NEW YORK (AP) - Hundreds of thousands of demonstrators marched to Republican President Donald Trump’s glittering home on Saturday in protest, saying he may be from New York but he doesn’t represent the city.
“New York is a community in itself, and people care about each other and it’s diverse,” said Ashia Badi, who took her two daughters to the march. “He doesn’t feel like he has those New York values I see.”
The Women’s March on New York City, one of hundreds around the country staged a day after Trump’s inauguration, ended near Trump Tower, where Trump conducted nearly all of his postelection business and where his wife, Melania Trump, and their young son, Barron, will live.
Thunderous cheers rang out as protesters packed into barricades at least 15 blocks long for hours, moving slowly toward the tower. Some avenues were so clogged that demonstrators couldn’t move forward.
A spokesman for Democratic Mayor Bill de Blasio said 400,000 people took part in the march.
Protesters kept chanting in front of Trump Tower as darkness descended hours after the march started, shouting “Lock him in the tower!” and “We are the popular vote.”
Men and women donned pink knit hats and held signs that read “Women’s rights are human rights” and “A woman’s place is in the resistance.” Many thanked police officers as they walked by. The march snarled traffic around the heart of Manhattan, with taxi drivers parked on thoroughfares sitting on top of their cars.
Trump, a billionaire real estate mogul, was born and raised in the city, but the majority of the city and the state voted for Democrat Hillary Clinton in the November election. Eileen Dirnfeld also was born in the city.
“I don’t see him as a New Yorker, I really don’t. He’s gotten in with the money,” she said. “He’s not the guy on the street. He got in with the money, and that’s all he cares about.”
Patricia Palermo, one of six women wearing surgical masks that said “Save the ACA” (Affordable Care Act) said his words and actions contradict.
“We (as New Yorkers) know him, that’s why most New Yorkers are against him,” she said.
Zakiyyah Woods, a hospital senior clerk, said it was important to host a local march to show that New Yorkers don’t agree with Trump’s divisive rhetoric on Muslims, women and Latinos.
“We’re a melting pot. You hear languages from all over the world here,” Woods said. “No matter who you are and where you come from, New York is a safe haven. They come here to feel more accepted and safer.”
Celebrities Helen Mirren, Cynthia Nixon and Whoopi Goldberg joined the crowd.
“This is on us. This change is on us,” Goldberg told the cheering crowd. “We’re about to go further than you ever thought you could because what’s at stake is everything you believe in. We’re going to show America what we can do in New York.”
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