There were only five or so people for Trump when I got there at 9 a.m. One, hoisting a large American flag over his shoulder, patiently gave interviews to reporters who queued up in front of him. (Yes, there was actually a line.)
One Trump supporter was guarded by Comedy Central security as she was mock-interviewed by the Daily Show’s Jordan Klepper. A little while later, a new arrival appeared and took off his coat, revealing some ill-fitting American flag–print overalls with seemingly nothing underneath. He raised his fist and chanted weakly, using an indoor voice, “Trump, Trump, Trump … ” Within seconds, he was swarmed by two dozen photographers.
Outside Manhattan Criminal Court on Tuesday, the energy picked up some as Trump neared to face his indictment on 34 felony charges. But it was mostly just more of the same. Soon came a group of six Black men wearing “Blacks for Trump” T-shirts, along with another man carrying a giant flag that read “Trump or Death.” All were promptly swarmed. “Paying somebody hush money isn’t a crime!” the Trump or Death guy shouted into an obliging reporter’s microphone.
“The media is acting worse than TMZ,” said Tony Lopez, who came to downtown Manhattan from the Bronx. “They’re taking advantage of a man in overalls. This should be a campaign for national mental health.” I asked him what the press should be doing instead. “Relaxing, measuring their blood pressure,” he said. (Fair.) “Trump called out for his supporters, which is the media. The media gave him a billion dollars’ worth of free advertising, and they’re doing it again. When he said to his supporters, ‘come out,’ they did not fail him.”
Asked why he was here, too, he laughed. “I took off to see the circus,” he said.
I arrived that afternoon as someone who has seen the full force of what Trump goading his supporters can bring. On Jan. 6, 2021, in D.C., I watched him tell a furious crowd, “We fight like hell. And if you don’t fight like hell, you’re not going to have a country anymore.” That day, they listened. The former president reprised similar rhetoric in the past couple weeks. And some of the reporters outside the courthouse had seen firsthand the power he used to summon at his rallies even before he was president. There was undeniable reason to be there.
Yet I wasn’t alone in questioning some things professionally on Tuesday. When I tried to talk to other journalists present about how they were feeling, a couple yelled at me. Others wearily engaged, but made sure I wouldn’t use their names. As a media photographer from Chicago who actually did volunteer his name put it, “What’s really amusing about it is when you get a charismatic protester, it’s like bees to honey with the press.” He added: “I’m just as guilty.”
As time passed, the protesters and the counterprotesters got bored. Neither had much to show for themselves. “Go get another mask!” a Trump supporter yelled at a counterprotester. “Go get another Big Gulp!” her target shouted back.
It got crowded when Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene was scheduled to make a speech. She was in and out in about 10 minutes. I stood just two feet from her megaphone, and I could barely make out anything she was saying. Counterprotesters had passed out whistles and noisemakers, and I can confidently say that very few, despite all the hype, heard a word.
After I was able to escape the squeeze of about 100 people trying to get as close to the congresswoman as possible, I stood for a while goofing off with a Trump impersonator. I asked him what he thought of the turnout to his arraignment. “I told them you need strength and stamina, OK,” he said. “Peacefully, but you’ve got to be very angry. Very angry. Extremely angry. Peacefully. We call it peaceful anger.”
The New York Police Department, which was out in force for the event, had divided the park into two halves to keep the opposing sides separated. It all proceeded predictably, depressingly: Three gay men on the anti-Trump side shouted and cursed at a woman. She responded using anti-gay slurs. On the anti-Trump side, a group resisted when a Fox News reporter entered, yelling, “Get the hell out!” A man took an impressive hit of a joint and blew the smoke into the reporter’s face. She strolled away, uncaringly.
On the edges of the barricaded sections, where most people were shouting at each other, two people managed to have a conversation. Maverick (his real name), a Trump supporter, asked Juliette on the anti-Trump side if she worried at all that the case could set a dangerous precedent. “I do, but people should be accountable to their crimes,” she answered. She asked him if he thought it was possible that Trump was taking advantage of people like him to get out of trouble. He conceded that might be true. “Well, it was a pleasure talking to you,” he said. “Good talking to you, too,” she said.
I asked them separately afterward if they learned anything from the interaction. They both gave similar answers—essentially, that it might be worth spending some time off the internet. “I think we all need to get off Twitter for a little while. We’re all keyboard warriors,” Juliette said.
All the same, it continued. Trump side: “Liberals are a mental disturbance!” Anti-Trump side: “Your mother is a mental disturbance!” A man with an American flag walked back and forth chanting, “Two genders!”
When Trump finally arrived, there were cheers from his opposition. His supporters seemed a little circumspect, which is not what I was used to. A woman who said she was from Manhattan sat on a bench nearby, her head in her hands. “I just can’t believe they did this,” she told me.
It’s not clear what will come from this prosecution—whether the case will be too weak, or if the other cases the former president is facing will prove to be stronger. Some polls report this one has made Trump’s 2024 presidential run stronger, though his presumed main challenger, Ron DeSantis of Florida, has yet to declare his candidacy. At the very least, the scene outside the court suggested that Trump’s most fervent base is waiting to see what happens. The reporters there, angry or not, were clearly assessing a new playing field in real time.
Meanwhile, just one block from this park in every direction, New York City went on normally. Jerrica had just left the court building where Trump was still being arraigned dressed in a gorgeous wedding gown. I told her I was happy for her. “I’m happy for myself! But I didn’t know I was going to come outside to this chaos,” she said. “It’s something I’m going to remember for the rest of my life.” I asked if I could take her photo with the chaos behind her. She said no, climbed into a taxi, and drove off.
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April 05, 2023 at 04:45PM
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Donald Trump under arrest: I watched what actually happened in New York on Tuesday, and yikes. - Slate
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