Hundreds of thousands of New Yorkers filled Manhattan streets Saturday to protest President Trump and his agenda on the one-year anniversary of his inauguration.
The marchers said they came to support universal healthcare, religious freedom, immigrants and women. They also protested Trump’s proposed border wall.
Others said they marched simply to show their displeasure with Trump.
Mayor de Blasio’s office said roughly 120,000 people joined the march, while cops on the ground said as many as 200,000. At one point, the rally stretched more than 20 blocks along Central Park West. It was one of 200 women’s marches planned this weekend around the world.
Marchers sung and chanted in front of the Trump Hotel at Columbus Circle, calling it a “s***hole” – a reference to what the president allegedly called African countries during a recent Oval Office meeting.
“You can’t build the wall,” shouted Annabelle Sherman, a 7th grader, in front of the Trump Hotel. “Your hands are too small!”
“I don’t agree with that we should build a wall to keep immigrants out because we are all immigrants,” Sherman said.
Upper East Side resident Tracy Marx couldn’t pick one reason for marching
“All of them,” said Marx, in her 40s. “Immigration, health care, women’s issues. I’m really happy that it’s this big.”
Roberta Brashear-Kaulfers, 62, who came to the march from Hawaii, said North Korea and the environment are her biggest issues with Trump.
“This whole thing with North Korea – it’s too close to home” Brashear-Kaulfers said, citing the recent missile scare there. She was also upset at Trump for rolling back environmental protections like at Bears Ears National Monument in Utah.
Catherine Volk and her husband Charles Viens, both 54, left their home in Albany at 5 a.m. to drive down to the march.
“They are coming for women,” Volk said, referring to Republicans. “They’re coming for immigrants. They are coming for whoever are not rich Republicans. If we stand and do nothing we are responsible for what happens.”
Volk held a sign saying “Liberty & Justice for all” and her husband’s poster declared “First they came for the Muslims and we said not this time Mother F***ers.”
“It’s important we all stand together and stand with all women,” Viens said. “My wife is the smartest person I know and I get to stand with her.”
Marchers wore knitted pink-eared “pussy” hats and held an eclectic mix of colorful handmade signs decrying the president and his administration’s policies. Some marchers chanted “Have we had enough?” and “Are you fed up?” followed by a loud chorus of “Yes!”
Among the celebrities at New York’s march were actresses Amy Schumer, Edie Falco and Anna Paquin.
“Here’s hoping we make so much progress that they don’t need to see many more!” Paquin tweeted.
“This is our moment,” actress Rosie Perez declared to marchers during a speech calling for Democrats to flip the Republican-controlled House of Representatives. “Power to the pu**y, y’all!”
Ted Serafin, a 64-year-old retired postal employee from Rochelle Park, N.J, held a #MeToo sign and said he was “all for” the movement that brought sexual assault and harassment into the national conversation.
“It’s brave of them to stand up because men always have the power and every time women get out of line, there’s repercussions,” Serafin said. “With everyone sticking together it’s harder to ignore it.”
“He is a woman manipulator,” said Linda Gynor, a 72-year-old registered nurse from Manhattan. She held a sign urging people to vote for Democrats this November and declaring, “Democrats will clean the swamps. Drain Trump! Ryan! Kelly! and Sara Sanders.”
“He has no respect for women,” Gynor said. “He sees us as breeders and for sex.”
“We have such a buffoon as president — the things that he does. The lunacy,” said Sandy Epstein, a 65-year-old executive recruiter from Cresskill, N.J. “This is not our country. There is power in numbers. It’s important for people to see and know that there is a large number of people who disagree.”
Aaron Riel, 44, and his wife, 46-year-old Rebeca, came in from Burlington, VT.
“I feel like a very small clog in a very big machine,” said Riel, wearing a pink “pussy” hat and holding a sign saying, “Fight like a girl! Hear our voice.”
Rebeca was marching despite a broken back.
“I want everyone to have equal rights for everyone – people of color, different races, sexes, religions, sexual preferences,” she said. “Broken back and all, I don’t care!”
Robin Stinton, who traveled from Denver for the march, held a sign with Trump’s face and “s***hole” written on it.
“He is always pursing his lips like that,” said Stinton, a 70-year-old retired pediatric audiologist, as she pursed her own lips. That’s the s***hole and whatever comes out of his mouth is from the sewer.”
Gov. Cuomo, Mayor de Blasio and other politicians also attended the protest. Many of them spoke before a crowd of several hundred people at the Eleanor Roosevelt statue on 72nd Street and Riverside Drive on the Upper West Side.
“We have seen tremendous aggression and discrimination against women,” Cuomo said. “It’s been an ugly time in many ways.”
De Blasio called last year’s Women’s March “the greatest single protest in the history of United States of America” and telling Trump “this shutdown is the result of the division and hatred that you created.”
“When the government fails you, do it yourselves,” the mayor said. His wife, first lady Chirlane McCray, added, “We value women. We respect women. And everyday we fight like hell for women.”
“We’re going to stand up and march and we’re going to march forward every day until we actually make change,” Cuomo declared from a breakfast before the march.