People in DC Protested Everything This Weekend, But Mostly Trump's New Idiot War In Iran

And Dom was there!

Anti-war activists protest against the US and Israeli bombing campaign in Iran. Washington DC, Saturday, March 7, 2025. Photo by Dominic Gwinn.

On Saturday, a few hundred people came out to protest the US and Israel’s war in Iran. There were also a few hundred people who came out to support the bombings. The whole scene was a confusing mess, regardless of which side of the street you were on.

Over on H Street, in front of a now-entirely fenced off Lafayette Park, was a group of protesters who were against the bombings in Iran. And Gaza. And Lebanon. And Syria. And everywhere else the US/Israeli war machine has spent the last year either ignoring the cries of Arab people, and/or relentlessly dropping explosives on civilians (presumably as a pretext for luxury beachfront Trump hotels).

At the other end of the block, on I Street, was a group of people blaring the Village People’s “Y.M.C.A.” They waved Israeli flags, and US flags, a Taiwanese flag, a Kurdish flag, and the flag of the old Iranian Republic. One man carried an effigy of the late Ayatollah Ali Khamenei - a skeletal hand reaching out from a black robe on a wooden plank. Another bounced a sun-bleached cardboard cutout of Donald Trump. One woman carried a sign thanking Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Trump. Others carried pictures of Reza Pahlavi, the son of the late shah, who fancies himself Iran’s latest dynasty warrior.

Demonstrators supporting and against the war in Iran demonstrate in Washington DC, Saturday, March 7 2026. Photos by Dominic Gwinn

What used to be known as Black Lives Matter Plaza was once again a No Man’s Land. A phalanx of police stood between both sets of demonstrators, with a few national guardsmen aimlessly in the middle. The now upscaled white-brick in front of the luxurious Hay Adams hotel was once again closed off by pesky protesters. Without access to the new valet area, tourists in fine evening wear were forced to walk around immigrants, socialists and the filthy degenerate media.

The No-Man's Land seperating pro-war and anti-war demonstrators in Washington DC, Saturday, March 7 2026. Photos by Dominic Gwinn

It didn’t take long for of the pro-war people to realize they could walk around the block and pick a fight with the more subdued anti-war group. Several police officers were screaming into radios that they couldn’t tell the different groups apart. Eventually I told a cop to look at the flags: the pro-war people had an Iranian flag with gold shit in the center, the anti-war people had an Iranian flag with red shit in the center.

It was easier than explaining to a street cop that the original flag featuring the golden sun and lion had hundreds of years of historical significance to Iranians and Persia. The flag with the red centerpiece is the flag the Ayatollah decried after the religious fundamentalists seized power in 1979. Add in the flags of oppressed minorities and dissident organizations, like the Kurds, the monarchist Kingdom Assembly of Iran, and the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran, and it all gets even more complicated. And while it was terribly unethical to potentially affect the outcome of events by saying anything to that cop, I just didn’t feel like getting stuck in the middle of a street fight near the Trump-occupied White House. That historically ends poorly.

But these weren’t the only protests going on in DC that day. Earlier, over on Capitol Hill, there was a rally and march to support the fall of the Islamic Republic organized by the Organization of Iranian American Communities. People from the Iranian diaspora from across the US milled about and gave speeches before conducting one of the most organized and stage-managed marches down Constitution Avenue that I’ve ever seen. And to think, it wasn’t that long ago that some of these people would have been labeled terrorists by the US!

Members of the Iranian diaspora, organized by the Organization of Iranian American Communities, rally in support of regime change in Iran. Washington DC, Saturday, March 7, 2025.

It’s not accurate to say that they were in support of the war. It’s easier to say they support an end to the country’s theocratic dictatorship. Some call for a democratic republic, others for a return to a monarchical system. Others think Reza Pahlavi, a nepo baby and son of the last Shah, should be given power.

If you’ve never heard of Pahlavi before, you’re not alone. A few years ago he began popping up at obscure, and/or far-right conferences in the US to wink-and-nudge regime change in Iran. In the last year, he’s become a bit of TV talking head. He fancies himself the rightful heir to a throne that was toppled because of his CIA-backed father’s autocratic repression. It was Mohammad Reza Pahlavi’s rule that led to the revolution in 1979, and the subsequent power vacuum that allowed far-right religious fundamentalists to seize power.

In many parts of the world, saying you’re from Iran can cause people to reel in terror like a child who discovered cooties. But as many people (particularly Americans) are starting to learn, you can’t always judge people based on their leaders. Politics is murky, multiple things can be simultaneously true: like hoping for the fall of a brutally oppressive government while also denouncing the use of force to achieve that goal.

It’s kind of like how Americans can still be patriotic, and also loathe the Trump administration. Which, coincidentally, was also happening on the mall during the second annual Stand Up for Science Rally. While not nearly as big as last year’s, several hundred people still showed up to call for the restoration of federal funding for science and research, and for Trumpland to just fuck off already. They were showing that not all Americans are the same. For example, some think Trump is a terrible, undemocratic despot who should be immediately removed from office (with votes).

People protest the Trump administration's federal funding cuts during the Stand-Up for Science Rally in Washington D.C., Saturday, March 7, 2026.

Not everything can easily be boiled down to a simple black or white. You can denounce an oppressive government while also denouncing war. You can press for interventions in Not America, and not want to be the World Police. The nuances are always significant as those small details are all part of the bigger picture.

Also, we should fund science. No nuance there.