Protests against Donald Trump have occurred in the United States and internationally, mostly after his entry into the 2016 presidential campaign. Protests have expressed opposition to Trump's campaign rhetoric, his ideology, his electoral win, his first inauguration, his alleged history of sexual misconduct, including a 2023 verdict in which he was held liable for sexual abuse, and various presidential actions, including his travel ban in 2017 and aggressive family separation policy in 2018.
Some protests have taken the form of walk-outs, business closures, and petitions as well as rallies, demonstrations, and marches. While most protests have been peaceful, actionable conduct such as vandalism and assaults on Trump supporters has occurred. Some protesters have been criminally charged with rioting.
One of the largest organized protests against Trump was the day after his first inauguration; millions protested on January 21, 2017, during the Women's March, with each individual city's protest taken into consideration, making it what was then the largest single-day protest in the history of the United States.
Following Trump's victory in the 2024 presidential election, a new wave of protests was held in reaction to his second presidency. The 50501 movement in coordination with Indivisible, the American Civil Liberties Union and several other organizations staged a series of protests known as the Hands Off and No Kings protests. In 2026, large Hands off Greenland protests against Trump took place in several countries in response to Trump's desire to annex Greenland. According to data posted by the Crowd Counting Consortium at Harvard University, protests against Trump that were reported in official sources were 4 times as common during the first year of his second term compared to the first year of his first term.
2016 presidential campaign
A number of protests against Trump's candidacy and political positions occurred during his initial presidential campaign, essentially at his political rallies.
Political rallies
During his presidential campaign, activists organized demonstrations inside Trump's rallies, sometimes with calls to shut the rallies down; protesters began to attend his rallies displaying signs and disrupting proceedings. There were occasional incidents of verbal abuse and/or physical violence, either against protesters or against Trump supporters. While most of the incidents amounted to simple heckling against the candidate, a few people had to be stopped by Secret Service agents. Large-scale disruption forced Trump to cancel a rally in Chicago on March 11, 2016, out of safety concerns. On June 18, 2016, an attempt was made to assassinate Trump. Michael Steven Sanford, a British national and the perpetrator, was sentenced to one year in prison after he reached for a police officer's gun. He reportedly told a federal agent that he had driven from California to Las Vegas with a plan to kill Trump.
The protesters sometimes attempted to enter the venue or engage in activities outside the venue. Interactions with supporters of the candidate may occur before, during or after the event. At times, protesters attempted to rush the stage at Trump's rallies. At times, anti-Trump protesters have turned violent and attacked Trump supporters and vice versa; this violence has received bipartisan condemnation. MoveOn.org, The People for Bernie Sanders, the Muslim Students' Association, Assata's Daughters, the Black Student Union, Fearless Undocumented Alliance and Black Lives Matter were among the organizations who sponsored or promoted the protests at the March 11 Chicago Trump rally. There were reports of verbal and physical confrontations between Trump supporters and protesters at Trump's campaign events.
Hoaxes about protesters
Following a June 2016 clash between protesters and Trump supporters in San Jose, California, a photo of Australian actress Samara Weaving appearing to be injured was widely circulated on social media. The photo claimed to depict a Trump supporter attacked by liberal protesters, but was actually Weaving in makeup for her role on the comedy-horror series Ash vs Evil Dead. Weaving reacted negatively to the hoax, noting that she could not vote in the presidential election because she was not a U.S. citizen.
A similar hoax claiming to show a 15-year-old Trump supporter beaten by an anti-Trump mob in San Jose used an image of the actress Luisa Rubino from the telenovela La Rosa de Guadalupe. Rubino told an interviewer that in fact she did not support Trump "because I'm Mexican and I support the Latino community".
The fact checking website PolitiFact.com rated a separate story titled "Donald Trump Protester Speaks Out: 'I Was Paid $3,500 To Protest Trump's Rally'" as "100 percent fabricated, as its author acknowledges". Paul Horner, a writer for a fake news website, took credit for the article, and said he posted the deceitful ad himself.
Trump's reactions
During the campaign, Trump was accused by some of creating aggressive undertones at his rallies. Trump's Republican rivals blamed him for fostering a climate of violence, and escalating tension during events. Initially, Trump did not condemn the acts of violence that occurred at many of his rallies, and indeed encouraged them in some cases.
In November 2015, Trump said of a protester in Birmingham, Alabama, "Maybe he should have been roughed up, because it was absolutely disgusting what he was doing." In December, the campaign urged attendees not to harm protesters, but rather to alert law enforcement officers of them by holding signs above their head and yelling, "Trump! Trump! Trump!" Trump has been criticized for additional instances of fomenting an atmosphere conducive to violence through many of his comments. For example, Trump told a crowd in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, that he would pay their legal fees if they punched a protester.
On February 23, 2016, when a protester was ejected from a rally in Las Vegas, Trump stated, "I love the old days – you know what they used to do to guys like that when they were in a place like this? They'd be carried out on a stretcher, folks", before adding, "I'd like to punch him in the face."
Security
Fairly early in the campaign the United States Secret Service assumed primary responsibility for Trump's security. They were augmented by state and local law enforcement as needed. When a venue was rented by the campaign, the rally was a private event and the campaign might grant or deny entry to it with no reason given; the only stipulation was that exclusion solely on the basis of race was forbidden. Those who entered or remained inside such a venue without permission were technically guilty of or liable for trespass. Attendees or the press could be assigned or restricted to particular areas in the venue.
