Anti-Trump protesters not going away quietly

WASHINGTON — AntiTrump protesters jeered and screamed at supporters of the president-elect who were attending the “DeploraBall” at the National Press Club on Thursday night, in one case throwing an object that struck a partygoer in the head.

District of Columbia police closed off a block to motor vehicles as hundreds of demonstrators filled the roadway. Some protesters raised their middle fingers and shouted obscenities and terms such as “racist” and Nazi” to those attending the celebratory ball.

A small group of protesters in hoods and black masks set a fire in the center of the street. Another fire was set in a trash can. A different group used a floodlight and stencil to project the phrases “Bragging about Grabbing a Woman’s Genitals” and “Impeach the Predatory President” onto the side of the Press Club building.

Officers deployed chemical spray at the crowd multiple times, starting around 9 p.m., after protesters began throwing trash at Trump supporters who were leaving the building.

At one point, two men became embroiled in an angry exchange with protesters, with each side shoving and shouting at each other. Police in riot gear separated the men from the crowd.

The ball’s name was inspired by Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton’s description of some Trump supporters as “deplorables.”

Meanwhile, in Manhattan, actors Robert De Niro, Sally Field, Alec Baldwin and Mark Ruffalo joined hundreds of other people in front of the Trump International Hotel and Tower near Central Park for a demonstration that organizers said was meant to energize those concerned about the Republican president-elect’s policies.