TRIGGER WARNING: This piece includes mentions of sexual assault
After the inauguration of President Donald Trump, the 47th president of the United States, outrage swept across the world, causing over 600 protests in the U.S as well as many other countries who express fear for the U.S. citizens.
This controversy has been caused primarily by comments from Trump and his administration about the rights of women, LGBTQ+ individuals, and racial minorities. Many of the protests for women’s rights were spurred by his comments in a previously unreleased recording by Access Hollywood in which he mentions that famous men can, “Grab [women]by the p***y” and “do anything” that they want.
He has been accused of sexual harassment by over 25 women, including previous employees, and has taken measures to ban abortion and decrease women’s reproductive healthcare. He also played a large role in overturning Roe v. Wade, which was the court ruling that protected women’s rights to abortion. Many women have seen this as a step backwards and fear losing the progress towards equal rights made in the last few decades.
In light of these events, a march took place in Washington D.C. for women’s rights that was attended by at least 500,000 people. Along with D.C., America has seen protests in Chicago, LA, New York, Seattle, Boston, Miami, and more in over 300 national events.
The Washington protesters held signs with the messages “women’s rights are human rights” and “we are the majority”. They filled the streets of Washington D.C., but Trump has not yet commented on the protests.
Along with this, protests have erupted due to Trump’s plan for mass deportation of immigrants as well as his plan for ending birthright citizenship, which goes against the 14th amendment which explicitly establishes the right to citizenship by birth. These protests are taking place in California, Texas, Illinois, Alabama, Indiana, and South Carolina and have caused road blockage which slowed production of major trade goods.
As Trump initiated public demonstrations of mass deportations with the help of ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) raids, the people in the cities have come together chanting slogans and holding signs in support of their friends and neighbors.
ICE has held thousands of arrests in major cities in the span of just a few days, with close to 1200 arrests in Chicago alone. A senior Trump administration official has confirmed that almost half of those detained have no criminal record. Chicago has been recognized as a sanctuary city since 2012, under the Illinois Trust act, but this was ignored, along with the status of many other sanctuary cities in the raid. These sanctuary cities, which are cities that provide public services and have a government established to limit information shared with immigration services, were some of the first places targeted by large scale ICE raids.
Many of these major cities have also held days of protest by closing their businesses in response to immigrant deportations with the intent to show that the U.S. was built with the help of immigrants and would not function without them. This boycott has gone viral on the internet and organizations such as Latinos Unidos Siempre have called for a nationwide closure in order to “show the impact [their] community has” on the U.S. economy.
Trump’s rhetoric against immigrants as well as other minorities is becoming increasingly violent as he has taken to portraying these people as dangerous and saying that immigrants are,“poisoning the blood of our country” and are nothing more than “animals”. Comments such as these are now causing even more division amongst the American people.
While many Americans may not know it, the message from United States protests has now spread beyond the borders and led to a large amount of protesting in countries around the world of which photos and articles are now entering the American news system. Pictures of the protests can be found on CBS news, as well as the Guardian.
Europe:
Protests have swept across Europe, mainly in the UK as well as Belgium. In London, 80,000-100,000 people gathered to show their support for American protestors and criticize the actions of the U.S. government with a focus on women’s rights. They also held protests in Belfast, Cardiff, Edinburgh, Leeds, Liverpool, Manchester, and Bristol.
In the Belgium capital, hundreds of people from various groups, including trade unions, environmental, and anti-racist movements gathered outside of the U.S. embassy building to show their dissatisfaction with the direction of the U.S. government and termed Trump’s agenda as a “far-right program serving American billionaires.”
Australia:
“Sister marches” (protests for women’s rights) have spread across Australia and New Zealand as many point out that this is not just a U.S. issue, but a worldwide one. Hundreds of marches are being organized and attended by thousands to help spread the message that minorities will not back down.
Canada:
People’s marches took place in Toronto, Regina, and Saskatoon outside of U.S. embassy buildings in solidarity with marches taking place in Washington D.C. Canada has also protested the Trump Tariffs through boycotts, rescinded deals, and public anger, in an attempt to cause Trump to rethink these tariffs.
Another key player in the recent protests has been Amnesty international. Amy Piquer, the director of Amnesty International, has said that their “mission at Amnesty International is human rights for all, and [they] will continue to mobilize millions of people around the world to ensure human rights are protected, no matter who is in the White House”. This came after protests and major concerns of the public for the rights and safety of women, LGBTQ+ individuals, racial minorities, and immigrants.
The last few days have seen hundreds of emerging protests throughout the world that set the Trump administration off to a rocky start, but the message is clear: Americans will not back down and neither will the rest of the world. America has long been seen as having a global presence, and the actions of the last few days have made it clear that not only is the rest of the world watching, but the actions of the United States also have worldwide implications.
