Trump Wanted to See Crowd Outside Trial. He Got 50 Randos.
A couple of hungry Proud Boys, Laura Loomer, and some people from Queens.
Asked about the weak turnout on the street, the younger Giuliani
replied: “I’m more worried about what’s going on in that courtroom than out here.”
Loomer did not seem to notice the mini-skirmish, telling the crowd through a megaphone that their job was to ensure the media did not only cover the left-wing protesters—which seemed unlikely given that the number of reporters in the pro-Trump pen outnumbered the protesters themselves.
“If anybody is committing election interference it is these corrupt communists,” Loomer said, referring to the counter-protests signs, before leading the crowd in a chant of, “Fire Tish James, fire Alvin Bragg.”
Bragg is, of course, the Manhattan DA prosecuting Trump on 34 counts of falsifying business records in connection with hush-money payments he allegedly made and concealed to adult film star Stormy Daniels in 2016, in exchange for her silence about a fling. Bragg alleges the payments were part of a broader strategy to influence the results of the 2016 election.
Officers escort an anti-Trump protester away from pro-Trump demonstrators.
Adam Gray/AFP via Getty
MAGA supporters, unsurprisingly, believe the trial itself is election interference—a, shall we say, trumped-up case designed to sink a man running for re-election. And they have all sorts of theories about what is really going on.
Shawn, for instance, thinks that Michael Cohen, the Trump attorney who made the hush-money payments to Daniels and later turned on him, was the one having an affair with Daniels. (One of Shawn’s biggest hits on Spotify is a song called MAGA Vibe,” the lyrics of which include: “Somebody go get the grill and the deer Trump Jr. killed.”)
Trump appears to be trying to turn his criminal trial, which will keep him trapped in a courtroom for six weeks, into a surrogate campaign event, telling his supporters on Truth Social on the eve of the trial that he would “SEE YOU TOMORROW.”
But the gathering outside the courthouse had neither the turnout nor the energy of a typical Trump rally. Most seemed to have arrived an hour or two before trial started, and Loomer and Giuliani left shortly after the former president sullenly entered at 9:30 am.
“I do notice there are more members of the media here than actual patriots,” said Patrick McAndrews, who said he was there to support Trump and to “network” for his conservative events newsletter. “I would like to have seen a bigger turnout, but we’re all sitting on our hands waiting for Trump to announce his big New York rally.”
A committed group camped out in the pen for hours as jury selection progressed and the day turned uncomfortably hot. Someone pulled out a portable speaker and started playing music; a signboard reading,”COVID-19: A Super War that Subverted President Trump” was erected. Two members of the far-right Proud Boys got restless around 12:45 p.m. “Let’s go get some tacos,” one of them urged his friend.
For those who had non-Trump business in the courtroom, the tight security and the media attention was mostly an inconvenience. One woman, after being told that the crowds were there for Trump, sighed and said, “Is that why I can’t get to my trial against my landlord today?”
Only one person seemed truly pleased with the events of that morning. Standing on a park bench in the middle of the Trump pen, wearing a poster around his neck reading, “Trump is a narcissist liar,” an older man named Marc Leavitt loudly played “God Bless America” on the flute.
Asked why he turned out that morning, he beamed and told a reporter: “It’s a great day for the rule of law.”
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