In March 2016, Politico reported that the Trump campaign hired plainclothes private security guards to preemptively remove potential protesters from rallies. That same month, a group calling itself the "Lion Guard" was formed to offer "additional security" at Trump rallies. The group was quickly condemned by mainstream political activists as a paramilitary fringe organization.
Before first presidency
Domestic
Following Trump's election to the presidency, students and other activists organized larger protests in several major cities across the United States, including New York City, Boston, Philadelphia, Chicago, Portland and Oakland. Tens of thousands of protesters participated, with many chanting "Not my president!" to express their opposition to Trump's victory in the Electoral College (He lost the popular vote by a margin of 2.1 percent). Protests were also held in Canada, the United Kingdom, France, Germany, the Philippines, Australia and Israel with some continuing for several days, and more protests planned for the following weeks and months.
In November 2017, it was reported that as part of Russian interference in the 2016 United States elections, the New York protest was actually organized by a "troll farm", dedicated to fomenting discord in the U.S. Thousands of Facebook users indicated they planned to attend a Trump protest on November 12, 2016, that was organized on a Facebook page for BlackMattersUS, a Russian-linked group, with ties to the Kremlin. The organized rally took advantage of outrage among groups on the left following Trump's electoral college victory. An estimated 5,000 to 10,000 protesters convened at Manhattan's Union Square and then marched to Trump Tower on 5th Avenue. CNN supported and provided coverage of the event. Protesters have held up a number of different signs and chanted various shouts including "Not my president" and "We don't accept the president-elect". The movement organized on Twitter under the hashtags #Anti-Trump and #NotMyPresident. Protesters after the election decided to demonstrate to show support for minorities, immigrants and other marginalized people in the United States. Protesting also helped put a spotlight on the issues that were important to the demonstrators. Some protesters had been part of other movements, such as Occupy Wall Street, Black Lives Matter and Moral Mondays, but many people protesting Trump were new to demonstrating.
After he won the election, the security around Trump and his family became noticeably more stringent. Sources reported that there were concerns about the ability to secure Trump's Manhattan residence due to its location and the large number of people who live there, as well as the number of people coming and going. Restrictions on private and commercial air traffic were imposed on airspace over Manhattan and other parts of the city until Inauguration Day. Feminist icon Camille Paglia complained that Chuck Schumer "asserted absolutely no moral authority as the party spun out of control in a nationwide orgy of rage and spite" in the days after the election. Of the Democratic Party response to Trump's election, she called it "an abject failure of leadership that may be one of the most disgraceful episodes in the history of the modern Democratic party".
International
- China: On November 14, 2016, the Chinese Consulate in San Francisco warned "Chinese exchange students, visiting students, teachers and volunteers" to avoid participating in protests.
- Turkey: The Government of Turkey warned its citizens who may be traveling to the United States to "be careful due to protests" and that occasionally "the protests turn violent and criminal while protesters [are] detained by security forces" while also stating that "racists and xenophobic incidents increased in USA [sic]".
First presidency
The Washington Post reported in January 2018 that since Trump was inaugurated there was protests every day somewhere in the United States. Protesters demonstrating after Trump's first inauguration have sought to "bring unprecedented disruption to his life as president", with protests following where Trump travels. Protesters have sought to interrupt "people's business as usual" in order to force others to think about the impact of Trump's policies on the country, according to activist Cat Brooks in San Francisco. A sociology professor at University of California, Irvine, David Meyer, said that while it is not unusual to have protests after a new president, "What is unusual is the vigor, speed, size, and number of issues that they are challenging Trump on. To have a sustained [protest], every weekend, every couple of days, and it's a different issue – I've never seen anything like this before." Michael Heaney, an author and University of Michigan professor, said in February 2017, that the protests were nowhere near the saturation rate and added, "If anything, it's just getting started." The "first protest in space" was taken as a demonstration against Trump by the Autonomous Space Agency Network (ASAN) on April 12, 2017.
Some protests have been "highly coordinated" by grassroots organizers, like the resistance campaign that was increasing in California. Many of the protests have not only occurred in large, mostly Democratic cities, but have also taken place in smaller cities across the country. In some of these cities, such as Mason City, Iowa, a majority voted for Trump. Protests have also occurred worldwide, with international citizens objecting to the Trump administration. Many of the protests have been organized via social media. Many protesters have been calling the anti-Trump movement "the resistance." Women are leading many of the organization and volunteer efforts. In addition, many participants have been first-time protesters. Protesters have become involved with organizing groups at a local level, such as Indivisible and SwingLeft. For many, their involvement in protest has become a part of their lives. The Washington Post reported in January 2018 that the "overwhelming majority" of protests have been non-violent.
Protesters have expressed concerns about the potential loss of rights for Muslims affected by Executive Order 13769, or the travel ban/Muslim ban/Muslim travel ban, and for a loss of rights for LGBT people. Other protesters have been against the proposed border wall between the United States and Mexico. Musicians such as Katy Perry, Rihanna, Bruce Springsteen, Joan Baez and Tom Morello, have voiced support for the protests. Reasons for people protesting are diverse and many protesters care about multiple issues. The number of people protesting against only Trump has diminished over time as many people are turning their attention to Congressional members.