Marxist Group with History of Violence To Receive Permit for Inauguration Day Protest in DC
The National Park Service’s hands are tied. Until Trump takes office and Interior Secretary nominee Doug Burgum is confirmed by the Senate, the Biden administration’s farcical rules remain in effect.

President-elect Donald Trump’s decision to hold his swearing-in ceremony and inaugural address inside the U.S. Capitol’s rotunda, rather than outdoors, might have solved some additional challenges. According to a Fox News op-ed by journalist Asra Nomani, approximately 50 socialist and pro-Palestinian groups are planning protests in Washington, D.C., on Monday.
One group, the ANSWER Coalition, staged a massive protest in the city last July to protest Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu who was in town to address a joint session of Congress. This event dominated conservative media coverage for days.
Thousands of Palestinian supporters and opponents of the ongoing Israel-Hamas war showed up and the situation escalated. Demonstrators burned a U.S. flag, raised a Palestinian flag, and torched an effigy of Netanyahu at Columbus Circle. Zaid Mohammed Mahdawi, 26, allegedly spray-painted the words, “HAMAS IS COMIN” on the central monument and added the “red, inverted triangle that the terrorist organization uses as a symbol to mark its targets.” Some of the protestors assaulted police officers, and by the end of the day, 23 arrests had been made.
It was worse than that. The following week, Rep. Bruce Westerman (R-AR) provided more detail in an op-ed published by The Hill.
Anyone who had the misfortune of arriving at our nation’s capital via Union Station last Wednesday was greeted with a screaming mob, police barricades and flags flying high overhead. Not American flags, mind you. Those were in flames on the ground. Rioters had ripped down and replaced the American flag with Palestinian flags, and were chanting “from the river to the sea” and “Allahu Akbar,” and ominously graffitied “Hamas is coming” on federal land.
Welcome to America.
Nomani reported:
At 3:26 p.m., the U.S. Park Police pulled the protest permit, which had been issued to the ANSWER Coalition, a Washington-based, self-declared socialist organization. Later, the FBI charged Mahdawi and other protesters with destruction of government property.
“The permit holder failed to answer his phone and the call went directly to voicemail,” an FBI agent wrote in a fascinating affidavit that revealed that someone at a gym Mahdawi used sent the FBI a tip on his identity.
Nearly six months later, the ANSWER Coalition is poised to get a new permit to host another protest on Monday, according to a copy of the application I obtained from the National Park Service. The event name: “For Peace & Justice – Free Palestine.” The target is obviously the inauguration of President-elect Donald Trump.
Past behavior indicates the protests will bring mayhem to the capital’s streets. Yet, National Park Service spokesman Michael Litterst told me that current legal precedent makes it difficult to deny permits based on prior incidents.
🚨 BREAKING @FoxNews: Guess who is planning to crash Trump's Jan. 20 inauguration? The Woke Army.
On July 30, a network of troublemakers protested Benjamin Netanyahu, one agitator, Zaid Mohammed Mahdawi, 26, spray painting "HAMAS IS COMIN" on a monument at Union Station and… pic.twitter.com/p5LpAQE0sP
— Asra Nomani (@AsraNomani) January 16, 2025
To fix the math up above, according to my analysis, of 50 Jan. 20 protest groups:
🔥 22 of the groups are self-described socialist organizations
‼️ 11 are Muslim, Arab or Palestinian
🚨17 are “socialist adjacent.” pic.twitter.com/CE4iVMmPb5— Asra Nomani (@AsraNomani) January 16, 2025
If this organization’s protest during Netanyahu’s visit spiraled so quickly into chaos, how much more violent might it become for the inauguration of a new pro-Israel president? Especially when his Defense Secretary nominee Pete Hegseth told lawmakers during his Senate confirmation hearing on Tuesday that he “support[s] Israel killing every last member of Hamas.”
