#NotMyPresident / Anti-Trump Protests

Overview

#NotMyPresident is a social media activist movement protesting the election of Donald Trump as the 45th President of the United States.

Background

On November 8th, 2016, the 2016 United States presidential election was held across the 50 states and the District of Columbia. As the election results came in, Trump came out ahead in several key swing states, much to the surprise of forecasts and projections favoring rival Hillary Clinton. As the evening progressed, Trump's critics began tweeting their disapproval of his candidacy along with the hashtag"#NotMyPresident"^[7] (shown below). At 3:00 a.m. (EST) the following morning, Trump emerged victorious by securing 279 of the required 270 electoral votes, leading Clinton to concede the race.

Developments

This entry covers various protests that erupted in the wake of the outcome of the 2016 United States presidential election. For background information on protests against Donald Trump in the months leading up to the election day on November 8th, please read up on Donald Trump Rally Protests and the #NeverTrump movement.

Mobilization

On November 9th, 2016, shortly after the announcement of Donald Trump's victory in the election, the hashtag #NotMyPresident became the top trending topic on Twitter and elsewhere on social media, which effectively became the unofficial banner of anti-Trump protests in the days to follow. Throughout the day, dozens of marches and sit-in protests were mobilized in major cities across the country, led by a coalition of activist and advocacy groups for various causes like Black Lives Matter, gender equality and LGBTQ equality, as well as Muslim immigrants and many other minority communities. Also on November 9th, a Facebook^[1] event page titled "Trump is Not My President" was created for a march on Union Square, New York City on November 12th. Within 48 hours, the page gathered more than 12,000 responses as "going" and 29,000 as "interested."

Protests

Beginning on November 9th, tens of thousands of demonstrators took their protest to the streets in dozens of cities and thousands of students staged a walkout protest at university campuses across the United States, including in Atlanta, Ann Arbor, Baltimore, Berkeley, Charlotte, Chicago, Cleveland, Dallas, Denver, Des Moines, Detroit, Houston, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, Memphis, Milwaukee, Minneapolis, Miami, Nashville, New York City, New Orleans, Oakland, Omaha, Orlando, Philadelphia, Pittsburg, Phoenix, Portland, Providence, Reno, Richmond, San Diego, San Francisco, San Jose, Salt Lake City, Seattle, Syracuse, Washington D.C. and Winston-Salem.

On November 12th, more than 10,000 demonstrators in Los Angeles marched into downtown in protest, while as many as 25,000 protesters in New York marched into downtown. Furthermore, a number of international protests against the election of Donald Trump also went underway in the United Kingdom, the Philippines, Germany, Canada, Belgium, Israel, New Zealand, and Australia.

Inauguration Protests

On November 9th, 2016, a Facebook^[20] event page was created for a demonstration in protest of Trump's inauguration titled "Women's March on Washington," during which participants plan to walk from the Lincoln Memortial to the White House on the morning of January 21st, 2017. Within two months, the event gathered upwards of 200,000 "going" RSVPs. On December 23rd, a "Women's March on New York City" event was created, garnering more than 66,000 "going" RSVPs over the next month.^[22]

On January 12th, organizers released a policy platform for the demonstration, which addressed several issues related to social justice and reproductive rights:

"Our liberation is bound in each other’s. The Women’s March on Washington includes leaders of organizations and communities that have been building the foundation for social progress for generations. We welcome vibrant collaboration and honor the legacy of the movements before us – the suffragists and abolitionists, the Civil Rights Movement, the feminist movement, the American Indian Movement, Occupy Wall Street, Marriage Equality, Black Lives Matter, and more – by employing a decentralized, leader-full structure and focusing on an ambitious, fundamental and comprehensive agenda."

On January 19th, Vox^[23] reported that Google search queries for "protest inauguration" had eclipsed queries for "attend inauguration." That evening, an anti-Trump protest was held in New York City on the eve of Trump's inauguration, which was attended by celebrities Michael Moore, Alec Baldwin and Robert DeNiro (shown below, left). Meanwhile, Fox News broadcast an interview with a child protester in Washington, D.C., who admitted to starting a fire to say "screw our President" (shown below, right). Within 24 hours, the video accumulated more than 5.9 million views, 75,000 shares and 66,000 reactions on Facebook.^[19]

The day of the inauguration on January 20th, NBC News^[21] reported that protests had turned violent, leading police officers to deploy pepper spray on demonstrators in downtown Washington, D.C. The windows of banks and a Starbucks location were reportedly destroyed by protesters throwing bricks.

Project Veritas Video

On January 16th, Project Veritas published a video claiming to show hidden camera footage of the activist group DisruptJ20 planning to stink bomb Trump's inauguration (shown below). Within four days, the video garnered upwards of 1.4 million views and 5,900 comments.

Violence

While the vast majority of protests and marches took place in civil and peaceful manner, a number of violent clashes and riot-like behaviors were reported from a few protest sites in the following days, such as burning of the American flag and effigies of Donald Trump, as well as confrontation with counter-protesters and police officers.^[5][6][7][8] On November 10th, Twitter user @itsmikebevins posted a video of anti-Trump protests smashing car windows in Portland, Oregon (shown below). Within 24 hours, the tweet gained over 2,000 retweets and 1,700 likes.

Petitions

On the Internet, a number of online lobbying campaigns were launched in an attempt to prevent Donald Trump from being inaugurated in Janaury 2017, most notably the Change.org petition^[12] urging the members of the Electoral College to ignore their states' electoral votes and honor the popular vote instead by electing Hillary Clinton. Started by Elijah Berg of North Carolina on November 10th, the petition garnered upwards of 2.59 million signatures within the first 24 hours, and by its fifth day, it had accrued more than four million signatures. Other notable petitions on the site^[16] include "Impeach Donald Trump,"^[17] pleading the U.S. Congress to challenge the president-elect upon him taking the office, and "Steve Bannon's racist, anti-semitic, misogynistic views don't belong in the White House,"^[18] which was created in response to Trump's appointment of Steve Bannon, the executive chairman of BreitBart News, as his administration's chief strategist on November 13th.

Official Responses

On November 10th, Donald Trump tweeted that "professional protesters" who were "incited by the media" were unfairly contesting his election (shown below).^[4]

Controversies

New Balance Vice President's Remark

On November 9th, Wall Street Journal reporter Sara Germano tweeted^[15] a quote from Matt LeBretton, the vice president of public affairs of American sportswear corporation New Balance, which seemed to imply that LeBretton and the company were in favor of Trump's presidency (shown below).

Germano's tweet quickly began circulating around online fashion and sneakerhead communities, which soon gave rise to a series of protest videos showing pairs of New Balance shoes getting tossed into garbage, and in some cases, lit on fire.

Later that same day, LeBretton issued a response via BuzzFeed News^[14] stating that the quote had been taken out of its original context, which specifically concerned international trade policies and the Trans-Pacific Partnership. Furthermore, the company also issued a statement via sneakerhead news site Sole Collector rejecting any affiliation with a political party or candidate.

Grubhub CEO's Anti-Trump Letter

On November 10th, Fox News^[9] released an internal memo sent by GrubHub CEO Matt Maloney to the company, which urged employees to resign if they didn't agree with his criticism of Donald Trump. Later that day, Maloney issued a press release claiming that he "did not ask for anyone to resign if they voted for Trump."^[10] Over the next 24 hours, many Trump supporters called for a boycott of GrubHub on social media, momentarily leading to a 5% decrease in the company's shares.^[11]

Search Interest

External References