THOUSANDS marched around the US on Saturday against President Donald Trump’s environmental policies on his 100th day in office. Democratic Party Senator Bernie Sanders led a march of some 3,000 in Vermont.

In Montpelier, Mr Sanders decried rising global temperatures and increasing atmospheric carbon dioxide levels and said the protests were part of a fight for the future of the planet.

He accused the fossil fuel industry of putting short-term profits ahead of the best interests of the planet.

Several thousand marched past the Trump Tower in Chicago, including members of the union representing Environmental Protection Agency employees.

Mr Trump has proposed cutting the EPA’s budget by almost one-third, eliminating more than 3,000 jobs.

Last month Mr Trump ordered the Environmental Protection agency to review his predecessor Barack Obama’s Clean Power Plan (CPP) environmental initiative, which he said had cost jobs in coalmining towns.

On Saturday the federal Court of Appeals in the District of Columbia put a 60-day stay on litigation by environmentalists against the review.

Environmental Defence Fund lawyer Vickie Patton said: “The Supreme Court is clear that EPA has a duty to protect Americans from dangerous climate pollution under our nation’s clean air laws,” vowing to “take swift action to ensure that EPA carries out its responsibilities under the law.”

But the Democratic Party-dominated Supreme Court froze the CPP last year, while Mr Obama was still in office.

David Rivkin, a lawyer for 28 states which opposed the carbon emissions rules, said: “It is indeed the death knell of the Clean Power Plan,” which he said was “plagued by fundamental constitutional infirmities.”

Mr Trump marked his first hundred days with a rally in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, a major coalmining state.

Speaking after signing new executive orders toughening his stance on free trade treaties, he said: “We are not going to let other countries take advantage of us any more.”

Mr Trump backtracked on promises to withdraw from the North American Free Trade Agreement (Nafta) last week, and is preparing instead to renegotiate the treaty with Canada and Mexico.