"Love the fact
that the small groups of protesters last night have passion for our great
country. We will all come together and be proud!" Trump tweeted early on
Friday.
It was a sharp shift
in tone from his tweet hours earlier dismissing the demonstrators in eight
cities as "professional protesters, incited by the media."
The contradictory
tweets were further evidence of Trump's mixed messages since he announced his
candidacy 17 months ago. After Clinton conceded defeat early on Wednesday, he
took a far more conciliatory tone than he had often displayed during his
campaign and promised to be a president for all Americans.
Anti-Trump
demonstrators voiced concerns his presidency, due to start on Jan. 20, would
infringe on Americans' civil and human rights. They cited his campaign promises
to restrict immigration and register Muslims, as well as allegations the
Republican Trump, a former reality-TV star, sexually abused women.
In various cities,
marchers chanted slogans including, "No hate! No fear! Immigrants are
welcome here!" and carried signs reading, "Impeach Trump."
White supremacist
groups including the Ku Klux Klan have praised Trump's election and some civil
rights advocacy groups have reported a spike of attacks on minorities following
Trump's Tuesday victory over Democrat Hillary Clinton.
Trump has rejected
the KKK's support.
PLEDGE OF RESISTANCE
Tensions were high
on Thursday night in Baltimore where Mark Patro, 60, and his partner, Yanni
Stavropoulos, 39, marched in an anti-Trump demonstration carrying the rainbow
flag of the gay rights movement.
"We're here to
bring to Donald Trump's attention that we don't support his rhetoric,"
said Patro, a draftsman. "We intend to resist, and I believe that
resistance will continue for many Americans throughout his presidency."
The crowds on the
streets of eight cities including New York, Washington, Los Angeles and
Portland, Oregon, on Thursday were diverse in their ethnic makeup and largely
made up of young adults and college students.
One measure of young
Americans' feeling for Trump: A poll by the UMass Lowell Center for Public
Opinion prior to the election showed that some 66 percent of young U.S. adults
aged 18 to 35 thought Trump should have dropped out of the race following the
October release of a 2005 video in which he was seen talking about groping
women.
"This antipathy
towards Trump is very real and very deep-seated," said Joshua Dyck, an
associate professor of political science at the school. "I suspect that
protests, especially on college campuses, will be a more or less permanent
feature of his presidency."
With the country
evenly divided, many voters were shocked by the result given that opinion polls
failed to predict Trump's triumph. The Republican Party also managed to
maintain its majorities in both houses of Congress in Tuesday's vote.
MORE PROTESTS
PLANNED
More anti-Trump
demonstrations were planned for the weekend in cities including New York and
Los Angeles, and a group calling itself "#NotMyPresident" scheduled
an anti-Trump rally for Washington on Jan. 20, Inauguration Day, when the New
York real-estate developer formally succeeds President Barack Obama.
Thursday's
gatherings were generally smaller in scale and less intense than Wednesday's,
and teenagers and young adults again dominated the racially mixed crowds.
Republican National
Committee Chairman Reince Priebus on Friday acknowledged the tight race with
Clinton, but said anti-Trump protesters had to accept the election results. He
pointed to Trump's call for unity and meetings on Thursday with Obama and
Republican leaders as reasons for reassurance.
"Everyone needs
to just take a deep breath, take the weekend ... count our blessings, and let's
come back on Monday," Priebus said.
Security barricades
were in place around some of Trump's highly visible properties, including the
newly opened Trump International Hotel near the White House and in Trump Tower
on New York's Fifth Avenue, where he lives.
Trump's base of
support in the election was the broad middle of the country, from the Heartland
through the Rust Belt, with voters in states that had long supported Democrats
shifting their support to Trump after he promised to renegotiate trade deals with
other countries.
In Washington two
Trump supporters carried signs reading: "All We are Saying is Give Trump a
Chance".
A protest in
Portland, Oregon, late on Thursday grew violent with demonstrators throwing
objects at police and damaging cars at a dealership. Police arrested at least
26 people.
In Los Angeles,
police arrested about 185 people, mostly for blocking roadways or being
juveniles out past curfew, during a Thursday night march, police spokeswoman
Norma Eisenman said in a telephone interview.
One officer was
hospitalized for injuries suffered during the protest, she said.
Reuters
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