Olivia DiNucci was at a protest outside the UK embassy, showing solidarity with the pro-Palestinian demonstrators arrested in London last weekend, when a friend of a friend told her to call ASAP.
“When I hear that, I know right away that someone is somewhere, and they need to be disrupted,” says DiNucci, an organizer with Code Pink, which describes itself as “a feminist grassroots organization working to end US wars and militarism.” She’s previously confronted other politicians, including Joe Biden, at restaurants and other public venues.
This time, rumor had it that Donald Trump was going to be dining at Joe’s Seafood, Prime Steak, and Stone Crab next to the White House later that evening. It would be his first visit to a DC restaurant as president this term.
DiNucci immediately reached out to a group of fellow activists and made a last-minute reservation at Joe’s. She biked home to drop off her megaphone from the embassy protest and change clothes, then biked to the restaurant where she met three others. They arrived about an hour before Trump.
“These people should not get a second of peace wherever they are. If they’re in public, we will find them and we will make sure that they hear what we have to say,” says DiNucci, who’s been a vocal advocate for the people of Gaza as well as DC residents caught up in Trump’s immigration crackdown.
The activists ordered dinner and drinks and, there at the table, came up with what they might say and chant. They expected the president would probably be escorted to a private dining room upstairs. And they had no idea he’d be bringing VP JD Vance, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, and other top officials with him. It turned out the president’s table was right next to theirs. “We could have sat right down at their table,” DiNucci says.
Entering the dining room, Trump was greeted by applause. “Safest city in the United States. You will not be accosted going home, I guarantee. This is the best. We did a good job,” the president told fellow diners. “Everybody, do not eat too much—because I’m going to.”
As Trump and his group were getting ready to sit down, the activists sprung into action, yelling, “Free DC. Free Palestine. Trump is the Hitler of our time.”
The president stood in front of the protesters, looking directly at them with a slight smile and bobbing his head to their chants. He then pointed to the side, indicating it was time for them to go. The group left cash at the table.
“What do you want your legacy to be?,” one of the protesters yelled as Secret Service ushered them out. “He’s terrorizing communities in DC. He’s terrorizing communities all over the world—from Puerto Rico to the Philippines to Palestine to Venezuela.”
“We’re enraged at how much evil is at that table, and it came out through what we were saying. But nothing we could say is enough,” DiNucci tells Washingtonian. “The least we can do is yell at them.”
Jessica Sidman covers the people and trends behind D.C.’s food and drink scene. Before joining Washingtonian in July 2016, she was Food Editor and Young & Hungry columnist at Washington City Paper. She is a Colorado native and University of Pennsylvania grad.
