more women thronged New York, Los Angeles, Chicago and Boston to rebuke Trump on his first full day in office.

Trump has angered many liberal Americans with comments seen as demeaning to women, Mexicans and Muslims, and worried some abroad with his inaugural vow on Friday, local time, to put ‘‘America First’’ in his decision-making.

The Women’s March on Washington appeared to be larger than the crowds that turned a day earlier to witness Trump’s inauguration on the steps of the US Capitol. No official estimates of the crowd size were available, but the demonstrators appeared to easily exceed the 200,000 organisers had expected.

In Los Angeles the Sister March estimated it drew 750,000 demonstrators, and a planned march in Chicago grew so large that organisers did not attempt to parade through the streets but instead staged a rally. Police said more than 125,000 people attended.

The protests illustrated the depth of the division in the country, which is still reeling from the bitterly fought 2016 election campaign. Trump stunned the world by defeating Democrat Hillary Clinton, the first woman nominated for president by a major US party.

Pam Foyster, a resident of Ridgway, Colorado, said yesterday’s atmosphere in Washington reminded her of the protests of the 1960s against the Vietnam War.

‘‘I’m 58 years old and I can’t believe we are having to do this again,’’ Foyster said. She said that after the Vietnam War the push for women’s rights and civil rights made her ‘‘believe anything was possible. But here we are again.’’

Although Republicans now control the White House and both houses of Congress, Trump faces entrenched opposition from segments of the public as he starts his term, in contrast to the honeymoon period that a new president typically experiences at the outset.

A recent ABC News/washington Post poll found Trump had the lowest favourability rating of any incoming US president since the 1970s. - Reuters