How Protesters Got Into the DC Restaurant Where Trump Dined

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FOOD
How Protesters Got Into the DC Restaurant Where Trump Dined
Activists chanted, "Free DC. Free Palestine. Trump is the Hitler of our time.”

WRITTEN BY JESSICA SIDMAN | PUBLISHED ON SEPTEMBER 10, 2025

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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.

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Jessica Sidman
FOOD EDITOR
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.