Protesters assembled outside a downtown Washington office building Saturday where white nationalists, also known as the alt-right, were meeting to celebrate the victory of U.S. President-elect Donald Trump.
Media reports say there were no arrests, but at least one man was injured in a clash with protesters outside the Ronald Reagan Building and International Trade Center, just blocks from the White House.
Demonstrations have been increasing across the country, protesting Trump’s election and his subsequent appointments, especially the appointment of Stephen Bannon as the White House strategist and chief counselor.
Bannon, who was the executive chairman of Breitbart News Network before orchestrating Trump’s triumphant campaign, told Mother Jones magazine that Breitbart is “the platform for the alt-right,” a loose group that is generally viewed as upholding white supremacy and opposing diversity, feminism and immigration.
Trump’s success seems to have energized the alt-right movement to be more vocal about various issues, including its concerns that whites are becoming a minority in the U.S.
The National Policy Institute, host of the meeting in downtown Washington, says on its website that it is an “independent organization dedicated to the heritage, identity and future of people of European descent in the United States, and around the world.” It says NPI is “dedicated to the revival and flourishing of our people.”
“They are white supremacists, they are new-Nazis, neo-Fascist,” one protester told local television station WJLA. “When you’re dealing with that element, you’re basically dealing with something that’s threatening the rights and freedoms of everyone in this society.”
