US President Trump returned to Trump Tower on Monday night to large protests chanting “shame” on his arrival.
Sparked by the white supremacist rally over the weekend, followed by the President’s poor response, the President was greeted with thousands chanting “No Trump, no KKK, no fascist USA”, and “Not my president”.
“Even though Donald Trump is not per se the cause of that (the white supremacist rally in Charlottesville), he is related to that. He really is enabling white nationalists, white supremacists, the KKK, armed militias,” said Josh Friedman, a 23-year-old activist who had co-organized the protest.
Close to the Trump Tower, was a giant inflatable balloon depicting the president as a rat. The artist who created the balloon, John Post Lee, told NBC New York that he raised $10,000 through a Kickstarter campaign to create it.
On Monday, the US President made an effort at damage control by providing a harsher statement that denounced the KKK and other similar groups.
“Racism is evil and those who cause violence in its name are criminals and thugs, including the KKK, neo-Nazis and white supremacists and other hate groups that are repugnant to everything we hold dear as Americans,” The President said at the White House.
“His response today was obviously pressured and weakly-worded,” saidMorgan Halberg, who lives in New York’s Financial District. “It’s sad that we have a president that can’t condemn one of the easiest groups in history to condemn. It took until today to say the words KKK, neo-Nazi.”
“We live in 2017 and racism is still prevalent enough that this is the talking places on a college campus,” she added.
The US President has often struggled answering questions about his support among some white nationalist-affiliated groups.
Trump, who is on a self-proclaimed “working vacation”, will spend two nights at Trump Tower.