Anti-Trump protesters take to the streets

The truck driver stuck on Fifth Avenue and unable to get on with his journey had a good riposte to the chants of “not my President!” favoured by the crowd of thousands marching on Trump Tower last night. Not my President? “Yes he f***ing is!” the truck driver, leaning out of the window of his cab, shouted back.

The unofficial march was spontaneous and impressive in scale, if you like that sort of thing. (I don’t; I don’t like mobs). It seems to have been organised on social media with word spreading through the universities. They simply stopped the traffic and took over the streets, congregating outside the tower that carries the President-elect’s name and is his New York home.

There were quite a few Socialist Alliance banners on display. Good luck with that socialism in the US and its electoral college, incidentally. There was even, to the astonishment of watching tourists, a tattooed young lady on the march who was naked from the waist up.

The demonstrations spread last night, to Seattle, Chicago and California. For US taxpayers getting on with their work and lives – and indeed for those of us trying to get across Fifth Avenue to get to JFK – the sight of thousands of overwhelmingly young protesters ‎chanting the F word (F*** Trump) and assorted other slogans, while stopping the traffic, will not elicit much sympathy. Imagine if the situation was reversed, Trump lost and his supporters spilled onto the streets shouting and swearing. The pious condemnation of these extremists would be something to behold.

Trump’s election is a terrible development, but he won fair and square. He is the legitimate next President‎ and rather than marching his angry opponents should be reflecting on how they got it so wrong. Have the protesters tried to process what a male Trump voters in Michigan will make of entitled radical students marching down Fifth Avenue? Have they considered what women voters in Florida or North Carolina would think‎ on seeing a tattooed lady protester marching through New York. Put some clothes on. Get a grip. Go and get a job. Might all be among the responses.

I’ll write more about the culture war aspect of Trump’s victory tomorrow. It is at the root of what happened on Tuesday in the election.