Eight years ago 500,000 marched in DC against Trump. He has returned and so has the protest - just on a smaller scale
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The 2017 Women’s March became famous for its hats and crowd size. Now, that Trump is returning to the White House, the march will be back but organizers tell Kelly Rissman that they expect a much smaller turnout. It’s been 8 years since nearly half a million demonstrators descended on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., to protest Donald Trump’s presidency on his first full day in office.
![[Protesters walk across Constitution Avenue near the White House for the Women’s March during the first full day of Donald Trump’s presidency in 2017]](https://static.independent.co.uk/2023/05/12/05/Trump_Verdict_Women_72577.jpg)
“We are the popular vote!” some chanted, a reminder that he hadn’t captured the hearts of the majority of Americans, having lost the popular vote to Hillary Clinton by nearly 3 million votes. “Welcome to your first day, we will not go away!” other marchers promised.
![[Now, a new march is set for January 18, but will probably not look like the last one (pictured)]](https://static.independent.co.uk/s3fs-public/thumbnails/image/2017/01/23/16/gettyimages-632298700.jpg)
Now that Trump is returning to the White House, so are the protestors. They want to show they have not gone away — even if their numbers are smaller. That first march was “like lightning in a bottle — and it’s impossible to capture lightning in a bottle twice,” Tamika Middleton, managing director of Women’s March organization, told The Independent.
![[Demonstrators wear pussyhats while protesting on the National Mall in Washington, DC, in 2017. Eight years ago, it seemed like Trump was the so-called enemy, but now, ‘the enemy is not as clear cut,’ organizers said]](https://static.independent.co.uk/s3fs-public/thumbnails/image/2017/02/01/16/womens-march-1.jpg)
After Trump was first elected, many were driven to action by shock and anger — feelings that appear to have dissipated, if not changed completely. Vanessa Wruble, one of the Women’s March earliest organizers, said she doesn’t think there’s a demand for a march this time around.
