Congregation Beth Elohim in Brooklyn was filled on Feb. 6 for an evening of strategizing against President Trump. Demetrius Freeman for The New York Times
“Who was at J.F.K.?”
Brad Lander, a New York City councilman, shouted into the crowd at a community organizing meeting in Brooklyn, where 1,000 people squeezed into a synagogue on a recent weeknight to strategize against President Trump. Outside, activists became bouncers, turning away a line of people from the overstuffed site. Inside, hands shot up in answer and a cheer went up from those who had swarmed the airport to protest Mr. Trump’s executive order banning travel from seven predominantly Muslim countries.
Mr. Lander continued ticking off some of the many other locations where protests have erupted across the city.
“And who was at Foley Square?” The crowd roared again.
“And who was at the protest last week just down the street?” The room almost shook.
The distaste for President Trump in his hometown has convulsed into near daily protests across the city. Summoned by a Facebook post or cellphone alert, New Yorkers have taken to the streets to object to his policies, appointments and executive orders.
All this, however, could merely be a prelude to the moment yet to come — Mr. Trump has still not set foot in New York City as president, puzzling and emboldening some protesters who see his weekend visits to his Florida estate as something of a retreat to friendlier ground. But whenever he does settle into his penthouse home atop Trump Tower, seething New Yorkers will finally be able to train their ire directly at Mr. Trump on his doorstep.
“The visual of Trump coming back to New York would be the Fifth Avenue of Manhattan flooded with people angrily protesting just about everything that Donald Trump has done — I don’t think he wants to create that visual,” said Carl Dix, whose anti-Trump group, Refuse Fascism, has been plastering the city with stickers that say “NO!” “I don’t think he wants the world to see that.”
City officials would not discuss details of security plans that will be used when Mr. Trump returns to the city or how much protecting him will cost. Between his election in November and his inauguration in January, the city spent $37 million for the more than 200 police officers on patrol each day in and around Trump Tower. The federal government has reimbursed the city about $7 million. Large protests would most likely require a bigger police presence.
“Demonstrations do have an impact on operations because we have to get those cops from somewhere,” the police commissioner, James P. O’Neill, told reporters at a news conference in response to questions about how the city would manage Mr. Trump’s return. “Short term, we can handle it, but if it continues to go on, it could have an impact on our operations.”
The White House did not respond to a query about whether or when Mr. Trump would return to his Manhattan home.
Allies of Mr. Trump scoff at the notion that the president is leery of coming back to New York, in part because his wife, Melania, decided to stay here to allow their son, Barron, to finish out the school year.
“Donald Trump will never be chased out of his hometown,” said Roger Stone, a Republican operative who has worked on and off for Mr. Trump for 40 years. Mr. Trump, he added, has long tended to prefer spending winters at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Palm Beach, Fla.
Besides, protests, no matter their size or level of vitriol, may satisfy people who will never embrace Mr. Trump, but do nothing to chip away at his ardent base, Mr. Stone said. “Politically, the demonstrations against you in New York probably help you in flyover country.”
In Mr. Trump’s absence, New York has become something of a proving ground for organized displays of anti-Trump sentiment. From the governor, Andrew M. Cuomo, to the mayor, Bill de Blasio, to an intersectional grass-roots movement that includes Muslims, gays, Latinos and immigrants, among others, New York has been a caldron of unrest.
There have been student walkouts, disruptions at Trump-linked businesses, mass same-sex kiss-ins in front of Trump Tower and Muslim prayer vigils in airport arrival halls. For some the protests have served as beta tests for the main event: Mr. Trump’s homecoming.
“In the event that President Trump does come to New York, we are very much holding him accountable for what he has already done to the immigrant community,” said Thanu Yakupitiyage, a spokeswoman for the New York Immigration Coalition.
Since the election, immigrant groups like the coalition and Make the Road New York have been organizing via text messaging app, blasting participants with calls to action straight to their phones. It helped the coalition attract thousands of people to Kennedy Airport hours after the travel ban went into effect. Events that used to take weeks to launch now take hours, organizers said, foreshadowing what may happen when word filters out that Mr. Trump is on his way.
