President Donald Trump’s rare visit to a Washington, D.C. restaurant on Tuesday evening (September 9) was marred by heated protests and chants from a group of demonstrators who accused him of being “the Hitler of our time".
The 79-year-old, accompanied by Vice President JD Vance, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, and other administration officials, arrived by motorcade at Joe’s Seafood, Prime Steak and Stone Crab, a popular upscale restaurant less than a quarter-mile from the White House.
As he briefly spoke to reporters on the street outside the restaurant, he was met with a mixture of cheers and chants of “free Palestine.”
But inside, the situation escalated as a group of activists from the anti-war group CodePink, holding Palestinian flags, began loudly chanting, “Free D.C., free Palestine, Trump is the Hitler of our time," and saying Trump is "terrorizing communities in D.C," per NBC News.
In a video posted to social media by the group, the president is seen approaching the protesters, smiling at them before standing in front of them and gesturing for them to leave.
The demonstrators were eventually removed from the premises at around 7:40PM by law enforcement, who escorted them across the street.
The protest appeared to be fueled by Trump’s controversial foreign policy stances and his use of the National Guard in D.C., which he has repeatedly touted as contributing to a "crime-free" city.
Before entering the restaurant, he had spoken to reporters about the safety of the state under his administration, saying: “We wanted to take some of the members of the Cabinet out to dinner, and here we are - we’re standing right in the middle of D.C., which, as you know about, over the last year was a very unsafe place, over the last 20 years actually was very unsafe. And now there’s virtually no crime. We call it crime-free."
While Trump’s statements about the city’s safety were met with applause from some diners inside Joe’s Stone Crab, data from OpenTable suggests a decline in dining out in the district has coincided with his surge of law enforcement and National Guard deployments, Huff Post reported.
The president's evening outing marked the first time he had dined at a restaurant in Washington, D.C. since taking office in January.
His dinner at Joe’s, which is famous for its crab dishes that can exceed $100, included crab, shrimp, steak, and dessert, with White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt praising the food and service.
"The food was phenomenal and the service was fantastic. Thank you, Joe’s!” Leavitt said in a statement.
The evening’s protests came just days after Trump had responded to questions about his dining habits during his presidency, particularly his previous avoidance of public restaurants.
He joked with reporters, saying: “I might [go to a restaurant],” before challenging them to “prove you wrong.”