‘Not my president’: Thousands protest Trump in rallies across the U.S.

Nationwide demonstrations against the election of Donald Trump spilled into a second night Thursday with thousands of protesters surrounding his buildings in New York and Chicago and clashing with supporters of the president-elect in some areas.

Condemning Trump's litany of crude comments about women and his attacks on immigrants, demonstrators marched along city streets, blocked intersections, burned effigies and, in some places, gathered outside buildings bearing Trump's name.

“Not my president,” chanted some of the protesters, while others waved signs with the same message.

Portland police said that the protests in the city had turned into a “riot” punishable as a “Class C Felony” late Thursday. The department had earlier warned that some drivers were being attacked during the demonstrations and advised protesters to stop the use of “illegal fire devices.” As the night wore on, the vandalism increased.

“Due to extensive criminal and dangerous behavior, protest is now considered a riot. Crowd has been advised,” the police officials said in a Twitter post.

The protests earned recriminations from Trump, who met with President Obama at the White House Thursday morning, “Just had a very open and successful presidential election. Now professional protesters, incited by the media, are protesting. Very unfair!," Trump said on Twitter.

It was his first comment about the protests and one of few statements he has made since claiming victory over Hillary Clinton early Wednesday morning. In 2012, after Obama was elected to a second term, Trump tweeted: “We can't let this happen. We should march on Washington and stop this travesty. Our nation is totally divided!”

Teressa Raiford, a community organizer in Portland, said what began as a peaceful Black Lives Matter protest transformed Thursday as the night wore on due to demonstrators not affiliated with the group.

“They’re not coming to show solidarity, they’re coming because they know there’s going to be a big crowd,” Raiford said. “They don’t respect our movement.”

Portland police said on Twitter that some protesters trying to stop the property damage were being threatened by others. “Many in crowd trying to get anarchist groups to stop destroying property, anarchists refusing,” one tweet read. Another police tweet said: “Police advising crowd there are gas and flares being prepared by protestors. Please leave for your own safety.”

Mike Bivins, a local freelance journalist, said the protest took a noticeable turn as demonstrators passed a Northeast Portland car dealership, where some starting breaking car windows. A dumpster and a newsstand were set on fire.

Bivins said a Black Lives Matter organizer at Pioneer Courthouse Square told demonstrators earlier in the day not to police “anyone else's form of protest.”

“I guess he didn’t think it would rise to this level,” Bevins said.

At least 100 people were arrested Wednesday night during the first wave of national protests, according to police officials, most of them at one in New York. While most of the demonstrations remained peaceful, police in Oakland, Calif., said a rally there turned violent when some in the massive crowd injured three police officers by throwing rocks and fireworks at them.

The unrest underscored the fractures in a country that awoke Wednesday to learn that Trump had pulled off an unexpected victory over Hillary Clinton, his Democratic opponent, and more were planned for the weekend.

Khizr Khan, the father of a Muslim U.S. Army soldier killed in Iraq and an outspoken critic of the president-elect, told CNN’s Anderson Cooper that protests are “indicative of how many people have been intimidated, how many people feel that their rights have not been fully guaranteed” because of Trump's campaign rhetoric.

“We appeal to the surrogates of Donald Trump and to him, himself, that he needs to take the first step to make sure that the concerns that are being addressed,” said Khan, who asserted that Trump supporters are “attacking Muslims — Muslim women, snatching their headscarves in New York, in Louisiana, in Los Angeles. Mosques are being attacked by people throwing things. And that needs to stop.”