As reported by the Inquisitr recently, Donald Trump made a stern warning to potential protestors via a tweet. Threatening “law and order” at further protestors, which may disrupt ICE immigration officers, the president advised dissenting Americans of such a response coming from what he calls “our government.” At the time, numerous protests were scheduled for today.
Response to the aforementioned tweet from opponents of the Trump administration seems to be a resounding expression of indifference to the president’s firm-yet-vague threats. As the L.A. Times reported, the number of protestors is currently estimated to be in the hundreds of thousands. Donald Trump has come under fire for his immigration policies ensuring the separation of immigrant children from their families upon being detained.
Trump has since back peddled on his campaign-defining promise of not caving to political pressure, particularly on matters of immigration, in recently signing an order assuring families would no longer be separated upon detainment. Skeptics have expressed concern that those families already split will never be reunited. Today, protestors have taken to the streets to express their own zero-tolerance policy in regard to Donald Trump’s approach to immigration.
Accusations from protestors ranged from asserting that President Donald Trump has committed crimes against humanity, to America having lost its own identity. As of the time of this report, protests seem to have remained largely peaceful and no major law enforcement clashes have been reported.
As protests in the streets increase both in crowd size and frequency, and as the building of Donald Trump’s border wall so synonymous with his 2016 presidential campaign remains uninitiated, the president has been campaigning in overtime for Republican candidates eligible for house and senate seats in the upcoming midterm elections, set to be held this November.
Trump has touted a decisive victory as already in the bag, predicting a “red wave” for the upcoming midterms. Protestors in more than 700 organized rallies today came out to express significant disapproval of Trump’s job so far, which could indicate a grim omen for the current Republican congressional majority. However, recent polls suggest that regardless of Donald Trump’s recent actions, self-identified Republicans and right-leaning Americans still overwhelmingly approve of the president’s job so far, setting the stage for an unpredictable midterm election.
Immigration is a cornerstone hardline issue for many Republicans and Trump’s promise of a more tangible divide between the U.S.-Mexico border in the form of a wall, resonated well with 2016 conservative voters. While Democrats and other left-wing individuals often have softer, but mixed views on immigration, Donald Trump’s rhetoric generally strikes a chord with self-identified liberals as in opposition to their preferences toward inclusion.
Saturday’s protests have been building for weeks with today being the most significant in terms of sheer numbers and ubiquity. Time will tell if they are a culmination or a sign of things to come.