Half a mile away, Shelly Townley and her husband were making their way past the White House, provocatively holding an upside-down American flag and a sign reading “Stop the Musk Coup.”

“I feel sad. This is the first time I’ve walked by here without crying,” Townley, a 62-year-old from North Carolina, told AFP.

“I believe we’re under a coup right now, by oligarchs, much to my dismay,” and “the checks and balances of our government” are disintegrating, she added.

Even though Trump was away in Florida, Townley found herself looking at the White House through tall metal fencing erected ahead of the rally.

“I wish that instead of being at a golf tournament at Mar-a-Lago that he was in there and could see what was happening out here, that the people are out here” opposing his policies, she said.

Not everyone was comfortable openly protesting in public, especially given Trump’s executive order issued last week that approves deployment of “a more robust Federal law enforcement presence” in Washington.

A 51-year-old woman who represents an NGO said she was wearing a mask “to protect my identity.”

“I think they are using AI and different recognition technologies to out people and to then punish them,” she added.

“It’s all about loyalty with this administration,” she warned. “And if you’re disloyal, you’re at risk of losing everything.”

AFP