Protesters shout at attendees of the Pittsburgh Energy Innovation Summit. (Photo by Mars Johnson/City Paper)

By Gavin Petrone, Pittsburgh City Paper

Hundreds along Oakland’s Forbes Avenue rallied against U.S. Sen. Dave McCormick’s Energy and Innovation Summit at Carnegie Mellon University, whose headlining speaker was U.S. President Donald Trump, on Tuesday, July 15.

CMU’s campus was all but locked down, with the Mall completely fenced off and the Fence painted over on CMU President Farnam Jahanian’s order, according to students. During the summit, Trump announced roughly $90 billion in AI investment for Pennsylvania. A portion of that, he said, would be spent on building data centers.

Down several blocks outside, demonstrators spoke out regarding a number of issues surrounding the current president and his proposals, including the environmental impacts of AI data centers, his incoming rescission bill, and recent backtracking on the release of high-profile sex trafficker Jeffery Epstein’s “client list.”

A march, organized by Indivisible, left from Schenley Plaza after an hour-long rally around 1:30 p.m. It filled about two blocks of Forbes Avenue before city and county police formed a line at South Craig Street, stopping the march.

“People are fired up against this administration,” Pa. College Dems president Austin Weise told Pittsburgh City Paper of the large initial turnout. “I think it’s a reflection that sometimes we have to make sacrifices for the betterment of our country; that’s what folks are here doing today.”

Nona Gerard, 64, of Kennedy Township carried a megaphone up and down a line of county police officers blocking South Craig Street. Gerard solemnly decried their complicity for a government she said was repressing them.

(For more of the story, visit Pittsburgh City Paper.)

Gavin Petrone is a student at Point Park University and one of 10 Pittsburgh Media Partnership summer interns.