About a thousand people protested against Donald Trump in New York City on Thursday, as the president was set to make his first trip home since his inauguration.
Demonstrators gathered on the west side of Manhattan at 2pm, blocks from where Trump was due to give a speech at the decommissioned USS Intrepid aircraft carrier.
Many banged pots and pans as they marched towards the Intrepid, in a nod to the cacerolazo protests of Spanish-speaking countries, and the rally had a strong immigrant theme.
“Say it loud, say it clear, immigrants are welcome here,” was a recurring chant, as people waved signs and cheered as cars and trucks sporadically honked their horns in support.
Steven McCasland, from Queens, New York, was holding a sign that said: “This village doesn’t want its idiot back.”
“He is an embarrassment to this city,” McCasland said of Trump.
“We’re a city of compassionate people and he’s certainly not one of them.”
McCasland, 30, said he had been inspired to attend the protest after watching Trump sign an executive order on Thursday morning which will allow churches to endorse political candidates – a move some have criticized as threatening the separation of church and state.
“As a gay man I’m worried about the passing of these bills,” McCasland said. “But I’m also worried about Roe v Wade, women’s healthcare and immigrants’ rights.”
Around 1,000 people marched towards the Intrepid, eventually being stopped one block north of the ship. They had met at DeWitt park in midtown Manhattan, and the proximity of the protest to a number of Trump’s landmark achievements will not have been lost on the president.
DeWitt park is one mile west of Trump Tower and just a few blocks from the Trump International Hotel and Tower. It is less than a mile south of the erstwhile Trump Place – a group of apartment buildings where residents successfully petitioned to have the Trump’s name removed in November.
“He’s done nothing right,” said Janet Doud, 59. “He’s wrecking our world, our country, our planet. In every sense.”
Doud, who works for the state of New York, had taken a bus from Albany to attend the protest.
She was carrying a sign which said: “Homer Simpson runs the power plant better.” On the other side it said: “Impeach the freak”, along with a picture of a small hand emerging from a shirt sleeve.
Other attendees had been similarly creative with their signs. One read: “Keep your tiny hands out of NYC,” while another said: “This pussy grabs back” above a picture of a cat.
One sign said simply: “Crump is a tunt.”
Thursday is Trump’s first trip to his home city since 20 January. He had been due to spend the afternoon meeting with Australian prime minister Malcolm Turnbull in Manhattan, but stayed in Washington DC while the successful vote to repeal parts of the Affordable Health Care Act took place.
Instead, Trump was due to meet Turnbull at the Intrepid, which now serves as a sea, air and space museum, at around 7.15pm, before giving a speech at 7.45pm. The event has been billed as a commemoration of the 75th anniversary of the Battle of the Coral Sea, a naval battle waged by the US and Australia against Japan during the second world war.
The president was expected to travel to his Trump National Golf Club in Bedminster, New Jersey, on Thursday evening.
Trump has lived in New York almost his entire life, but is extremely unpopular in the city. Just 18% of New Yorkers voted for him in the 2016 election, with 79% backing former New York senator Hillary Clinton. In Manhattan, where a number of buildings still bear Trump’s name, the president won just one electoral district – out of 1,210.
It costs the New York City police department $308,000 a day to protect Trump when he visits the city. The NYPD is currently spending between $127,000 and $146,000 a day to protect Melania and Barron Trump, who have continued to live in the city since Trump was inaugurated.
(TheGuaddian US)
