Trump only gathers a few hundred supporters before the courts

Separated by fences (and the social distance of a hallway), the two faces of the United States spoke face to face yesterday. This is a circus show with two rings.

The setting is a park in lower Manhattan, the Collect Pond, located in front of the courts where, on a historic date, Donald Trump became the first former president of the United States to be arrested and charged for the alleged crimes derived from paying money to close the mouth of the porn actress Stormy Daniels.

There is an invasion of journalists. Trump’s invitation to protest does not have a massive success. But there are people, several hundred on both sides, and even more on the sidewalks, as far as the seat belt allows, very wide.

There is a lot of militant costume, caps and shirts decorated with insignia and slogans. There’s even a Trump player juggling a pair of basketballs.

Everything happens under the watchful eye of uniformed police officers and those in plain clothes. Harmony is maintained, but a certain tension is perceived in these verbal confrontations. All 36,000 NYPD officers have been mobilized. The judicial building is armored.

In one of the floors of this circus they shout “U-S-A”; in the other, “Black lives matter”. On one side are “Trump or Death” signs, and on the other, “Arrest Trump.” There is a crossover of reproaches. They don’t go further.

While waiting for Trump, and with the permission of Republican legislator George Santos, who is not even respected by his own for inventing his character, the culminating point is the irruption of congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene. She is introduced as “the hero of the Maga movement” (“Make America great again”). Despite the fact that she acts on the track of the conservatives, a few secondaries from the other tent sneak into her performance. “Go to Georgia, you are a danger,” some shout. “January 6 was an insurrection,” others repeat in relation to the assault on the Capitol, which Greene has compared to a tourist visit.

It’s hard to listen to her. “This is the price of democracy,” Greene says of the beloved leader’s imputation. “Keep calm, do not fall into violence, we are the party of peace”, phrases that he utters and that encourage the vociferous outburst for the events in Washington a couple of years ago.

“Today is a great day, let’s be happy!” exclaims Gregory William, a Bronx resident in the anti-Trump space. “Those in front are not going to intimidate me, if they want to support a criminal, they are in his right,” says this African-American who is carrying his girl, a life-size cardboard Hillary Clinton.

“For eight years they were yelling ‘lock her up,’ and today, ironically, the one who is being locked up is Trump. Maybe this is just one day, let’s enjoy it, ”she concludes. The slogan “lock him up” triumphs on this side.

Nadine Sealer jumps with joy and considers it normal that “white supremacists” have turned the Manhattan prosecutor, Alvin Bragg, also an African-American, into their enemy (they accuse him of attacking the “innocent” Trump and releasing the criminals). Sealer stresses that it’s shocking that the Republicans, the party of law and order, who want to indict anyone for anything, are now messing with law enforcement.

On the other track, the speech is totally opposite and irreconcilable. “Covid was a lie. Yes, there were some contagions, but it was sabotage so that Trump would lose the elections, and now they are charging him for not participating in the 2024 elections; but we are going to fight for it”, proclaims Dona Ingrassia.

She, like those on this side, believes that the theft of the Trump elections is true, the real president “and not the current fake”. The choir maintains that the assault on the Capitol either did not exist or, if there was violence, it was that of the infiltrators of the FBI, “Biden’s Gestapo.” “I was there with my three children and we didn’t see anything that was on TV,” says Tina Witcher.

“It’s a special day,” Dean Cini adds with a grim face: “It’s Trump or death, and not necessarily mine.”

Helicopter noise, the entourage arrives with the detainee. Follow the show.