WASHINGTON, D.C.— Several hundred protesters gathered in Washington, D.C. as President Trump was sworn into office on Monday, and several told Fox Information Digital that they braved the frigid temperatures to speak out against the “colonialism” and “fascism” they believe is coming. under Trump’s mandate.
“I’m coming out because I think it’s important to take a stand against the country’s slide toward fascism and against war and genocide and just show that people are going to keep fighting no matter what attacks happen, and we know they’re going to keep fighting. ”. This is going to happen,” Gregory, who said he traveled from New Orleans to attend the We Battle Again rally at Meridian Hill Park in Washington, DC, told Fox Information Digital.
“We know that conditions will continue to worsen. We just have to keep fighting.”
Maxwell, who traveled to the inauguration protest from Baltimore, told Fox Information Digital: “I’m here to stand up for myself and say that we’re not going away and that the dangers of poverty and wealth inequality, misogyny and discrimination against LGBTQ community The community and the immigrants that make up the people of our nation deserve to have a voice and they deserve to have people stand up for them on a national level and also put an end to imperialism and colonialism and, you know, discontinue that oppression enacted by the government of the states United and that is why we are here today.”
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Anti-Trump protesters at Meridian Hill Park in Washington, DC (Fox Digital Information)
Many of the protesters brought signs and props, including one man who rolled a large replica of a guillotine, which he told Fox Information Digital was a “work of art” that is “open to interpretation.”
“I want people to know that they have the power to make themselves heard, to express their anger and to say, you know, send a message to the people who are above us, to the people who rule us, that, you know, “We’re here, we’re powerful, and you better, you know, tread carefully. You know, it’s just a sculpture, but it should be a little scary.”
An inscription under the guillotine read: “come and get the sum.”
Mara, who identifies as transgender, told Fox Information Digital that Trump is a “fascist.”
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Protesters gather at the We Battle Again protest on Donald Trump’s Inauguration Day at Meridian Hill Park in Washington DC, January 20, 2025. (Fox Digital Information)
“For me it is important to be here. First of all, Donald Trump, with his far-right agenda, has, among other things, labeled trans people as pedophiles and then executed them,” Mara said. “So as a trans person, that’s a little alarming. On top of that, not only people on the left, but also his own conservative generals, have called him a fascist. So I am here to reject fascism and say that it has no place in our America.”
Signs in the crowd contained phrases including “socialism defeats fascism” and “fight Trump’s agenda.”
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Protesters gather at the We Battle Again protest on Donald Trump’s Inauguration Day at Meridian Hill Park in Washington DC, January 20, 2025. (Fox Digital Information)
After the speeches concluded, many of which included chants of “Free Palestine” and an end to Israel’s “genocide” in Gaza, the group left the park and marched through local streets.
Counterprotesters appeared as the march began and several people clashed shouting.
The protests against Trump’s inauguration were much more moderate than those that took place at the beginning of his first term and do not appear to have been violent, as they were eight years ago, when hundreds of protesters were arrested.
Trump was sworn in as the 47th president of the United States on Monday, marking his return to the Oval Office with a promise to restore America to a “golden age.”
Trump addressed the nation after taking the oath of office for the second time and used his remarks in the inaugural address to call for a “common sense revolution.”
“I return to the presidency confident and optimistic that we are at the beginning of a new and exciting period of national success. “A tide of change is sweeping the country,” Trump said. “My message to Americans today is that it is time for us to act once again with courage, vigor and the vitality of the greatest civilization in history.”
Fox Information Digital’s Brooke Singman contributed to this report
