NEW YORK — Hundreds of demonstrators gathered Tuesday outside the Manhattan Criminal Courthouse where former President Trump pleaded not guilty to a 34-count felony brought by New York District Attorney Alvin Bragg (D).
As helicopters whirred loudly above the courthouse in a city where large protest movements and highly coordinated police responses are a regular occurrence, the demonstrations alternated in tone between explicitly angry and theatrically revelrous.
While protesting Trump supporters snipped frequently at counter-protesters endorsing the indictment and vice versa, the situation remained peaceful. Despite Trump’s call for protests on his behalf ahead of the arraignment, which echoed his tone ahead of the Jan. 6 riot at the Capitol, Tuesday’s rallies were marked not so much by hostility as boisterousness and flare.
“It shocks me, the level of participation here, and it feels quite friendly at the moment,” Josh Baines, a tourist from the United Kingdom in New York on vacation, remarked to The Hill. “People have very, very set opinions around this, but it feels good-natured — not a bad thing.”
“These aren’t protests based on anger about something that’s been inflicted upon them,” he added. “There’s a president being arraigned and indicted, and so these are really [expressions of] a political position.”
Various protesters came covered in body paint, wielding musical instruments to perform songs, dressed as Trump in orange prison uniforms, bearing handcuffed effigies of the former president, and holding signs calling for his freedom.
“They’re persecuting [Trump] for a very, very minor offense that very rarely gets to this level of adjudication,” demonstrator Bennett Weiss told The Hill. “I’m not a Trump supporter nor am I a Biden supporter, but I do support some sense of decency of the law.”
Dueling chants of “USA! USA!” from Trump supporters and “Lock him up! Lock him up!” from supporters of the legal actions against him broke out on multiple occasions.
Cameras and recording devices were everywhere in the crowd, which was itself girded by satellite trucks and camera set-ups from members of the media. Many protesters who came to express an opinion also came prepared to film the reactions of other protesters they seemed keen to agitate.
“I’m here for the show and I’m trying to enjoy it,” said event planner Gregory Williams who was seated in a folding chair beside a life-size cut-out of Hillary Clinton. “I’m realistic about what I think is going to happen, but I’m trying to enjoy it rather than get mad and frustrated with the system and all that kind of stuff.”
Such media-savvy is perhaps befitting in response to a president who rose to prominence on reality television and built a successful presidential campaign not on a political track record but on a personal brand.
“I think the nature of the relationship between politics and media is at an all-time low and an all-time high,” actor Michael Rapaport who attended the protests in support of the indictment told The Hill in an interview that he himself was recording and broadcasting to followers. “You can control the narrative, which is great. But there’s so much information, misinformation, false information. There’s pros and cons to it.”
“I support the indictment of Trump. I like the protest. I like that it’s peaceful. This is not January 6, this is not an insurrectionist day,” he said. “Don’t give hush money, and you won’t get indicted.”
The protest swelled to a climax with the arrival of Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.), a vociferous and dedicated supporter of Donald Trump who came to Collect Pond Park across from the courthouse with an entourage and was immediately swarmed by Trump supporters.
“Every American should take a stand,” Greene said. “I’m here as a representative and a member of Congress to take a stand using my First Amendment rights to speak out against this. This should never happen in America, ever. And every single American should be concerned.”
But she only stayed for a moment and was not widely heard by the crowd due to the coordinated efforts of counter-protesters who blew whistles to drown out her speech. New York City Council member Chi Ossé was among them and posted a video of himself blowing two whistles at once as Greene spoke.
“[Marjorie Taylor Greene] came to NYC to spread hate and defend treason,” he wrote online. Protest organizer Vish Burra responded calling Ossé a “groomer and a liar.”
NYPD community affairs officers told The Hill at various points during the protests they thought the conditions were fairly calm. NYPD faced criticism and accusations of aggression for its protest response methods during the Black Lives Matter protests in 2020 following the killing of George Floyd.
Despite the theatrics, protesters on both sides expressed serious concerns both about the legal situation facing the former president and about the state of American politics in general.
“I think American democracy is slipping away,” Jennifer Fisher, a 63-year-old counter-protester, told The Hill during the demonstration. “I think we need to defend democracy if we want to keep it.”
“We are outraged today. You got criminals coming out on the streets. You have your murderers in the subway, but we’ve got to go after Donald Trump for an alleged affair with a porn star? Ridiculous,” Trump supporter Dion Cini, a resident of Sheepshead Bay, Brooklyn, said during a demonstration outside the Manhattan Criminal Court Tuesday morning.