Thousands gather for anti-Trump protests in 3 S.C. locations

CHARLESTON, S.C. - Thousands of protesters gathered in Greenville, Charleston and Columbia over the weekend as part of a nationwide movement for concerned Americans to voice their concerns against President Donald Trump and his administration.

On the morning before Easter Sunday, horns honked and crowds of hundreds cheered alongside Lockwood Drive in downtown Charleston.

All to voice their concerns about the current administration.

And in Columbia, several hundred people protested at the State House holding signs with slogans such as “Fight Fiercely, Harvard, Fight.”

Thousands of people gathered in downtown Greenville on Saturday afternoon.

The crowd held signs and played live music on the Michelin Green at Unity Park, led by 50501SC, IndivisibleUpstate, We The People Greenville, Our Revolution Greenville, Together Greenville, Tell Them Tuesday, and Democratic Women of Greenville County.

Organizers said more than 2,000 people attended the two-hour event.

“To have this level of motivation, just by the general community, you can tell the people are done,” said organizer Michelle Shara. “The people are fed up and people have things to say, so I’m happy to be able to give them this outlet to say what they want to say.”

The protests came as opponents of President Donald Trump’s administration took to the streets of communities large and small across the U.S. on Saturday, decrying what they see as threats to the nation’s democratic ideals.

The disparate events ranged from a march through midtown Manhattan and a rally in front of the White House to a demonstration at a Massachusetts commemoration of “the shot heard ‘round the world” on April 19, 1775, marking the start of the Revolutionary War 250 years ago.

But even in South Carolina, a historically red state, those against President Donald Trump’s recent actions held posters, chanted and had conversations about the country’s current political climate.

“It feels like we’re in a constitutional crisis right now where the president wants to take away checks and balances, take the power away from the judicial branch for himself, take the power away from the congressional branch for himself,” Charleston protester Coleman Watts said. “We want to restore those checks and balances; we want a democracy of representation for all.”

Protesters not only voiced frustrations against Trump, but also Congresswoman Nancy Mace.

“Their representatives aren’t representing them. They won’t even come to meetings with us. They won’t hear us,” protester Suzy Ravenel said.

At the end of the day, the hundreds in Charleston stood together with hopes to create change going forward, not just here in Charleston, but across the country.

“We want everybody safe in this country. We are America,” protest organizer Anne Ostapie said.

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Elsewhere across the country

Thomas Bassford was among the demonstrators at the reenactment of the Battles of Lexington and Concord outside Boston. The 80-year-old retired mason from Maine said he believes Americans are under attack from their own government and need to stand up against it.

“This is a very perilous time in America for liberty,” said Bassford, who was with his partner, daughter and two grandsons. “I wanted the boys to learn about the origins of this country and that sometimes we have to fight for freedom.”

In Denver, hundreds of protesters gathered at the Colorado State Capitol with banners expressing solidarity with immigrants and telling the Trump administration: “Hands Off!” People waved U.S. flags, some of them held upside down to signal distress.

Thousands of people also marched through downtown Portland, Oregon, while in San Francisco, hundreds spelled out the words “Impeach & Remove” on a sandy beach along the Pacific Ocean, also with an inverted U.S. flag. People walked through downtown Anchorage, Alaska, with handmade signs listing reasons why they were demonstrating, including one that one that read: “No sign is BIG enough to list ALL of the reasons I’m here!”

In Anchorage, a colonial reenactor in colonial garb held up a “No Kings” sign while the person next to him hoisted cardboard that read in part: “The Feudal Age is OVER.”

In Washington, Bob Fasick, a 76-year-old retired federal employee from Springfield, Virginia, said he came out to the rally near the White House out of concern over threats to constitutionally protected due process rights, Social Security and other federal safety-net programs.

And in Manhattan, protesters rallied against continued deportations of immigrants as they marched from the New York Public Library north toward Central Park and past Trump Tower.

“No fear, no hate, no ICE in our state,” they chanted to a steady drumbeat, referring to the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

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