Donald Trump Protests: Students Walk Out, #NotMyPresident Trends, Thousands Openly Disgusted With Trump Victory

America has just elected a new president in Donald Trump, and protests have been ramping up in the aftermath of his surprising win over Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton. Teenage and adult protesters alike took to the streets on Wednesday as news of Trump’s win began to sink in, and in many cities, people from all walks of life expressed their unhappiness with a president-elect whose controversial views don’t align with theirs.

An NBC News report details how several high schools in the California Bay Area staged peaceful walkouts on Wednesday, with students and teachers alike peacefully protesting Republican candidate Trump’s victory. Walkouts took place at Berkeley High School, Oakland’s Technical High School and Bishop O’Dowd High School, and San Jose’s Lincoln High School.

Berkeley High Principal Sam Pasarow spoke to NBC Bay Area on Wednesday and related the emotions felt by his students:

“They’re angry. They’re crying and they feel unsafe. There’s a great amount of solidarity.”

While acknowledging the anger and disappointment felt by young Donald Trump protesters in the Bay Area, Oakland Unified School District superintendent Antwan Wilson also stressed that it’s important that people remain calm and keep an open mind, even if they disagree with the results of Tuesday’s presidential elections.

“It’s during times of stress and turmoil where we must resolve to be our best selves. We must embrace the rules of our democracy and at the same time reflect upon what got us here. For my own children who were questioning how the presidential election could turn out as it did, my message to them is: ‘It will be OK and we will learn from this.’ ‘”

It wasn’t just young Americans up in arms over Donald Trump’s victory, but also adults concerned about what a Trump presidency could mean for them. And the protests weren’t only in the state of California, which had largely voted Democratic in the recently-concluded elections. A report from USA TODAY described anti-Donald Trump protests in several major U.S. cities, including Washington D.C., New York City, and Chicago, that were just as charged as, if not more charged than, the California Bay Area student demonstrations.

The D.C. protests saw people holding up signs that read “Nasty Women Fight Back” and “White Males for Equality for All,” as two separate groups joined forces in front of the Trump International Hotel, calling for the president-elect’s impeachment. The New York protests were just about as chaotic, as demonstrators held up traffic and similarly called for Trump to be impeached at some point in the future.

“I think there’s a chance for impeachment at the end of the day,” City College of New York student Joey Henriquez told USA TODAY. “We can’t let him have eight years.”

Trump’s Republican running mate Mike Pence wasn’t free of the protesters’ vitriol. USA TODAY quoted transgendered woman Chloe Stratton, a Chicago resident who took issue with vice-president elect Pence’s staunch anti-LGBT beliefs, and what it could mean for the city’s LGBT community. She admitted being “terrified for (her) life,” and like many, she is considering moving to another country due to the turnout of this week’s elections.

Many anti-Donald Trump protesters, however, didn’t take to the streets to make their voices heard, but did so rather on social media, where “#NotMyPresident” trended on Twitter for most of Wednesday. According to Bustle, the hashtag first appeared on Twitter after it became official that Trump had won the elections, and had trended soon thereafter, attracting people “of all genders, races, and political affiliations.” A lot of those who used the #NotMyPresident hashtag took issue with Trump’s alleged racism, sexism, and homophobia, as well as the controversial comments he made about immigrants during his presidential campaign.

A live report from The Guardian says that many of the anti-Donald Trump protesters had dispersed as of early Thursday morning, though the anger remains palpable just one day after Trump’s victory became official.

[Featured Image by Spencer Platt/Getty Images]