![\"Anti-Trump](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/2.81661514.jpg\")
Ann Peace said the US president could end the conflict in Gaza tomorrow if he chose to (Andrew Milligan\/PA)<\/p>\nAnti-Trump protesters have held a rally in Edinburgh to voice their opposition to the US president, on the final day of his state visit to the UK.<\/p>\n
Around 200 demonstrators gathered on the Meadows on Thursday evening, many carrying placards and banners with slogans attacking Donald Trump.<\/p>\n
They were addressed by a range of speakers, including a number of US citizens based in the UK, members of various campaign groups, and a Glasgow city councillor.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
The demonstration was organised by Democrats Abroad Scotland, whose chairman Jack Nevin said it was important to \u201cnot let the unprecedented second state visit go unremarked upon\u201d.<\/p>\n
The dual US-UK citizen said: \u201cThere was a broad coalition of different people here, representing really every issue you can think of.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd I think that Trump and the hateful ideology which he represents threatens all of us, and our environment, and all the civil issues which we care about.\u201d<\/p>\n
Asked how Mr Trump\u2019s lavish state visit would be viewed in the US, he said: \u201cI think they\u2019d probably rather that he was at home in Congress trying to pass laws to make life easier for people, rather than creating a culture of division and hate.\u201d<\/p>\n
Placards carried by the crowd included the slogans \u201cStop Trump\u201d, \u201cDeny Trump not climate\u201d, and \u201cNo red carpet for rights abusers\u201d.<\/p>\n
The demonstrators were also led in a number of pro-Palestine and anti-Trump chants.<\/p>\n
Ann Peace, 63, who travelled to the rally from Glenrothes in Fife, said she came to protest because \u201cTrump\u2019s wrong\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cI need to make sure he\u2019s aware he\u2019s not welcome in Scotland. He\u2019s not welcome anywhere, but he\u2019s absolutely not welcome in Scotland,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
She went on: \u201cHe\u2019s dangerous and he\u2019s bad. He could, tomorrow, stop the genocide in Palestine.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe could say \u2018no that\u2019s it, I\u2019m not paying for all your weapons, all your healthcare, all your free housing, I\u2019m going to give that money to people in America who need all those kinds of things, and I\u2019m going to stop a genocide\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ann Peace said the US president could end the conflict in Gaza tomorrow if he chose to (Andrew Milligan\/PA)<\/p>\n
Asked whether it might be in the UK\u2019s interests to have given Mr Trump a second state visit, she replied: \u201cIt\u2019s not in our interests to cosy up to a genocidal maniac in my opinion.\u201d<\/p>\n
US citizen Alex Daniels, 20, said that even if Mr Trump did not see any of the demonstrations that have been held in the UK over the last few days, they offer support to those who oppose him around the world.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think the most important thing is showing the rest of the world that there are sizeable contingents of the American population abroad that does not approve of Trump, and will take action and take to the streets when he does visit said country,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Mr Daniels, who is co-president of Democrats Abroad at the University of Edinburgh, went on: \u201cThat was shown the first time when Trump visited Scotland in July and it\u2019s been shown again this time, and you saw the giant Trump-Epstein tarp at Windsor castle.<\/p>\n
\u201cThings like that really show Americans at home, and Democrats at home, that there are Americans abroad and also Brits and non-Americans as well, who equally oppose Trump, and are equally willing to stand up and do something about it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Retiree Lee Gates, 77, said she joined the protest because she thought it was \u201cobscene\u201d that Mr Trump had been treated to a lavish state visit when there were so many other problems in the UK and elsewhere.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have child poverty here, and a cost-of-living crisis, and the wars going on, and children in Gaza dying every day of starvation and being bombed as well,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
\u201c(Mr Trump) talks a lot of positive things, but he hasn\u2019t brought anything into fruition really.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe talks about peace, but he kowtows with Putin and Israel as well, so we can\u2019t believe him.\u201d<\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Anti-Trump protesters have held a rally in Edinburgh to voice their opposition to the US president, on the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":435112,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8816],"tags":[748,1102,4884,712,16,1259,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-435111","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-edinburgh","8":"tag-britain","9":"tag-edinburgh","10":"tag-great-britain","11":"tag-scotland","12":"tag-uk","13":"tag-uk-news","14":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115228811302552821","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/435111","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=435111"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/435111\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/435112"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=435111"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=435111"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=435111"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}