Yet, as insane as it may seem, the National Park Service’s hands are tied. Until Trump takes office and Interior Secretary nominee Doug Burgum is confirmed by the Senate, the Biden administration’s farcical rules remain in effect.
Nomani warns:
As the protests unfold, media coverage will likely frame them as ‘organic,’ ‘grassroots’ activities. But make no mistake: These events will be part of a larger, well-funded operation. The demonstrators are aligned with adversaries to the U.S., including Russia, China, Iran, North Korea and Hamas, and are united in an unholy alliance that blends socialism with Islamism, or political Islam.
This coalition, which I call the “Woke Army,” operates as a red-green alliance, the red symbolizing socialism and communism and the green representing Islam. These are the same groups that stoked the encampments of the so-called campus intifada around the country last year. Their ultimate goal is to dismantle American democracy and replace it with a socialist, anti-capitalist order. The first way to counter this threat is through transparency, vigilance and a commitment to truth.
[Note: In her op-ed, Nomani provides a list of the groups who will be protesting in Washington on Monday as well as a copy of ANSWER Coalition’s protest permit.]
The Washington Post reported last week that crowd estimates for Inauguration Day protests were lower than expected, and applications for protest permits have been slow. But we must remember that the Post also downplayed the violence that occurred during the July protest against Netanyahu, noting, “Though most demonstrators walked and chanted peacefully, there were some clashes with law enforcement.”
Let’s hope that cold weather, a strong law enforcement presence, and enhanced security measures will help curb the anticipated pandemonium in the Nation’s Capitol on Monday.
Elizabeth writes commentary for The Washington Examiner. She is an academy fellow at The Heritage Foundation and a member of the Editorial Board at The Sixteenth Council, a London think tank. Please follow Elizabeth on X or LinkedIn.

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Comments
The forecast for Monday is high of 24, with 18 mph winds.
Fill up the water cannons, spray ‘em down.
The ICEman cometh.
Yeah, facing these less than optimal weather conditions is probably too much like actual work/stress for these rent a protest goons.
I’m sure the rent-a-mob has negotiated a cold weather bonus. And probably are supplied special arctic temp certified face masks., but I understand it’s difficult to breath through the insulated ones.
I wish it would snow!
If they riot and try to interfere with the inauguration treat them like the J6 rioters.
…. and go after sponsors with RICO.
Yes!
Once President Trump has been sworn in, doesn’t he have the power to direct the response to the rioters?
IF there was any attempt to prosecute (doubtful, but possible), they would all opt for a jury trial, firmly believing that no DC jury would convict them even if there were ten videos from ten different witnesses clearly showing criminal activities.
The second 1 brick is thrown, one punch attempted, one fire lit…they are all insurrectionists and should be jailed for years.
Oh!
According to Democrat COVID rules, when there’s no room left in the DC Gulag, we have to put the current inhabitants back out on the street So sorry!
Welll, we have a Muslim iman voicing death to Jews and Israel
At Trumps inauguration speaking
They took him off the program
Good to hear.
Where did you see that? A web search doesn’t come up with any reports about it.
I was told that he had been canceled. I have messaged that person to confirm. I will follow up with this.
Glad to know that. Thanks for posting it as I hadn’t heard that yet.
“I pledge to stand up against the poison of white supremacy, as I did in my inaugural address — to single it out as the most dangerous terrorist threat to our homeland is white supremacy.”
— Some jackass who pretended to be president for four years
A Marxist group with a history of violence? Sounds a lot like one of the mainstream Blue Ivy League groups.
I don’t know how hard this is. Either sit on the permit or deny it, let them sue and sometime this summer the case will be heard in court. In the meantime the new Administration can cancel the permit by changing the law that any group that has engaged in violence in the past or is linked to anyone that has done so is ineligible for a permit.
As long as Biden is in the White House, the Park Service has to follow his policies.
He left the Whitehouse for good. He doesn’t even know what the Park Service is.