--- title: Donald Trump Attacks 'Professional Anarchist' Protesters description: President Trump acused "professional anarchists" of being behind recent protests and lashed out at the media and Arnold Schwarzenegger. canonical: https://time.com/4659323/president-trump-tweets-protests-arnold-schwarzenegger/ author: Tessa Berenson article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2017-02-03T12:34:08.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-23T03:07:29.949Z article:section: Politics og:title: President Trump Attacks 'Professional Anarchist' Protesters on Twitter og:description: "Professional anarchists, thugs and paid protesters are proving the point of the millions of people who voted to MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!" og:url: https://time.com/4659323/president-trump-tweets-protests-arnold-schwarzenegger/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt8cbafaeaa41a978f/6988b8a6a988ca87f06badc8/gettyimages-632934730.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 3747 og:image:height: 2108 og:image:alt: Donald Trump Speaks With Australian PM Turnbull From The White House og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: President Trump Attacks 'Professional Anarchist' Protesters on Twitter twitter:description: "Professional anarchists, thugs and paid protesters are proving the point of the millions of people who voted to MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!" twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt8cbafaeaa41a978f/6988b8a6a988ca87f06badc8/gettyimages-632934730.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # President Trump Attacks 'Professional Anarchist' Protesters on Twitter > 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 [Tessa Berenson](https://time.com/author/tessa-berenson/)  ## Tessa Berenson Feb 3, 2017 12:34 PM UTC  President Donald Trump speaks on the phone with Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull in the Oval Office of the White House, January 28, 2017 in Washington, DC. President Donald Trump speaks on the phone with Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull in the Oval Office of the White House, January 28, 2017 in Washington, DC.Drew Angerer—Getty Images  by [Tessa Berenson](https://time.com/author/tessa-berenson/)  ## Tessa Berenson Feb 3, 2017 12:34 PM UTC [President Donald Trump](http://time.com/4659155/trump-phone-call-mexico-australia-foreign-policy/) fired off a series of tweets Friday morning accusing “professional anarchists” of being behind recent protests, as well as lashing out at the media and Arnold Schwarzenegger. “Professional anarchists, thugs and paid protesters are proving the point of the millions of people who voted to MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!” Trump tweeted before 7 a.m. ET Friday. He may have been referring to the recent protests that roiled the [University of California at Berkeley](http://time.com/4657688/trump-milo-yiannopoulos-breitbart/?iid=sr-link1), forcing the school to cancel an appearance by controversial Breitbart News editor [Milo Yiannopoulos](http://time.com/4657553/milo-yiannopoulos-berkeley-breitbart-protest-troll/). Or he may have been referring to a separate incident that occurred Thursday at New York University, in which[ 11 people were arrested](http://www.reuters.com/article/us-new-york-protests-idUSKBN15I1BC?feedType=RSS&feedName=domesticNews&utm%5Fmedium=Social&utm%5Fsource=Twitter) for protesting the appearance of a conservative comedian at the school. > [](https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/827483841589891073) The president also accused journalists of misrepresenting his call over the weekend with Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull. [The Washington _Post_ reported](https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/no-gday-mate-on-call-with-australian-pm-trump-badgers-and-brags/2017/02/01/88a3bfb0-e8bf-11e6-80c2-30e57e57e05d%5Fstory.html?amp;utm%5Fterm=.53a2c4abb22a&tid=sm%5Ftw&utm%5Fterm=.d179c05835c1) it was a contentious conversation between two world leaders [who should be close allies](http://time.com/4657759/malcolm-turnbull-donald-trump/), as Trump reportedly threatened to walk away from a refugee agreement. Turnbull declined to divulge details of the conversation Thursday, [but said](https://www.nytimes.com/2017/02/02/world/australia/donald-trump-malcolm-turnbull-refugees.html), “The alliance is absolutely rock solid.” “Thank you to Prime Minister of Australia for telling the truth about our very civil conversation that FAKE NEWS media lied about,” Trump tweeted. “Very nice!” > [](https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/827480386120929280) Arnold Schwarzenegger, the host of the newest version of _The Apprentice_, was also a target of the President’s early-morning tweets. On Thursday, Trump continued a spat with the former California governor when he joked at the National Prayer Breakfast [about praying for the show’s ratings](http://time.com/4657913/donald-trump-apprentice-prayer-breakfast-schwarzenegger/?iid=sr-link3) under Schwarzenegger. Schwarzenegger fired back on Twitter: “You take over TV, because you’re such an expert in ratings, and I take over your job,” he said in a short video. “Then people can finally sleep comfortably again.” Trump kept the fight going another day, tweeting, “Yes, Arnold Schwarzenegger did a really bad job as Governor of California and even worse on the Apprentice…but at least he tried hard!” > [](https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/827477947154063361) ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4659323/president-trump-tweets-protests-arnold-schwarzenegger/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4659323/president-trump-tweets-protests-arnold-schwarzenegger/"},"headline":"President Trump Attacks 'Professional Anarchist' Protesters on Twitter","datePublished":"2017-02-03T12:34:08.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-23T03:07:29.949Z","description":"\"Professional anarchists, thugs and paid protesters are proving the point of the millions of people who voted to MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!\"","url":"https://time.com/4659323/president-trump-tweets-protests-arnold-schwarzenegger/","keywords":["White House","onetime","president trump"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt8cbafaeaa41a978f/6988b8a6a988ca87f06badc8/gettyimages-632934730.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Tessa Berenson","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/tessa-berenson/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt8cbafaeaa41a978f/6988b8a6a988ca87f06badc8/gettyimages-632934730.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Donald Trump Speaks With Australian PM Turnbull From The White House","caption":"Donald Trump Speaks With Australian PM Turnbull From The White House","creditText":"Drew Angerer—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":"/tag/white-house/","name":"White House"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4659323/president-trump-tweets-protests-arnold-schwarzenegger/","name":"President Trump Attacks 'Professional Anarchist' Protesters on Twitter"}}]}] ```