Washington: Angry Americans on Friday staged nationwide protests for a second day against Donald Trump's election victory, with thousands besieging New York and Chicago, as the president-elect accused the media of inciting "professional protesters" against him.
Fresh protests erupted in several US cities for a second night as coast to coast demonstrations witnessed thousands of people filling the streets, including at the White House and outside Trump's properties.
Reports of protests came in from cities like New York, San Francisco, Colorado, Los Angeles, and Seattle. While most protesters were peaceful, dozens were arrested.
The latest protests were, however, smaller in scale and less intense than those that were witnessed a day earlier. Some of the protesters had come from distant parts of the US.
At least three officers were wounded, and about 40 fires were set in one California city, the CNN reported. In his first reaction to the massive protests, Trump accused the media of inciting "professional protesters" against him.
"Just had a very open and successful presidential election. Now professional protesters, incited by the media, are protesting.
"Very unfair!" Trump tweeted after he reached New York following a day of hectic meetings in Washington DC. During the day, he met outgoing US President Barack
Obama, after which he met Speaker of the House of Representative Paul Ryan and other leaders of the US Congress.
Yesterday, people in huge numbers rallied in at least 25 US cities - including New York and Nashville, Chicago and Cleveland, San Francisco and Seattle - shouting anti-Trump slogans, burning effigies, and holding candlelight vigils to mourn result of the general election in which Trump secured a stunning victory despite his explosive and divisive rhetoric.
The White House said people have constitutional rights to protest but these protests need to be peaceful.
"I think the first thing the President would say is that we've got a carefully, constitutionally protected right to free speech, and the President believes that that is a right that should be protected.
"It is a right that should be exercised without violence," the White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest said when asked about President Obama's view on this.
"There are people who are disappointed in the outcome.
The President's message in the Rose Garden was it's not surprising that people are disappointed in the outcome, but it's important for us to remember, a day or two after the election, that we're Democrats and Republicans, but we're Americans and patriots first," he said.
"That's the message that the President hopes that most people will hear. But are there some people who are going to be disappointed, and are they going to express those views in public. I think we've seen that that's the case. They have constitutional rights to do that, and those rights should be protected. But the President would obviously want them to hear his message as well," Earnest said.
