USA TODAY International Edition
‘ Not My Presidents Day’ unites opposition to Trump
Federal holiday for many becomes a day of activism
A broad range of activists opposed to the month- old Trump administration used Monday’s Presidents Day holiday to hold “Not My Presidents Day” rallies nationwide.
While most government workers, school employees and students enjoyed a day off for the federal holiday, events took place in New York, Chicago, Los Angeles and as many as two dozen other communities, organizers said.
In New York, hundreds gathered shortly after noon near Columbus Circle, home to a statue of Christopher Columbus and the Trump International Hotel and Tower, which was blockaded by police. At the southwest corner of Central Park, nearly opposite the hotel, protesters chanted “Hey hey, ho ho, Donald Trump has got to go!” Thousands more gathered in the streets nearby expecting to be allowed to march south.
Many people carried placards — some of them strident, some amusing. One elderly woman carried a poster resembling a book cover titled “The Little Golden Book of Alternative Facts.”
“My family immigrated into this country from the Dominican Republic,” said Maria Amoldinado, 23, of Yonkers, N. Y. She said she attended the rally because of Trump’s immigration policies and the specter of authoritarianism.
Another protester, John Winterton, 33, of Hastings- on- Hudson, N. Y, a suburb north of the city, said he was most worried about Trump’s attitude toward the press. Pointing to the row of television trucks there to cover the rally, he said: “They’re here to shine light on the truth, not to create fake news. ... The real fakery here is Donald Trump and his team’s ‘ alternative facts.’ ”
In Los Angeles, hundreds of protesters descended on City Hall chanting “Not my President!” No official count was available, but organizers put the size of the rally at more than 1,000, many times smaller than the Jan. 21 women’s march, which attracted 750,000.
In a pink hat, Marilyn Derr of Manhattan Beach, Calif., said: “Everyone deserves a chance in this country. We’re all immigrants.”
In Chicago, several hundred people demonstrated near the Trump International Hotel & Tower, which has been site of several large protests since Inauguration Day. Protesters — some of them with school- age children tagging along — held up signs that dug at Trump for losing the popular vote.
Ursula Wheeler, 29, said she has been dismayed by the selection and confirmation of Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt, who had sued the federal agency more than a dozen times during his tenure as Oklahoma’s attorney general.
Before Trump’s election, Wheeler said, she was not particularly politically active. But in the past month, she said, she has made roughly a dozen calls to her congressional representatives to express her concern on policy issues.
“Being here gives me a lot of hope, honestly,” said Wheeler, who carried a sign that read “Facts are not a liberal conspiracy.”
Barbara Evans, of Elgin, Ill., said the energy of the anti- Trump movement is beginning to remind her of the Vietnam- era protests when she was a young woman: “It’s very exciting to me to finally see a huge percentage of the population is waking up, getting energized and joining us.”
“Being here gives me a lot of hope, honestly.” Ursula Wheeler, Chicago protester