Activists from Greenpeace unfurled a 70ft banner inscribed with the word “resist” near the White House on Wednesday morning.
Speaking from a crane 300ft in the air, where she was holding a rope keeping the banner up, Pearl Robinson, 26, described her view to the Guardian: “I can see the White House, where we now have a president who doesn’t have the interests of the majority of the people.”
The anti-Trump activist called the message “all-encompassing. We want Donald to know that we won’t stand for the crony capitalism, for the assault on women’s reproductive rights and the assault on the environment.”
The activists are on a crane parked at a construction site about three blocks from the president’s home. From the Ellipse park, it looks like the banner is hanging directly over the White House.
“It was a little chilly this morning when we arrived at the crane site but it was a lot chillier in the Oval Office when President Trump decided to sign those executive orders reinstating the Keystone pipeline, reinstating the North Dakota pipeline, taking women’s right to choose away from them and we hear today he will be signing a landmark immigration law that will limit people of the Muslim faith entering the country. We are out here with a message today that says: resist,” said activist and Greenpeace board chairwoman Karen Topakian in a live video feed.
Yesterday, Donald Trump signed executive orders reviving the Keystone XL and Dakota Access Pipeline, both projects that had been blocked by the Obama administration after huge protests warning of the environmental implications. Republicans are pushing a “heartbeat bill” in Congress this week in an attempt to overthrow Roe V Wade and Trump signed an executive order on Monday banning NGOs who receive US funding from performing or giving information about abortions.
On Tuesday, Trump put a gag order on the Environmental Protection Agency and the Department of Agriculture, banning the release of any information to the public or journalists. Several national park social media accounts began tweeting facts about climate change.