Cheers and boos as Trump greets crowd on parade route

WASHINGTON — United States President Donald Trump met with cheers – and some boos – on Friday (Jan 20) as he stepped out of his limousine to walk briefly along the inaugural parade route in Washington.

Holding hands with First Lady Melania, and accompanied by his young son Barron, Mr Trump waved to supporters as he walked along a stretch of Pennsylvania Avenue near the Trump Hotel, where protesters had unfurled a giant banner reading “Shame”.

Moments earlier, the president drove past a crowd of protesters chanting anti-Trump slogans and waving banners that read “Try to deserve this office”, “Obama cares, Trump scares”, and “Make America Sane Again”.

A deafening roar rose from the protesters gathered at the city's Navy Memorial Plaza as the presidential motorcade drove by. 

“Not my president! Not my president!” they yelled, as the pro-Trump crowd in bleachers across the street chanted “USA! USA!”

The protesters pressed forward, waving their signs, as police manning the barricades kept out a watchful eye.

“The only way to change things is to get involved,” said Ms Nina Orezzoli, 39, a creative executive with an ad agency in Minneapolis, who was in town for the protests.

Throngs of anti-Trump protesters have converged on the US capital, as Mr Trump, his supporters and top dignitaries gathered on the National Mall for his inauguration.

Most of the noisy protests – including those by an array of anti-racist, feminist, pro-immigration, and anti-war groups – were peaceful.

But violence broke out on the fringes as masked, black-clad protesters carrying anarchist flags smashed windows and scuffled with riot police just blocks away from the parade route, leading to more than 90 arrests.

“To those of you visiting Washington, DC, we welcome you but we cannot allow you to destroy our neighborhoods,” city mayor Muriel Bowser said on Twitter. AFP