Thousands of women were gathering Saturday in the US capital and across the country for their annual message opposing Donald Trump and supporting women's rights, but internal divisions appeared to steal some energy from the rallies.
In Washington, demonstrators arriving by car, bus or subway converged on the city's Freedom Plaza as they prepared to march defiantly past the nearby Trump International Hotel on Pennsylvania Avenue. Many wore pink "pussy" hats to protest Trump's demeaning comments about women.
"We need to stand up for women all over the world - for races, gender, sexual orientation which are often misunderstood," said Ann Caroline, 27, herself wearing a pink hat. Some marchers carried signs portraying Trump as a Russian "puppet." Other placards decried his comments about women or minority groups, while some demanded his impeachment.
Just blocks away, the president spoke to reporters outside the White House before traveling briefly to Dover, Delaware to console family members of four Americans killed in an attack claimed by the Islamic State group in Syria.
Trump was to return to Washington for a 4:00 pm (2100 GMT) announcement about border security and the partial government shutdown affecting the country.
As in earlier years, women were expected to join demonstrations in cities across the United States, and around the world.
In New York, several hundred people had converged on Manhattan's Foley Square, near the Brooklyn Bridge, by late morning. Among the protesters was Nydia Leaf, an energetic, pink-hatted 86-year-old taking part in her third women's march. She told AFP she would "keep opposing Donald Trump and his policies. Look at what he's done at the border, look at the shutdown - every year there is a new atrocity."
In contrast to the 2017 marches, which drew more than three million, and last year when hundreds of thousands rallied, Washington police said they expected perhaps 20,000 demonstrators this year, not far from the 16,000 people who indicated interest on the event's Facebook page.
The original march helped spark a rise in women's political activism, with a record 131 women now serving in the new US Congress. Last year, many women were galvanized by the confirmation of conservative judge Brett Kavanaugh to the US Supreme Court, despite allegations that he committed sexual assault as a teen.
Activists are also motivated by the fight over the Trump administration's policy - since suspended - of separating undocumented parents from children at the border with Mexico.
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