A group of protestors stormed the Heritage Foundation, a conservative nonprofit, in Washington DC on Tuesday to complain about Donald Trump’s federal budget proposals.
The protest started at the White House, then organizers shuttled demonstrators to the Heritage Foundation, which is near Capitol Hill. A group of approximately 200 protestors stood inside the lobby of the private organization’s headquarters for about 25 minutes. Some carried signs.
A Twitter account belonging to a group called People’s Action tweeted out photos of how the protestors spent their day. People’s Action planned a convention featuring Bernie Sanders and Van Jones as speakers on Monday, followed by an organized protest on Tuesday beginning at the White House, according to their website.
Many of the protestors in the videos are wearing “Rise Up” shirts, which is also the name of the People’s Action convention. The convention agenda includes a planned protest beginning at 8:45 a.m. on Tuesday in front of the White House.
Why is funding possibly going to border wall when our communities have no clean water? @realDonaldTrump @Heritage #WaterIsLife #RiseUp2017 pic.twitter.com/6h8BFtTXbr
— People's Action (@PplsAction) April 25, 2017
“Water! Not Walls!” the protestors chanted.
The @Heritage Foundation's "budget blueprint" means disasters and death for NJ and all states dealing with #climatechange #RiseUp2017 pic.twitter.com/L8DOEHrI9g
— The People's Lobby (@peopleslobbyusa) April 25, 2017
We're shutting it down at @Heritage because it continues to be @realDonaldTrump's think tank. #RiseUp2017 #Budget4ThePeople pic.twitter.com/bnerOnBBa0
— People's Action (@PplsAction) April 25, 2017
“Shut it down! Shut it down!” they chanted in unison.
In an interview with The Daily Signal, Phillip Stuckey, a reporter for The Daily Caller News Foundation, talked about the time he spent with the protestors — traveling with them on the bus to the Heritage Foundation.
“We’re going to be bussing you to an undisclosed location,” organizers said.
The captain of the bus told protestors that President Trump wasn’t smart enough to come up with his own budget, so people at Heritage wrote one for him. If protestors had any issues with Trump’s budget proposals, they should take it up with Heritage, an organizer said, according to Stuckey.
This explanation is a reference to the Heritage Foundation’s budget blueprint, which they release every year.
Stuckey asked a bus driver whether he was being paid to drive protestors from the White House to the Heritage Foundation. The driver responded that he doesn’t “do nothing for free.” When Stuckey asked who was paying him, several event leaders, who called themselves “marshals,” told him to stop asking questions and tried to bar him from streaming the protest on Facebook Live.
All protestors were barred from tweeting, texting, or Facebook Live-ing their location until after the day of protest was over.
“‘If you’re approached by a member of the media, don’t say anything,'” organizers told protestors, according to Stuckey. After their demonstration at the Heritage Foundation, the protestors met with Rep. Keith Ellison, a deputy chair for the Democratic National Committee, for a town hall.