Hundreds gathered for a victory rally Feb. 2 organized by the Milwaukee Coalition Against Trump. Protesters celebrated their success in stopping Trump from visiting and holding a press event at a Harley-Davidson plant in Milwaukee County. Speakers at the rally celebrated shutting down his press event and put an emphasis on putting this momentum and energy back into the fight against his racist agenda.

Speakers from Muslim, immigrant and refugee communities spoke out against Trump's racist executive orders and against the cooperation of Milwaukee County Sheriff David Clarke. A representative of the coalition said, “We hope Trump's events get shut down wherever he goes, as activists have already done in Chicago. Wherever Trump goes, there will be resistance.”

The cancellation does set a precedent. The visit would have been one of his first events outside Washington as president. On Feb. 1, the cancellation made national news, with the White House denying it was ever scheduled to take place.

Earlier this week, the Milwaukee Coalition Against Trump learned of the secret venue for Trump's visit and quickly organized a protest outside the Harley-Davidson plant with thousands planning to attend. The coalition also organized a call-in to Harley-Davidson management, demanding they cancel the event.

The next morning, the Harley Davidson company released a statement saying Trump was not coming. The coalition claimed victory for forcing the visit to be cancelled and changed the planned protest to be a celebration rally. But when questioned at a White House press conference, Trump's Press Secretary Sean Spicer would not say if Trump had planned to go to Harley-Davidson, and denied that he was deterred by protests saying, “We're not concerned, I think, we're not concerned about that.”

Before the Feb. 2 victory rally, the Washington Post published a detailed article titled “The mysterious saga of whether Trump planned to leave Washington and visit Harley-Davidson” which provides evidence supporting the claims made by the Coalition against Trump.

The Milwaukee Coalition Against Trump is a broad coalition of over a dozen grassroots organizations and unions. At the victory rally they announced their Facebook page has grown rapidly since the national exposure, and many more actions and events will be taking place during what they are calling “100 Days of Resistance” to Trump's first 100 days in office.

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