Trump Protests NYC: New Yorkers Rally Against President's Cabinet Nominees Outside Schumer And Gillibrand Offices

Three days after the Women’s March took major cities in the U.S. by storm, 300 to 400 protesters gathered outside the New York City offices of Sen. Chuck Schumer’s (D-New York) and Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand’s (D-New York) for a Tuesday afternoon rally with the stated purpose of "stopping [Donald] Trump’s swamp cabinet."

The rally, a play on Trump’s oft-stated campaign goal to "drain the swamp," was a part of what writer and independent organizer Fernanda Eberstadt called "Trump Tuesdays," a weekly protest focused on a particular aspect of the new president’s administration. Tuesday’s rally specifically targeted what Eberstadt described to International Business Times in a phone call prior to the protest as Trump’s "incredibly unsuitable and unethical and unprepared candidates." Next Tuesday, Eberstadt said at the rally, protesters would move their effort to Schumer's home in Brooklyn.

Under a cluster of umbrellas in the chilly downpour, protesters chanted "take a stand, Gillibrand" and "stand up, fight back," and held posters reading "Impeach his A--!" and "NY DOESN'T NEED A SWAMP."

Cherie, a 55-year-old archivist who did not give her last name because of online "trolls," told IBT that the protest, which was organized in part by the progressive organizations MoveOn, Working Families and 350, would "definitely" be one of many in the years to come.

"This is my third rally this week," Cherie, who held a sign that read "IKEA MAKES BETTER CABINETS", said of Tuesday's rally. "I think the anger is so deep. I think our rage knows no bounds." She also participated in Saturday's Women's March on Washington.

Another Washington Women's March attendee, J. M. Zervoulei, lent a protest leader a souvenir he brought back from the nearly 500,000-strong Saturday march: A megaphone. A documentary and commercial filmmaker, Zervoulei likened the reaction to Trump's presidency to the Tea Party response to former President Barack Obama's taking office.

"I think the whole thing we're realizing as progressives is we have to be just as motivated and vindictive as the Tea Party was in 2009," he said to IBT. "That became the GOP's rallying cry over the past eight years, to stop all of Obama's decisions."

The evening before the rally, the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations approved Trump’s nominee for Secretary of State, Rex Tillerson. A former chief executive of Exxon Mobil Corp. who retired at the end of 2016, Tillerson has vocally opposed U.S. sanctions against Russia, as they have harmed his business interests in the country. He was awarded Vladimir Putin’s Order of Friendship medal for doing so.

The Senate also confirmed the nomination of Trump’s choice for Central Intelligence Agency director, Rep. Mike Pompeo (R-Kansas), Monday. Pompeo is in favor of the use of torture and has a history of conflating the religion of Islam with terrorism, which he has characterized as religious warfare.

Among Trump’s other cabinet nominees are former Goldman Sachs partner Steven Mnuchin for Secretary of State, billionaire businesswoman Betsy DeVos for Education Secretary, former Texas Governor Rick Perry for Energy Secretary, Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Alabama) for Attorney General and former neurosurgeon Ben Carson for Secretary of Housing and Urban Development. They all have sparked criticism.