By David Brennan
Diplomatic Correspondent
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Protesters vented their anger at President Donald Trump's coronavirus response Thursday in front of his Washington, D.C. hotel, piling up mock body bags outside the property.
The protest was organized by a progressive alliance called the Center for Popular Democracy Action, designed to contrast with the anti-lockdown demonstrations that have taken place in multiple states which have won the support of the president, according to DCist.
Demonstrators in the "People's Motorcade" drove to the Trump International Hotel Thursday afternoon, stopping to drop off the mock body bags that were filled with paper. Organizer Jennifer Flynn Walker told DCist, "We needed to do something to show that most of the country believes in science, thinks that Trump is failing."
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She said, "We really do see that tens of thousands of people dying from COVID is a direct result of his failure as a leader."
Stay-at-home orders have been put in place across the country to try and slow the spread of the COVID-19 coronavirus. The country is now the epicenter of the pandemic, with 869,172 confirmed cases and 49,963 deaths as of Friday, according to Johns Hopkins University.
But such orders have been met with protests in multiple states, with attendees demanding that businesses be allowed to re-open and restrictions on movement lifted. The president has voiced support for such movements, calling on protesters to "liberate" their states.
Flynn Walker said Trump has sown "chaos and division" in the U.S. as states try to respond to the crisis, which has sent unemployment rates soaring to historic highs and is expected to drive the global economy into its worst depression in generations.
Newsweek has contacted the Trump Organization, which owns the hotel, to request comment on Thursday's protest.
The president has been criticized for his perceived inadequate response to the outbreak. Trump initially downplayed concerns about the virus and claimed it would soon disappear, touting a conversation he had with Chinese President Xi Jinping. The president has since pivoted to blaming China and the World Health Organization for the scale of the outbreak.
Trump has tangled with governors over protective equipment and ventilators while also spreading misleading, and possibly dangerous, medical advice, even as advisers including National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases Director Dr. Anthony Fauci disputed such tips. On Thursday, during a White House coronavirus task force briefing, the president appeared to suggest that patients could be injected with disinfectant to kill the virus.
MSNBC's Rachel Maddow noted Thursday's protests on her show, reading out some of the signs on the cars as they processed past the hotel such as: "Trump lies, people die."
Maddow said that the nationwide death toll would likely pass 50,000 this weekend, but added, "I don't know if the president knows that. And so the people who are mad at the president about this response, people are starting to pile up body bags in front of his hotel, because maybe that at least might capture his attention, maybe that will let him know that the real body count is."
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