Protest turns into riot after Trump win
Thousands of protesters angry over Donald Trump’s election win took to the streets for a second straight night, with at least one demonstration degenerating into a riot against the tycoon turned president-elect.
Accusing Trump of racism, sexism and xenophobia, protesters from New York to Los Angeles blocked traffic and chanted slogans like “Not my president” and “We reject the president-elect.”
The worst violence was in the northwestern city of Portland, where protesters hurled projectiles at officers, vandalized businesses, smashed car windows and attacked drivers. Police said they were treating the protests as a “riot” due to what they said was “extensive criminal and dangerous behavior.”
Protest organizers and activists across the country are debating their next moves amid some calls for more direct action, the Guardian reported.
A private Facebook group planning a protest march in Washington had gathered 30,000 members by Thursday afternoon, with thousands joining every hour. Trish Gilbert, the creator of the group, said the march would be a “peaceful style show of force” against Trump’s most extreme policies, said the Guardian, adding that hundreds of thousands of people signed a petition on Change.org pleading with the state electors who formally select the president to deliver the office to Hillary Clinton.
Additionally, high school students staged walkouts across the country. Authorities in Los Angeles told the LA Times that at least 4,000 students from the LA County school system walked out in protest by Thursday afternoon. Hundreds of high school students in San Francisco walked out of class as well, and took to the streets of downtown, shouting “Not my president”, “My body, my choice” and “Love Trumps Hate” as they marched in the middle of traffic.
The violence stood in contrast to an apparently harmonious meeting between Trump and President Barack Obama designed to heal divisions after the most acrimonious election campaign in recent memory.
Obama told Trump his administration would “do everything we can to help you succeed, because if you succeed, then the country succeeds.” The two men ended the White House encounter with a handshake and refused to take questions, appearing to find common cause in their opinion of the press.
White House officials said Obama and Trump discussed a range of issues including global hotspots and the president’s meetings next week with leaders from Germany, Greece and across the Asia-Pacific.
During the upcoming trip, Obama is likely to be inundated with panicked questions about America’s role in world affairs.
Trump plans to move quickly to fulfill some of his most controversial campaign promises related to what he derided as “job-killing” trade policies, according to an internal transition team document shared with Politico.
The president-elect proclaimed health care, border security and jobs as his top three priorities in the White House.
Within the first 100 days, his administration will drop out of the Trans-Pacific Partnership, and 100 days after that it could withdraw from the North American Free Trade Agreement unless certain demands are met, according to the described policy road map.
French President Francois Hollande said Friday he would “clarify positions” with US president-elect Donald Trump during a “frank” telephone discussion later in the day.