London protests sends clear message to Trump: You're not welcome

As US President Donald Trump took tea with the Queen in the exalted halls of Windsor Castle Friday, tens of thousands of people thronged the streets of central London, in a huge and colorful demonstration against a visit that aroused deep opposition in the UK.

“Stupid, callous, fragile, racist, narcissistic POTUS,” declared one man’s sign. The play on words from a “Mary Poppins” song was one of the less profane declarations of dissent. Another placard read: “Don’t worry! This protest is just fake news!”

For those who hadn’t prepared their insults at home, piles of placards emblazoned with anti-Trump messages — such as “Dump Trump” and “World’s #1 Racist” — lay banked by Oxford Circus underground station for anyone to pick up.

Others left their wit aside, wearing face masks printed with a simple message: “Trump stinks.”

Police in the city did not give an estimate on the turnout but said they were forced to close off Trafalgar Square, where protesters were headed for an evening rally, as it had nearly reached capacity.

Organizers claimed 250,000 turned out to voice their opposition to Trump, and while there is no way to verify that figure, it was clear that this was one of the biggest demonstrations in London since 1 million people demonstrated against the Iraq war in 2003.

Protesters listed a litany of grievances about the US president, from his attitude toward women, and his hardline policies likes family separations of migrants at the US border and the ban on travel from Muslim-majority countries.

Julia Lalla-Maharaj, a women’s rights activist, marshaled the crowds with a loudspeaker. “Resist!” she cried. “We have had enough. We have got to stand up because now is the time.”

Chants rang out from the waiting crowds. “Say it loud, say it clear, Donald Trump’s not welcome here,” and “Hey ho, hey ho, Donald Trump has got to go.”

‘It’s all so totally offensive’

Despite the vitriolic slogans and chants, the mood was festive, rather than aggressive, as Londoners enjoy a long run of sunshine.

People of different ages and ethnicities, families, mothers with strollers, retirees and wheelchair users all joined the march. Three-and-a-half-year-old Buster Dugdale from London, already on the sixth protest of his young life, danced among the bubbles sprayed by Palestinian protester Bashar Bahlawan, 23, wearing an outsized T-shirt declaring “Choose love.”

Buster’s mother, Beth Evans, supports the “Help Refugees” aid organization and said it was important to show her opposition to Trump’s policies.

The Reverend Ian Welch, a Church of England vicar from St. Andrew’s Church in Mottingham, southeast London, was there with his wife and a friend.

Welch said he was dismayed that the UK government had welcomed Trump to the country. He turned out to the protests in solidarity with others who felt Trump was a reactionary and regressive force.

“The way that he’s spoken about Islamic people, the way he’s spoken about Mexicans crossing the border, his attitudes towards women and gay people — it’s all so totally offensive. He’s broadcasting poisonous attitudes towards the community, so I think we all have felt we needed to organize to keep idealism alive and to make sure that message of hate isn’t embraced by people,” he said.

Founders of the “Pink Protest” — 26-year-old Alice Skinner, a political illustrator and activist, and Grace Campbell, 24 — carried a home-made banner playing on the “special relationship” between the UK and US that Trump and UK Prime Minister Theresa May regularly tout.

Skinner said: “Trump is basically everything we think is wrong with the world and he’s not welcome here in London.” She questioned the message Trump sent to girls and young women through his comments and women’s allegations against him.

Des Kay, 67, from southwest London, made an eye-catching dinosaur entirely from reclaimed materials, an artistic commentary on Trump’s “prehistoric policies.”

“We have got to look at a future world which isn’t dependent on taking 4% of your money to put into arms,” he said, in a reference to Trump’s call for NATO allies to double defense spending targets.

Two male Trump supporters holding “MAGA” placards — a reference to the Trump campaign slogan “Make America Great Again” — stood to one side as the crowds assembled for the march.

They declined to speak to CNN but one said they were not there to make trouble. Other Trump and anti-Trump supporters were seen in a shouting match outside a nearby pub.

‘I think Trump’s a nightmare’

While many of the protesters were from London, others had traveled from further afield to make their voices heard.

John Malone, a 65-year-old retired teacher from Bristol, came on a chartered bus from the southwestern city to join the protest.

I’m here because I think Donald Trump is the most destructive force in the world today,” he said. Malone last joined a protest in 2003 to try to stop the Iraq war. “Nothing has moved me as much since then except Trump.”

The Hofford family, from Hong Kong, decided to demonstrate while visiting family in London. Jacques Hofford, 9, was on his first protest. Holding a “Dump Trump” sign aloft.

“I think Trump’s a nightmare,” said Alex Hofford, Jacques father. “It’s really affecting everybody. He’s just kicked off a trade war against China and it’s really destabilizing for everyone.”

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