--- title: US Election 2016: Topless Women Protest Donald Trump description: Two bare-chested women stormed the midtown New York City polling place that Donald Trump cast his vote at, in protest of the Republican. canonical: https://time.com/4562610/women-topless-protest-donald-trump/ author: Kate Samuelson article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-11-08T18:19:19.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-19T07:44:47.841Z article:section: Politics og:title: Two Women in Custody After Topless Protest at Donald Trump’s Polling Place og:description: NYPD confirmed that they are in custody pending charges og:url: https://time.com/4562610/women-topless-protest-donald-trump/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt259320b74c7e09d5/6988ad728e0601140246828e/trump-protestors.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 2898 og:image:height: 1630 og:image:alt: Topless women protest Trump at polling place in New York og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Two Women in Custody After Topless Protest at Donald Trump’s Polling Place twitter:description: NYPD confirmed that they are in custody pending charges twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt259320b74c7e09d5/6988ad728e0601140246828e/trump-protestors.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Two Women in Custody After Topless Protest at Donald Trump’s Polling Place > Sponsored content. 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Brief is TIME's Washington newsletter, written by senior correspondent Philip Elliott. It explains the politics, personalities and power dynamics behind the headlines, three times a week. It reaches 85,000 subscribers with a 37.0% open rate as of August 2026. #### Where can I get analysis of Washington politics by email? D.C. Brief is TIME's free Washington politics newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. It is written by a TIME senior correspondent who covers the capital full time. #### Who writes TIME's D.C. Brief? Philip Elliott, a senior correspondent at TIME, writes D.C. Brief. #### Is D.C. Brief free? Yes. D.C. Brief is free at time.com/newsletters. by [Kate Samuelson](https://time.com/author/kate-samuelson/) ## Kate Samuelson Nov 8, 2016 6:19 PM UTC  One of the two topless protestors at the site where Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump voted at P.S. 59 in New York City, on Nov. 8, 2016. One of the two topless protestors at the site where Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump voted at P.S. 59 in New York City, on Nov. 8, 2016. Anthony DelMundo—NY Daily News/Getty Images by [Kate Samuelson](https://time.com/author/kate-samuelson/) ## Kate Samuelson Nov 8, 2016 6:19 PM UTC Two bare-chested women stormed the midtown New York City polling place where Donald Trump [cast his vote](http://time.com/4562091/election-results-2016-trump-clinton-final-hours/?xid=homepage) on Tuesday, in protest of the Republican candidate. The women arrived at the site just after 8:15 a.m. local time, where they ripped open their shifts to reveal messages for written on themselves and yelled an obscene chant in reference to Trump’s lewd comments about grabbing women “by the p-ssy”, [_People_](http://people.com/politics/donald-trump-leads-first-counted-votes-long-lines/) reports. Less than a minute later, they were escorted out by police officers. One women had “Trump, grab your balls” written in black paint across her chest and stomach, and the other had “Hate out of my polls”. Both had “Femen USA” written on their arms—a shoutout to the feminist activist group. The New York Police Department confirmed to TIME that, at the time of writing, the two women were in custody pending charges. > [](https://twitter.com/sharonclott/status/795980259824963584) The incident took place around three hours before Trump arrived to vote, which was shortly before 11 a.m. local time. He was met with both cheers and boos, [ABC News](https://www.facebook.com/ABC7NY/?hc%5Fref=PAGES%5FTIMELINE) reported, and bought a cupcake from two children selling bakes goods inside the polling station, telling them “you make a little profit, O.K.?”. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4562610/women-topless-protest-donald-trump/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4562610/women-topless-protest-donald-trump/"},"headline":"Two Women in Custody After Topless Protest at Donald Trump’s Polling Place","datePublished":"2016-11-08T18:19:19.000Z","dateModified":"2026-08-19T07:44:47.841Z","description":"NYPD confirmed that they are in custody pending charges","url":"https://time.com/4562610/women-topless-protest-donald-trump/","keywords":["2016 Election","Donald Trump"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt259320b74c7e09d5/6988ad728e0601140246828e/trump-protestors.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Kate Samuelson","jobTitle":"","url":"https://time.com/author/kate-samuelson/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt259320b74c7e09d5/6988ad728e0601140246828e/trump-protestors.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Topless women protest Trump at polling place in New York","caption":"One of the two topless protestors at the site where Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump voted at P.S. 59 in New York City, on Nov. 8, 2016.","creditText":"Anthony DelMundo—NY Daily News/Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4562610/women-topless-protest-donald-trump/","name":"Two Women in Custody After Topless Protest at Donald Trump’s Polling Place"}}]}] ```