More than 300 protesters marched in New York on Thursday against a scheduled visit by President Donald Trump as the House of Representatives passed a bill to repeal and replace Obamacare.
“Hey hey, ho ho Donald Trump has got to go!” members of the group shouted, protesting his policies as they marched up 12th Avenue toward a decommissioned aircraft carrier serving as a museum where Trump is scheduled to dine with the Australian prime minister later Thursday.
“Trump listen, we’re in the fight!” they sang in Spanish. Some protesters banged on pots and pans.
“I’m just here to protest everything Trump,” real estate broker Nina Horowitz said. “It just gets worse and worse and he’s just not president material by any stretch of the imagination.”
The Republican-controlled House of Representatives on Thursday narrowly passed a Republican effort to repeal and replace Obamacare, which will now head to the Senate, where it faces substantial opposition.
“We’re hoping it can get defeated in the Senate,” Horowitz said. It’s just shocking to me.”
Multiple groups are organizing protests to mark Trump’s first visit to his hometown since becoming president. The Republican’s policies are heavily disliked in the largely Democratic city, where 80 percent of the electorate voted for his opponent Hillary Clinton last November.
His moves to restrict immigration, roll back federal protections for transgender students and assault Obamacare are all widely unwelcome in America’s most populous city, and one of its most liberal.
The massive police presence and huge cost necessary for securing his Trump Tower home — where the first lady and the couple’s 11-year-old son have continued to live through the school year — are also deeply unpopular.
“I’m here to show my discontent with Donald Trump and the example that he’s setting and the way that he’s leading this country based on hate, bigotry and divisiveness,” said one of the march organizers, Flav Maximus, 39.
“He’s an anti-intellectual who’s not qualified for the job and I believe he contradicts what America is supposed to be about.”
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