Just Stop Oil has sprayed the US embassy in London with orange paint in protest of Donald Trump’s victory in the US election.
In footage shared to social media shortly after Mr Trump took to the stage in Florida to declare victory on Wednesday, activists could be seen dousing an exterior wall of the US embassy at Nine Elms with their characteristic orange paint.
The Metropolitan Police said two men, aged 25 and 72, were arrested on suspicion of criminal damage and held in custody.
Deputy assistant commissioner Andy Valentine said: “Officers from the Parliamentary and Diplomatic Protection Unit arrested these two men within minutes, ensuring that they could not cause any further damage to the embassy.
“This activity is vandalism purporting as protest and we will continue to have a zero-tolerance attitude to actions such as this.”
The campaigners, who have targeted high-profile sites and artefacts such as Stonehenge and the Magna Carta, as well as sporting events including Wimbledon and the British Grand Prix, turned their sights to the US embassy as Britain awoke to news of Mr Trump’s return to the White House.
A Just Stop Oil spokesperson said: “As long as democracy is hijacked by corporate interests and billionaires, it will fail to deliver the change ordinary people are crying out for. This will always leave the door open for fake populists like Trump to exploit the disaffection many feel.
“Ordinary people have to step up, get organised and make change happen, because it should be clear by now, no political leaders are coming to save us.”
They added: “It is only through people coming together to disrupt business-as-usual that humanity will stand any chance of minimising the effects of climate breakdown, and the resulting social collapse that is already underway.
“In Spain this week, hundreds of bodies continue to be dragged from the mud – this is just a small portent of what is to come if we don’t change course immediately.”
It is far from the first UK-based protest against Mr Trump, with London’s mayor Sadiq Khan’s office notably giving permission ahead of the then-US president’s state visit in 2018 for activists to fly a blimp of Trump as a crying baby in a nappy.
Thousands protested across the country during that visit, including at his Turnberry golf course in Ayrshire where demonstrators shouted: “No Trump, no USA, no KKK, no racist USA,” and Greenpeace flew a paraglider with a banner reading: “Trump well below par.”
Joseph Aggarwal, a 25-year-old from London who took part in Wednesday’s protest, said: “No matter who [Westerners] vote for they receive an assault on living conditions, continued injustice and the drive towards climate collapse.
“This lack of real democracy breeds resentment and allows bad actors like Trump to exploit the disquiet to further benefit the billionaire class. Meanwhile, the interests of fossil capital are well attended while the interests of ordinary people are put to the margins. I don’t want to live with this.”
Just Stop Oil demands action to establish a legally binding treaty to stop extracting and burning oil, gas and coal by 2030, as well as to support poorer countries to make a fast, fair, and just transition to clean energy.
According to the group, 25 of its activists have been jailed, including 10 who are held on remand. In July, five of its members, including co-founder Roger Hallam, were imprisoned for up to five years over a protest on the M25 motorway, thought to be the most severe sentences ever given for peaceful protest.
