By Gabriella Borter
WASHINGTON (Reuters) -Thousands of people gathered in Washington on Saturday to protest President-elect Donald Trump’s inauguration, as activists for women’s rights, racial justice and other causes rallied against incoming policies they say will threaten their constitutional rights during the Republican’s second term.
Some in the crowd wore the pink hats that marked the much-larger protest against Trump’s first inauguration in 2017. They wound through downtown amid a light rain, past the White House and toward the Lincoln Memorial along the National Mall for the “People’s March.”
Protests against Trump’s inauguration are smaller this time, in part because the U.S. women’s rights movement seems more fractured to many activists after Trump defeated Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris in November. Organizers predicted 50,000 would attend, while local police expected about 25,000. More than 300 other marches were planned nationwide.
Reproductive rights groups joined activists for civil rights, the environment and other causes in organizing the march against Trump. He is preparing to take office on Monday, having lost his first reelection bid in 2020 to President Joe Biden, a Democrat.
In both of his victories, Trump defeated candidates who each would have been the first female U.S. president: Hillary Clinton in 2016 and Harris last year. This time, Trump won all seven battleground states to secure the Electoral College needed for the presidency, and carried the popular vote in a first for Republicans in two decades.
Trump has vowed to make sweeping changes on day one, from immigration raids to dismantling parts of the federal government.
“A lot of people are disillusioned,” said Olivia Hoffman, 26, who works at the California-based Young Women’s Freedom Center, which supports impoverished women and transgender youth, and traveled with her mother to march in the nation’s capital. “A lot of people feel like we’ve been fighting for the same things for so long.”
Saturday’s march attracted a wide range of causes from immigration and democracy to climate change and the Gaza war. At least one protester called out Trump’s pressure on Canada, carrying a sign that read “We are not your 51st state.”
MOSTLY PEACEFUL
The protests were largely peaceful amid heightened security as police cars, with sirens on, drove nearby. One protester in a red MAGA hat who emerged near the front of the march was led away by authorities, and anti-abortion activists displayed graphic posters near the crowd’s final gathering spot.
Vendors hawked buttons that said #MeToo and “Love trumps hate,” and sold People’s March flags for $10. Demonstrators carried posters that read “Feminists v. Fascists” and “People over politics.”
Mini Timmaraju, CEO of the advocacy group Reproductive Freedom for All, praised the crowd’s gathering “in the face of what’s going to be some really horrible extremism.”
With Trump’s Republicans also controlling Congress and conservatives leading the U.S. Supreme Court, it is unclear how activists or Democrats can counter Trump’s plans.
“I’m glad I can see some people here are hopeful,” said Nancy Robinson, a 65-year-old retired printing and tech specialist from Maryland. “That’s not me. I think we’re doomed.”
Other protests are planned over the weekend, including on Inauguration Day, which falls on Martin Luther King Jr. Day. Civil rights leaders say they will rally and continue to mobilize under Trump’s administration.
“It’s warming that people still care,” said Preethi Murthy, 28, who is based in Washington and works in global health. “We have to show that we’re bigger in numbers and we’re not going to back down.”
(Reporting by Gabriella Borter; writing by Susan Heavey; editing by Heather Timmons and Rod Nickel)
