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Anti-Trump Protests Rumble on for 3rd Night, One Shot in Portland | ASHARQ AL-AWSAT English Archive 2005 -2017
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Anti-Trump protesters burn a ‘Make America Great Again’ cap. (MARK RALSTON/AFP/Getty Images)


Protesters demonstrating against the election of Donald Trump spilled onto the streets of U.S. cities for a third straight night on Friday, hours after the president-elect praised their “passion.”

As darkness fell on Friday, thousands took to the streets of Miami, Atlanta, Philadelphia, New York, San Francisco and Portland, Oregon, voicing anger at Trump’s inflammatory and often deeply controversial campaign rhetoric about immigrants, Muslims and women.

In Portland one person was shot.

The unidentified person was wounded on Portland’s Morrison Bridge at 12:45 a.m. local time as dozens of protesters crossed it during their demonstration.

In Miami, several thousand activists marched through the downtown, with a few hundred making their way onto a highway, halting traffic in both directions.

In New York, demonstrators again gathered in Washington Square Park and by Trump Tower, where the Republican president-elect lives, on Fifth Avenue.

Trump, who initially denounced Americans who protested against his election, saying they had been “incited” by the media, reversed course and praised them on Friday.

“Love the fact that the small groups of protesters last night have passion for our great country. We will all come together and be proud!” Trump said on Twitter.

The tweets were further evidence of Trump’s mixed messages since he announced his candidacy 17 months ago. After Democrat Hillary Clinton conceded defeat early on Wednesday, he took a far more conciliatory tone than he had often displayed during his campaign and promised to be a president for all Americans.

On Thursday night demonstrators in Portland threw objects, damaging new cars at a dealership. Police there arrested at least 26 people.

In Los Angeles on Thursday night, police arrested about 185 people, mostly for blocking roadways or being juveniles out past curfew, according to police. One officer was hospitalized for injuries suffered during the protest.

Anti-Trump demonstrators have voiced concerns that his presidency, due to start on Jan. 20, would infringe on Americans’ civil and human rights.

They cited his campaign promises to restrict immigration and register Muslims, as well as allegations the former reality-TV star sexually abused women.

Protesters in various cities have chanted slogans, including “No hate! No fear! Immigrants are welcome here!” and carried signs reading “Impeach Trump.”

Most of the protests across the country, which have also taken place in Washington, D.C., and Los Angeles, have been largely comprised of young adults and college students.

More anti-Trump demonstrations were planned for the weekend, including in New York and Los Angeles. A group calling itself “#NotMyPresident” has scheduled an anti-Trump rally for Washington on Jan. 20, Inauguration Day, when the New York real-estate developer formally succeeds President Barack Obama.

Meanwhile, Trump shook up his White House transition team Friday, putting running mate Mike Pence in charge and naming a cohort of Washington insiders — and three of his children — to help nail down picks for his future cabinet.

The 70-year-old incoming president has a mammoth task of fleshing out his cabinet, as well as steering the complex transition of power, and announced in an interview with the Wall Street Journal Friday he was elevating Vice President-elect Mike Pence to lead the process.

Trump included three of his children and his son-in-law Jared Kushner on the transition team — a move likely to raise eyebrows, since the tycoon earlier announced that should he win he would place his vast business interests into a blind trust operated by Donald Trump Jr, Eric Trump and Ivanka Trump.

And in a clear shift from his abrasive campaign, he added to his transition team a string of insider figures from the very establishment that he railed against so strongly, including Republican National Committee chairman Reince Priebus — now tipped as a possible chief of staff.