Hundreds protest Trump appearance in Huntington, West Virginia
By
Naomi Spencer
7 August 2017
A campaign-style rally was held for President Donald Trump August 3 at Huntington, West Virginia’s downtown arena. Local reports estimated the 9,000-seat arena was “nearly full,” and an overflow crowd of supporters occupied a space immediately outside the doors, ringed by police.
Across the intersection, a separate area was filled with approximately 400 protesters, many of them members of Democratic Party-oriented groups. Among the crowd were a number of curious bystanders, unaffiliated individuals opposed to Trump, along with a variety of activist groups. Also present were anarchists, and counter-protesters sporting guns and signs declaring “socialism kills.”
Signs defending Planned Parenthood, science funding, and the environment commingled with patriotic-themed and belligerently anti-Russian signs. Many of the protesters were repeating anti-Putin slogans, reflecting the impact of the Democratic Party’s effort to portray Trump as a stooge of the Russian president.
Trump’s appearance in Huntington marked the second time in as many weeks that the president has traveled to West Virginia. It is part of a series of conspicuous visits by high-profile politicians including Bernie Sanders over the past several months, as both the Democratic and Republican parties seek to posture as the defenders of the “white working class” of West Virginia and the wider Midwest industrial rust-belt.
Reporters for the World Socialist Web Site spoke to a number of demonstrators about Trump’s visit to Huntington.
Amanda Smythers, a 27-year-old graduate student of chemistry at Marshall University in Huntington, explained why she came to…