Protesters on Friday lined the streets of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, as former President Donald Trump arrived to speak at a conference hosted by the conservative group Moms for Liberty.
Videos shared to Twitter by freelance journalist Oliya Scootercaster show swarms of protesters holding signs and chanting “Lock him up” as the former president’s motorcade drove up to the political group’s second-ever “Joyful Warriors National Summit.” Since launching in 2021, Moms for Liberty has become a leading voice for conservatives who want to increase parental say in their local school districts. The organization is also at the forefront of the movement calling for book bans against materials that include sex education, gender-identity themes and the history of racism in the U.S.
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Trump was among several leading Republicans in attendance Friday, including Florida Governor Ron DeSantis and former South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley, who are running against the former president in the 2024 GOP presidential primary.
In the videos compiled by Scootercaster, protesters are seen standing behind a line of law enforcement officers as Trump’s security detail drives to the summit. In one clip, a protester with a megaphone is heard yelling, “F*** you, traitor.”
Scootercaster also captured protesters as the former president left the event, which showed the crowd dancing and playing musical instruments in front of a security barricade.
When reached for comment about the protests, Trump spokeswoman Liz Harrington directed Newsweek to a video posted to Twitter by Jayne Zirkle, a reporter for Steve Bannon‘s conservative War Room podcast. In the two-minute clip, the former president is seen shaking hands and posing for photos with supporters while visiting Pat’s King of Steaks, a famous Philly cheesesteak joint.
Conservative Canadian online news magazine Post Millennial also posted a video of Trump being met by a group of cheering supporters upon arriving at Pat’s.
While speaking at the event, Trump praised the recent U.S. Supreme Court decisions on issues of affirmative action and student loan forgiveness, and spoke about keeping issues like critical race theory and gender ideology out of schools. He also spent time dismissing the federal felony charges and investigations that he faces as “totally corrupt.”
“We are a nation in decline,” the former president said as he concluded his keynote speech. “And now these radical left lunatics want to interfere with our elections by using law enforcement. It’s totally corrupt, and we can never let it happen. This is our final battle.”
Moms for Liberty has been deemed by civil rights groups like Southern Poverty Law Center as an “anti-government extremist group,” and received intense backlash last week after one of its chapters, in Hamilton County, Indiana, included a quote from Adolf Hitler in its newsletter. The group apologized soon afterward and published a revision, minus the Nazi leader’s words.
Prior to the event Friday, the American Historical Association urged Philadelphia’s Museum of the American Revolution to “reconsider” renting event space for the Moms for Liberty’s summit, writing in a letter that the group “has crossed a boundary in its attempts to silence and harass teachers, rather than participate in legitimate controversy.”
