Late Monday morning, protestors gathered in Milwaukee’s Red Arrow Park to voice frustrations about the ongoing Republican National Convention in the city. While the protestors were largely anti-Trump and anti-Republican, many were surprisingly hostile to President Biden and the Democrats as well.

One protestor, Khaled Abukhaireni, told The American Conservative he was attending the protest “to bring attention to the atrocities, the genocide, that is going on in the Gaza strip.” Abukhaireni said Palestine is the most important issue for him, and that in his view, “The United States is an active participant in this genocide.” 

Speaking on the Trump-Biden race, Abukhaireni stated “They are one in the same, and we believe that the United States policy is going to continue until there is a generation shift, which is happening right now, that will shift the policy in the future, but not this election.” Abukhaireni added that “[the protestors] are reaching out to the American people, we don’t believe in these two parties, they are one party, and they are all the same.” Abukhaireni indicated that he will not vote for former President Trump or Biden.

Another protestor, Neal Resnicoff, who made his way to Milwaukee with the Chicago Anti-War Coalition told TAC that “we oppose both the Republican and Democratic Parties as being warmongering agents of the U.S. capitalist ruling class, which is causing a lot of trouble all over the world.” Resnicoff criticized the Biden administration for its roles in both the Gaza War and the Russia-Ukraine conflict, stating that NATO expansion “is bringing us to the brink of World War III.” Resnicoff said he will be voting for an “independent path, at this time, either Jill Stein or Cornel West” in November.

One of the groups with the greatest presence at the protest was the Freedom Road Socialist Organization, which describes itself as Marxist-Leninist. One of its members, Jay Gibbs, agreed to speak with TAC. Gibbs told TAC that his motive for joining the protest was to “show my displeasure with the GOP platform.” However, when asked who he would vote for in November, Gibbs answered “I intend to vote for local government and on statewide initiatives, though I don’t have a plan to vote on the presidential ballot, and if I do, it will probably be for a third-party.”

Beyond protesting the conflict in Gaza, much of the energy at the protest centered around the issue of abortion. Victoria Hinckley, a representative of Students for a Democratic Society, spoke to the gathered crowd. “We march on the RNC to stand against the attacks on women’s and reproductive rights, on black and chicano folks, and LGBTQ folks that are being pushed by the Republican agenda,” Hinckley said. 

In her speech, Hinkley expressed displeasure with the decision in Dobbs, stating “the Dobbs decision was a direct result of Trump’s presidency, in fact he takes pride in this; Shame!” The crowd shouted back, “Shame, Shame, Shame!” Hinckley ended her speech with a declaration: “We refuse to accept these attacks, and we refuse to take another step back for reproductive rights.”

The one notable exception to the anti-Trump protestors was François de Monique, a Liberian-American immigrant who was handing out shirts with both Trump and Biden’s face, stating that each was a “great American.” De Monique also told TAC that “America needs to quell violence, we are a great country, we are all Americans, we need peace.” De Monique added that both parties need to work together as “it’s going to be two parties, working together, to make America a much greater country and the strongest country in the world.”

Despite De Monique’s presence, the general feeling of the rally was both anti-Trump and anti-Biden, with one of the event organizers, Omar Flores, mentioning in a speech his intention to lead similar protests against the DNC Convention in August.