Thousands of anti-Trump protests take to streets of US cities

Demonstrators marched in cities across the United States on Wednesday to protest against Republican Donald Trump's unexpected Presidential election win, blasting his controversial campaign rhetoric about immigrants, Muslims and other groups.

The protests – in cities including New York City, Chicago, San Francisco, Oakland, Philadelphia and Seattle – erupted after the Democratic candidate, Hillary Clinton, lost the electoral college and presidential race on Tuesday night despite apparently winning the popular vote.

In New York, thousands of protesters filled streets in midtown Manhattan as they made their way to Trump Tower, Trump's gilded home on Fifth Avenue. Hundreds of others gathered at a Manhattan park and shouted "Not my president", “She got more votes” and “Hands off my pussy”, a reference to a leaked recording where Trump bragged that he could sexually assault women because of his fame. A number of arrests were made.

Protesters who had marched all the way from Union Square – some 35 blocks downtown – continued past Trump Tower, with a crowd congregating in front of the president-elect’s building.

“F*** your tower! F*** your wall!” people chanted at Trump Tower’s brass-escutcheoned facade, as scores of NYPD officers manned barricades, behind which stood eight department of sanitation trucks filled with dirt.

In Oakland, California, a demonstration of about 6,000 people blocked traffic, according to police. Protesters threw objects at police in riot gear, burned trash in the middle of an intersection, set off fireworks and smashed store front windows.

Police responded by throwing chemical irritants at the protesters, Reuters news agency reported, citing a witness.

In downtown Chicago, an estimated 1,800 people gathered outside the Trump International Hotel and Tower, chanting phrases like "No Trump! No KKK! No racist USA."

Chicago is a Democratic city that overwhelmingly supported Clinton according to initial polls.

Gathering for what activists called an “emergency Trump protest”, demonstrators virtually shut down the city during rush hour traffic as they shouted: “Trump is not my president.”

Chicago police closed roads in the area, impeding the demonstrators' path. There were no immediate reports of arrests or violence there.

Protests also launched in Pennsylvania, Arizona, Oregon and other states in regions throughout the US.

By evening on the west coast large rallies began to emerge in Seattle and Oakland, organised under the hashtag #NotMyPresident.

In Seattle, city councilwoman Kshama Sawant, a socialist politician and avid Bernie Sanders supporter during the presidential primaries, told a crowd of activists on Wednesday night that people should plan to disrupt Trump’s inauguration in January.

“We are going to shut it down,” she said.

Hundreds also gathered in Philadelphia, Boston and Portland, Oregon, on Wednesday evening, and organizers planned rallies in San Francisco, Los Angeles and Oakland, California.

In Austin, the Texas capital, about 400 people marched through the streets, police said.

Trump said in his victory speech he would be president for all Americans, saying: "It is time for us to come together as one united people."

Earlier this month, his campaign rejected the support of a Ku Klux Klan newspaper and said that "Trump and his campaign denounces hate in any form."