In Vermont, New York City, Los Angeles, and Boston, people took to the streets on Saturday evening, following the historic brawl that broke out when Vice President JD Vance and Donald Trump received Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyj in the Oval Office.
"International shame" read a sign in Vermont, where Vice President JD Vance had arrived to go skiing. He was met by demonstrators who proclaimed that he should "go skiing in Russia".
He (Vance) crossed the line, grabbed demonstrator Cori Giroux, according to Vermont Public Radio.
In Boston, New York, and Los Angeles, people waved Ukrainian flags and demanded peace and democracy.
"Feeling sick"
The demonstrations in Vermont were planned earlier and were originally intended to protest the Trump administration's criticized cuts, but got new fuel after the debacle with Zelenskyj.
Several politicians have also reacted – the Democratic senator in Connecticut called the meeting "an ambush", writes The Guardian, while the Republican senator in Alaska, Lisa Murkowski, wrote on X that she "feels sick" over how Trump turned his back on his allies to instead embrace Putin.
At the same time, protests against the cuts led by Elon Musk and his Doge unit are growing – over 50 demonstrations were listed on the Tesla takedown website on Saturday. In front of Tesla stores, people called for a boycott of both cars and stocks.
Creating a vote of no confidence for him (Musk) among shareholders, that's the ultimate goal, said Alex Winter, an actor from Los Angeles who is one of the main organizers, to CNN.
International protests
The protests against Tesla are also spreading internationally – with demonstrations planned in, among others, Barcelona, London, Lisbon, and Reykjavik.
Tesla's stock price has fallen by almost a third since Trump took office, although it is still higher than a year ago, according to AP.
At the same time, Donald Trump recently signed an order giving the White House unit Doge even more power. According to White House spokesperson Harrison Fields, the protests will not deter Trump and Elon Musk from "making our federal government more efficient and more accountable to hardworking American taxpayers across the country".
