Wendy Sax was trying to cross Fifth Avenue in midtown Manhattan on Friday morning when she ran into a small group of diehard Trump supporters donning red caps and waving massive MAGA flags on the sidewalk across from Trump Tower.
Moments later, a Donald Trump impersonator turned down the street in a rickety limousine, waving to his faithful acolytes. Behind him was a pickup truck adorned with Trump-themed vinyl wrap and several flags – including the upside-down American flag – blasting Lee Greenwood’s “God Bless the USA.”
“Motherf*****,” Sax muttered.
They were all part of the eccentric crew who flocked to Trump Tower on Friday morning as Trump held his first official press conference after being found guilty on all 34 counts of falsifying business records.
While Trump’s supporters caused chaos outside, waving a sea of American flags that made it difficult for pedestrians to pass by, the former president delivered a rambling address inside to a select group of reporters and allies. The now-convicted felon proclaimed his innocence just steps away from where he descended Trump Tower’s golden escalators to launch his 2016 campaign for president, and inside the building where he conspired to unlawfully influence that election’s outcome.
The scene outside Trump Tower was strange but mostly peaceful - save for a small skirmish between Trumpers and a protester with a sign supporting the guilty conviction. In one particularly shocking moment, Juliet Germanotta took out her bare breast and shoved it in the Trump critic’s face.
Germanotta, a Manhattan resident of 25 years, said she “wanted” Trump to be found guilty because it would help him in the polls and galvanize his supporters. She insisted that a “civil war” was possible if Trump was thrown in jail or if the November election was “rigged.”
“You’ve got to understand that there are millions of Americans that don’t register their guns, me being one of them. And, I’m ready for everything that’s coming, because give me Trump or give me death,” she said.
It was an intense declaration that other MAGA fans shared. Another supporter waved a giant flag that insisted: “Give me Trump or give me death.”
“He needs to be president. Or else we’re all going to die,” agreed Alexis, a supporter from Staten Island who walked around wearing an American flag as a cape.
Pressed up against the barricades directly across from the gilded doors of Trump Tower, a group of familiar faces decked out in pro-Trump merchandise held signs screaming “Witch hunt” and “Banana Republic.” One woman held a small poster with Trump’s mugshot and the words “Never surrender.”
Many supporters tried to spin the guilty verdict as a good thing for Trump. Joe, from New Jersey, thinks it’ll make the country “rally like never before.”
“We got another 34 reasons why to vote for President Trump in the 2024 election,” Brooklyn resident Henri said.
The crowds’ energy drew hundreds of gawkers - many who just stumbled into the event. Maria, a European woman in New York on vacation, said she wanted to just see what was going on. After a few minutes of watching supporters chant “Let’s go Brandon” she said she “feels bad” for Trump supporters.
“He doesn’t represent them, he only represents himself,” Maria said.
Karen, who is visiting her son in Manhattan, said the verdict gave her “mixed” emotions because she knows some Americans are being fed misinformation.
“I’m glad to see [Trump] being held accountable. But I am really sad at the spectacle of it all,” she said.
Just diagonal from where Trump’s supporters were barricaded in, a small crowd of vocal anti-Trump protesters held signs declaring the ex-president “Guilty” and a “Loser.” Anticipating the former president would leave Trump Tower they agreed to chant, “Trump is not above the law”.
Kathleen Zea, a woman from New York, said the conviction gave her “renewed faith in the system” that Trump “undermined for so long.”
“It’s time for people to wake up … You don’t have to love everything Biden has done but I respect he’s been in the government for many decades.”
“The guy on the other side wants to burn the whole thing down,” she said.
Michael Handy, an Upper East Side resident wearing a US military veteran cap, said he came out to “celebrate” the guilty verdict.
“And of course, New Yorkers have known for quite some time,” he says, pointing to the Trumps’ housing discrimination cases in the 1970s and his friends who he says were ripped off by Trump in the years after.
A New Yorker standing outside of the barricades made a similar remark.
“I’m from New York City and we know the guy,” he said. [“Trump]’s been a fraud for more than 35 years, and now he’s gone.”
