President Trump may soon be leaving office, but the activists protesting his administration have no intention of letting up until the day he does.
Especially after pro-Trump and anti-Trump demonstrators clashed at the Saturday March for Trump, where several prominent right-wing voices outlined Trump’s path to victory — involving complicated maneuvers in the House of Representatives — many protesters are redoubling their efforts to resist the president’s will.
“Letting Trump steal our democracy and stay in the White House after losing resoundingly in both the popular vote and the Electoral College is a possibility that is too dangerous to ignore,” said Patrick Young, an organizer with ShutDownDC, writing in reference to Trump’s refusal to concede the election.
“If you’re with the people, this is the time to rise up to defend democracy,” Young added.
ShutDownDC, along with many other activist groups in Washington, D.C., since the election, has vowed to keep the pressure on Trump for as long as he remains president. “We need to be in the streets,” the group said in a Monday statement after Trump claimed on Twitter that he won the election.
While some protesters continue to camp out in Black Lives Matter Plaza, others have set up stations around the city to protest various causes associated with the president. The group Families Belong Together on Monday built a chain-link cage on the National Mall and filled it with stuffed animals, representing children still separated at the southern border.
Organizers told the Washington Examiner that the installment is part of a protest against the Trump administration’s child separation policy, which began receiving massive news coverage beginning nearly three years ago. The policy was ended by the administration last year.
In the area surrounding Black Lives Matter Plaza, the Palm Collective, an activist conglomerate that spearheaded the election night protests, on Monday called for members to reconstruct the protest signs that were removed during violent clashes with Trump supporters following the March for Trump. The previous signs, in addition to memorializing alleged victims of police violence, were often critical of Trump’s character and leadership.
The renewed efforts at protesting come after a weekend of violence in which both sides portrayed radically different narratives about the other. Some viral videos showed anti-Trump protesters shooting fireworks at restaurant patrons and brutalizing Trump supporters. Others depict Trump supporters lashing out at his detractors.
Trump commented on the protests as they were happening, laying the blame for the violence on the anti-Trump side and encouraging police not to “hold back.”
“ANTIFA SCUM ran for the hills today when they tried attacking the people at the Trump Rally, because those people aggressively fought back,” Trump tweeted. “Antifa waited until tonight, when 99% were gone, to attack innocent #MAGA People.”
At the same time, however, many of Trump’s critics accused his supporters of starting the brawls.
As uncertainty reigns over the future of the strength and tone of protests, many businesses near the White House remain boarded up, despite the urging of Mayor Muriel Bowser, who has opposed the measure since before the election.
