President-elect Donald Trump has condemned protestors who have taken to the streets after his election win. Protests have flared in Chicago, Austin, Los Angeles, Philadelphia, New York City and other major cities throughout the United States in the days after the 2016 election result.
Tump called out these people as professional protesters, incited by the media on Twitter, and said their actions are very unfair following a democratic election.
An hour later Trump seemed to backtrack on his condemnation. Love the fact that the small groups of protesters last night have passion for our great country, he wrote. We will all come together and be proud!
Early Wednesday morning (9 November) after the vote result was announced, musician Lady Gaga protested outside Trump Tower in New York City from a sanitation truck. She held a Love trumps hate placard.
Later that day a mass of students from the University of California, San Diego, marched on a nearby highway. In Boston an estimated 10,000 peaceful protesters took to the streets carrying signs saying everything from Love Trumps Hate to Trump is racism and Impeach Trump.
A protest in Portland, Oregon, that lasted into the early hours of Friday (11 October) is now being called a riot by local police after an anarchist group mixed with peaceful protestors and began spraying graffiti on buildings, shattering windows and knocking out power by smashing an electrical box with a bat.
Trumps denouncement of the protestors drew reaction from human rights and foreign policy figures.
First tweet as president-elect questions Article 3 of the Bill of Rights: the right of the people peaceably to assemble, said Micah Zenko, an expert in US national security policy, on Twitter calling Trumps comments disturbing.
Labelling the protestors professional or incited, said Kenneth Roth, the head of Human Rights Watch, doesnt change their First Amendment right: the right of the people peaceably to assemble.
Update: This story has been updated to include a new tweet from Donald Trump.
