Dozens of protesters gathered in downtown Baltimore on Thursday as U.S. President Donald Trump made his first visit to the city since he blasted it as a "disgusting, rat and rodent infested mess."
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"A 14-foot inflatable Trump rat feels like an appropriate form of protest for the President’s Baltimore visit," the OD outlet reported, commenting that such a giant doll "will remind anyone who sees it of his racist comments."
A series of tweets released in late July, by Trump lashed out at Elijah Cummings, a member of the U.S. House of Representatives for Maryland's 7th congressional district, calling him a "brutal bully" who should concentrate on cleaning up his "disgusting, rat and rodent infested" district rather than criticizing U.S. immigration officers.
Cummings, who chairs the House Committee on Oversight and Reform, responded to the U.S. president by inviting him to tour the city and observe hardworking residents.
Since then Maryland citizens have been organizing the "Baltimore Welcoming Committee", a coalition of human rights defenders and social activist which prepared different rallies to receive Trump and the Republicans.
From September 12 to 14, the Eastern Coast city will host the annual congressional Republican retreat, in which President Trump was the central figure on Thursday.
The people of Baltimore are strongly against public policies and expressions which “encourage both racism and hatred of migrants,” Andrew Concon, a man who belongs to Youth Against War & Racism movement, said.
He also explained that other groups such as the People's Power Assemblies (PPA) and Friends of Latin America (FoLA) are also actively rejecting policies that affect workers and the poor while favoring big business.
According to estimated data from the 2010 U.S. Census, there were 389,222 African-descendent persons living in in Baltimore in 2017, a figure which represents the 62.8 percent of the city population.