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TWO million people around the world marched yesterday in protest at new US President Donald Trump. They hit the streets in at least 60 major cities including London, Manchester, Edinburgh, Liverpool, Belfast, Dublin, Cardiff, Paris, Tokyo, Sydney, Rome, and Mexico City. There was even protest in Antarctica. In the US alone, 875,000 people took part in more than 350 marches and rallies the day after Mr Trump’s inauguration. By far the biggest protest was in Washington DC, where 500,000 converged on the capital’s National Mall for a demonstration at the site where Martin Luther King Jr delivered his historic I Have A Dream speech. Hollywood star Scarlett Johansson, 32, and singer Katy Perry, 32, joined scores of other celebrities at the Women’s March on Washington. In central London, a huge crowd gathered outside the American Embassy in Grosvenor Square, waving placards with slogans such as “Reject Hate, Reclaim Politics” and “No to Racism, No to Trump”. Mr Trump’s campaign was almost derailed when a 2005 off-camera recording came to light in which he bragged about being able to grope women and “grab them by the pussy” because of his fame. Twelve women have claimed he either molested them or made explicit sexual suggestions. One, a former US a MIKE PARKER US Editor Apprentice contestant, is suing him for defamation after the billionaire denied he touched her.
As the London protest headed towards Trafalgar Square, 32-year-old Kim McInally, from Brighton, waved a sign reading ‘My pussy is not up for grabs’.
Labour MP Yvette Cooper, who spoke at the rally, said: “When the most powerful man in the world says it’s OK to sexually assault women because you are rich and powerful, we have to stand up and say ‘No way’.
“I think this is a march for equality and action for the future. We don’t want the clock being turned back on women’s equality.”
Yesterday’s most remote protest was staged by 30 women and men in Paradise Bay, an area of Antarctica usually only inhabited by penguins, seals and the occasional humpback whale.
The demonstrators had banners proclaiming “Penguins for Peace”, “Seals for Science” and “Cormorants for Climate”.
Organiser Linda Zunas, 42, a data analytics researcher from Oakland, California, declared: “I felt like I needed to do something to be part of the global movement.”
Back in her home state, 70,000 protesters in Los Angeles were joined by celebrities, including pop star Ariana Grande, 23, and actress Jane Fonda, 79.
Meanwhile, police riot squads and SWAT teams were on full alert in major US cities last night amid fears of a repeat of the street violence in Washington DC that followed Mr Trump’s inauguration on Friday.
Police said 217 people were arrested after masked protesters attacked officers, vandalised shops and set alight parked cars and rubbish in the street.