“Because people are paying attention, we are able to mobilize people with very little notice,” Ms. Yakupitiyage said.
seeder
JohnRussell
7 years agoTrump can never go home again.
-
If he was popular in NY he would have been back there 3 or 4 times already. He doesnt want the SPECTACLE of thousands of people flooding the streets around Trump Tower, hissing him.
Spikegary
7 years agoAmazingly, he hasn't set foot in Passaic, New Jersey, either. Or Gary, Indiana or even Dubuque, Iowa! What kind of idiot has so much time on their hands as to come up with mindless shit like this and publish it?
More of the 'throw shit against the wall in hopes something will stick' mentality.
seeder
JohnRussell
replied to
Spikegary
7 years agoAmazingly, he hasn't set foot in Passaic, New Jersey, either. Or Gary, Indiana or even Dubuque, Iowa! What kind of idiot has so much time on their hands as to come up with mindless shit like this and publish it?
More of the 'throw shit against the wall in hopes something will stick' mentality.
Donald Trump doesn't have a palatial penthouse and a tower with his name on it in those places. A fucking idiot could figure that out, but you couldn't.
Cerenkov
replied to
Spikegary
7 years ago"More of the 'throw shit against the wall in hopes something will stick' mentality."
Well said. If he visited NYC next week, the same idiots would be complaining about the cost. When you complain about everything, people learn to dismiss you.
seeder
JohnRussell
7 years agoWhat kind of idiot has so much time on their hands as to come up with mindless shit like this and publish it?
www.nytimes.com
I think it is IMMENSELY more interesting to discuss why Trump is afraid to visit his palace in New York than to have a 500th article on NT about "snowflakes" and "Hillary".
How many times have you complained about the idiotic seeds about "liberals" that get posted on this forum every day?
I'll tell you the number times- NONE.
Fuck off Spike.
Cerenkov
replied to
JohnRussell
7 years ago"I think it is IMMENSELY more interesting to discuss why Trump is afraid to visit his palace in New York..."
Any evidence? Or just another partisan lie?
Jonathan P
7 years agoCongregation Beth Elohim in Brooklyn was filled on Feb. 6 for an evening of strategizing against President Trump.
Spotted one kippah in the crowd.
Sure they're Jews? What kind of Jews sit in a synagogue and don't put a kippah on their heads?
seeder
JohnRussell
replied to
Jonathan P
7 years agoI assume it was a convenient and willing meeting place. I didn't presume that they were all Jews.
Perrie Halpern R.A.
replied to
Jonathan P
7 years agoSure they're Jews? What kind of Jews sit in a synagogue and don't put a kippah on their heads?
Reform Jews.
Sean Treacy
7 years agoSo New York Liberals are insanely partisan and intolerant of those who think differently.
Did you need to post another article to demonstrate that?
seeder
JohnRussell
replied to
Sean Treacy
7 years agoI'm sure Trump will go back fairly soon and figure out a way to spin the demonstrations in a better light for him, at least to his followers.
I still think it is fascinating that this man who "conquered the world" is afraid to go home. And make no mistake, if NY was friendly to him he would have been back there multiple times already.
He saw the two or three hundred thousand people that marched near his home the day after the inauguration and it scares him, in PR terms.
magnoliaave
7 years agoWhat is the significance of his returning to N.Y.? Why didn't Obama return to Chicago for visits? His wife and son are in N.Y. And, why in the world would you think he is scared?
Cerenkov
replied to
magnoliaave
7 years ago"And, why in the world would you think he is scared?"
Projection?
94 visitors
OCULUS
2 hours ago
What this crowd needs is a dose of maturity...and a spanking.
Tired of Hypocrisy
2 hours ago
Why would President Trump want to visit a city who has made it very obvious that they don't want him there? Federal money yes but Trump no.
gjdagis
2 hours ago
These people ironiccly PROVE that president Trump is doing the country a lot of good!