Trump flip-flops over protests against his election victory

Donald Trump performed his first flip-flop as US president-elect when he back-tracked on criticism of protesters demonstrating against his election victory outside Trump Tower in New York and other US cities.

The Republican, whose defeat of Democrat Hillary Clinton on Tuesday stunned the US political establishment, praised protesters who took to the streets to voice their anger at his divisive rhetoric and policies.

It came the morning after he condemned them as “professional protesters” whipped up by the media.

“Love the fact that the small group of protesters last night have passion for our great country. We will all come together and be proud!” he wrote shortly after dawn on Friday on his Twitter account.

The previous night, after he returned home to his Manhattan skyscraper from his whistle-stop Washington trip to visit President Barack Obama at the White House and Republican leaders in Congress, the next US president lashed out at the demonstrators outside on Fifth Avenue and across the country.

“Just had a very open and successful presidential election. Now professional protesters, incited by the media, are protesting. Very unfair!” tweeted the property and entertainment mogul on Thursday night.

His online musings marked the first time that Mr Trump had criticised the media since he became president-elect in the early hours of Wednesday and after his closest aides had reportedly taken control of his Twitter campaign to prevent him stirring up controversy in the final days of the election campaign.

Mr Trump continued making preparations for his takeover of power in January by appointing vice president-elect Mike Pence to take charge of his transition team from New Jersey governor Chris Christie.

Mr Pence was tapped because of his Washington experience and contacts.

There were anti-Trump demonstrations for the third consecutive night on Thursday in several large cities and on university campuses across the United States.

Protests turned ugly in Portland, Oregon when police used pepper spray and flash-bang devices after windows were smashed and fires lit in the streets.

New York protests

In New York, outside Mr Trump's home near Central Park, hundreds of protesters chanted "Not my president!" and held signs that read "Perpetrator Elect" and "Sauron Will Fall" - a reference to the character in JRR Tolkien's Lord of the Rings saga responsible for enveloping Middle-Earth in apocalyptic wars.

There was a heavy police presence around the protesters who were cordoned off along the footpath of one half-block opposite the businessman’s landmark property.

"Donald Trump does not represent my America. If we elected the first female president, that's not us trend-setting; that's us catching up with the rest of the world," said student Maddie Lavery (23), who travelled from Pennsylvania to join the protests against Mr Trump's victory outside Trump Tower.

“And if we thought that Barack Obama was two steps ahead electing the first African-American president, this is 50 steps backwards. It’s disgrace and it’s embarrassing.”

A little down the street from the protests, Hugo Gomez (26), a bus company manager from the Upper West Side in New York, held a Hispanics for Trump among just a handful of the president-elect's supporters.

“I believe Donald Trump will do an amazing job,” he said, before a woman heckler interrupted him saying: “It looks like you’re alone, buddy.”

He continued: “If Donald Trump manages this country the same way he manages his business, I mean, we are going to be successful as an American people and everyone is going to take a win out of this.”

Protests took place in Columbus, Ohio and Minneapolis, Minnesota as well as in Wisconsin's capital, Madison, and Milwaukee.

Former New York mayor Rudy Giuliani, one of Mr Trump's most prominent supporters, called the demonstrators "a bunch of spoiled cry-babies."

“Calm down, things are not as bad as you think,” he told the protesters during an interview on Fox News.

Mr Trump also said that, after conferring with president Obama, he would consider leaving in place certain parts of the Affordable Care Act, an indication of possible compromise after a campaign in which he pledged repeatedly to repeal the 2010 health law.

In his first interview since his election, Mr Trump said one priority was moving “quickly” on the president’s signature health initiative, which he argued has become so unworkable and expensive that “you can’t use it”.