Thousands of people protested in central London on Tuesday against United States President Donald Trump’s pomp-laden state visit to Britain, but numbers were well down on the tens of thousands who gathered to oppose his visit last year.
Protesters shouted, banged drums and waved placards at what organizers called a “Carnival of Resistance” in Trafalgar Square while Prime Minister Theresa May held talks with Trump a short distance away at her Downing Street residence Reuters said.
The leader of Britain’s opposition Labour Party, Jeremy Corbyn, addressed the rally, calling it “the living embodiment of what a democratic society was all about”.
Among Britons, Trump is one of the least-liked foreign leaders, with just 21 percent of people surveyed by YouGov having a positive opinion of him. Among women, that figure fell to 14 percent.
The protest’s tone was set by a large statue of Trump sitting on a golden lavatory with his trousers around his ankles. People held placards that read “Keep your tiny hands off our Queen”, “Lock him in the tower” and “Free Melania!”
Linda Coplestone, 64, a retired teacher from London, said she was protesting inaction by Trump on climate change.
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“We have ruined the planet,” she said. “He has a powerful voice and could do something about it. He chooses not to.”
Often with creativity and humor, the protesters rallied around issues ranging from restrictions on women’s reproductive rights to fears that US businesses would carve up Britain’s ailing but cherished health service.
The crowd, several thousand strong, was far smaller than the one that protested Trump’s first visit to Britain as president in July 2018 but featured the same British humor.
One woman carried a sign carrying the Shakespearean insult, “I bite my thumb at thee!” Elsewhere, a man sold toilet rolls featuring Trump’s face for three pounds apiece.
There were pockets of support. A few men wearing red caps with “Make America Great Again” walked among the crowd. Trump supporters said the protests were an insult to the leader of the United Kingdom’s most powerful ally.