By John Catalinotto
November 14, 2017

With the Pentagon poised to sail three massive aircraft carriers toward north Korea and the U.S. president blow-harding deals in Asian-Pacific capitals, mass demonstrations protested his presence from Manila to Seoul.

On Nov. 11 and 12, thousands of demonstrators marched toward the meeting place of the Association of South East Asian Nations conference in Manila, where Donald Trump was representing the world’s most destructive imperialist power.

Demonstrators burned U.S. flags and an effigy of the U.S. president shaped like a Nazi swastika, meant to symbolise fascism, war and plunder. Large contingents held banners reading “Dump Trump” and demanding the U.S. get out of its military bases. Filipino police turned a water cannon on protesters.

Demonstrators in south Korea days earlier rallied in the thousands to reject the U.S. war threatened against the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea that endangers the lives of everyone on the Korean peninsula.

In support of sovereign foreign policy, independent of U.S. imperialism, protesters gathered in Seoul’s Gwanghwamun Square, an historic center, on Nov. 7. A sign seen everywhere in the photos read, “Say no to Trump, say no to war!!!”

Despite the presence of more than 15,000 police officers, thousands of protesters attempted to block Trump’s entrance to the Blue House, the office of south Korean President Moon Jae-In.