As President Donald Trump met with Prime Minister Theresa May, droves of demonstrators turned out to protest the American leader’s state visit. Tensions were high and the protests spilled over into violence.
Footage captured by video news agency Ruptly showed London’s Metropolitan Police scuffling with a group of anti-Trump protesters, some wearing the signature hoods and scarves of ‘Antifa’ activists.
It is unclear what that struggle broke out over, but a contingent of police wrestled at least two of the protesters to the ground.
Some Londoners showed up to welcome the US president to Britain and these demonstrators clashed with the anti-Trump crowd. Earlier on Tuesday, one Trump supporter was pelted with a milkshake by a leftist protester, while a crowd surrounded him chanting “Nazi scum.” After flinging the beverage back at its thrower, the man was almost set upon by the anti-Trump contingent, until bystanders and a police officer intervened.
Elsewhere, police forced a group of Trump supporters into a pub, after protesters hounded them with shouts of “Nazi scum off our streets,” and at least one physical altercation broke out.
One officer described the scene to The Independent as “a melee between opposing political groups – it is chaos”.
Tuesday’s protests came a day after similar scuffles broke out outside Buckingham Palace on Monday, as Trump dined with Queen Elizabeth II. In a bout caught on camera, one anti-Trump demonstrator snatched a red ‘Make America Great Again’ hat off a Trump supporter, before the two almost went to the ground.
Each side jeered the other and sporadic verbal arguments broke out.
Speaking to reporters at a press conference with May on Tuesday, Trump hailed his British fans who came to wish him well, and called coverage of the protests against him “fake news,” and the protesters themselves stooges “put in for political reasons.”
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