WASHINGTON, D.C. – Left-wing groups opposing Donald Trump’s second presidency had plans to “fight back” with thousands of protesters in Washington, D.C. on Monday — but that’s not what happened.
The Act Now to Stop War and End Racism (ANSWER) Coalition and the People’s Forum, who were behind anti-Israel riots last summer in the nation’s capital, organized Inauguration Day rallies that led local law enforcement to expect around 10,000 people across the town, starting at Malcolm X Park. The Daily Caller News Foundation, however, observed a different scene: a crowd of dozens standing in the snow, a pile of unused megaphones, and complaints about the icy weather.
“We are here on a day that is so cold that they decided to put the inauguration indoors,” one speaker said at a podium. “But for us, we’re saying that we will be here no matter what, no matter how cold it is!”
Dozens of anti-Trump activists gather with signs, tables and a guillotine at Malcolm X Park in Washington, D.C. on Jan. 20, 2025. (Photo by Hudson Crozier/Daily Caller News Foundation)
A pile of megaphones sit in the snow at the low-energy protest against Trump’s inauguration on Jan. 20, 2025 at Malcolm X Park in Washington, D.C. (Photo by Hudson Crozier/Daily Caller News Foundation)
A group tabling at the protest with a sign denouncing “facists” declined an interview with the Daily Caller News Foundation at the anti-Trump protests on Jan. 20, 2025 at Malcolm X Park in Washington, D.C. (Photo by Hudson Crozier/Daily Caller News Foundation)
Protesters filled roughly half of the park to decry the new president’s conservative agenda while making radical demands such as the release of Palestinian criminals in Israel, labeled “political prisoners,” and “the abolition of police, prisons, and cages.”
Standing with the anti-Trump protesters was, ironically, a Trump supporter wearing a Palestinian keffiyeh and a Make America Great Again (MAGA) hat.
A pro-Trump, pro-Palestinian protester talks to one of multiple journalists alongside a left-wing Code Pink activist on Jan. 20, 2025 at Malcolm X Park in Washington, D.C. (Photo by Hudson Crozier/Daily Caller News Foundation)
“I’m here to protest Israel using America,” New York resident Hugh Casey told the DCNF.
“I don’t like what [Trump] does with Zionism, but I do like the rest of his movement and what he’s about,” Casey said.
Pointing to his keffiyeh, Casey told the DCNF, “I like to show that Republicans can be for the Palestinian people, and we don’t need to just bend tail to Israel every single time.”
A masked man with a wooden guillotine managed to turn some heads. The structure had fake blood and the words “come get sum” inscribed at its base. The guillotine and signs from the Malcolm X Park gathering were later seen among protesters marching through the streets, surrounded by law enforcement.
Anti-Trump protesters parade through Meridian Park with a mock guillotine on Jan. 20, 2025. (Photo by Daily Caller News Foundation)
After Trump was sworn in at noon, the DCNF observed a separate demonstration at Lafayette Square in front of the barricaded White House by a group of around two dozen who called themselves revolutionary communists. Protesters held signs of Trump in a Ku Klux Klan hood and called the president a “bag of feces.”
A woman and a man with a Make America Great Again beanie sit on a bench, unresponsive to a communist protest in front of the White House on Jan. 20, 2025 in Washington, D.C. (Photo by Hudson Crozier/Daily Caller News Foundation)
Roughly two dozen protesters with the Revolutionary Communist Party protest against President Donald Trump’s “fascist” agenda as a greater number of Trump supporters pass in front of the White House on Jan. 20, 2025 in Washington, D.C. (Photo by Hudson Crozier/Daily Caller News Foundation)
Trump supporters grin and jeer at the band of communists protesting the president’s inauguration on Jan. 20, 2025 in Washington, D.C. Some passerby shouted “communists go home” or blew a ram’s horn at them. (Photo by Hudson Crozier/Daily Caller News Foundation)
The scenes stood in contrast to the riots against Trump’s first inauguration in 2017 that brought clashes with police, tear gas, fires, vandalism, and more than 200 arrests in Washington. The first Trump administration dropped dozens of protesters’ charges.
No arrests of protesters were reported Monday.
The communist protesters talked about forming a “massive” nationwide resistance against Trump’s “fascism.” But there were ultimately more Make American Great Again hats than Marxist symbols at the square as Trump supporters passed by, heckling, grinning, filming or ignoring the group.
“No one cares!” one man shouted in a sing-song tone.
Andi Shae Napier and Myles Morell contributed reporting.
(Featured Image Media Credit: Photo by Hudson Crozier/Daily Caller News Foundation)
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