Thread: Trump Is Returning to New York City, Just Not to Sleep

Trump Is Returning to New York City, Just Not to Sleep

By MICHAEL WILSON
MAY 2, 2017

New York City this week prepared for the first return of its native-son president since he entered the White House, and the many disruptions sure to appear in his wake, even as the visit earned an asterisk on Tuesday with the disclosure that he would not be staying at Trump Tower, or in the city at all.

Earlier in the week, flight restrictions announced by the Federal Aviation Administration indicated that President Trump would spend Thursday night in the city after a dinner reception aboard the Intrepid aircraft carrier on the West Side of Manhattan. He would then travel the next day to his country house in New Jersey, at the Trump National Golf Course in Bedminster.

But new restrictions announced Tuesday showed Mr. Trump heading straight to Bedminster from the Intrepid.

The New York Police Department said it had been advised that Mr. Trump would not be staying in the city. He is expected to stay in Bedminster through the weekend.

At least one protest scheduled to take place outside Trump Tower, by the New York State Immigrant Action Fund and the New York Immigration Coalition, will go on as planned, said Steven Choi, the fund’s executive director.

“The president can’t even face the music in his own building?” he said. “New York City is ready for him, and we’ll be there.”

Mr. Trump has said in recent interviews that he has not returned to New York because of the high costs involved with his travel. “Going back is very expensive for the country,” he said on Fox News on Friday. “I hate to see the New Yorkers with streets closed.”

Mr. Trump is scheduled to fly to New York on Thursday afternoon and travel to the Intrepid, the decommissioned aircraft carrier docked in the Hudson River off West 46th Street, where he will meet Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull of Australia. The event is a reception and dinner to mark the 75th anniversary of the Battle of the Coral Sea, where the two countries fought alongside each other against Japan.

The reception on the Intrepid begins at 6:30 p.m., with dinner to follow, and by then, judging by social media, protests outside will have been well underway.

Several groups announced protests and marches near the Intrepid before the reception. Two groups, the Working Families Party and Rise and Resist, self-described as “new and experienced activists committed to opposing, disrupting and defeating any government act that threatens democracy, equality and our civil liberties,” planned to gather separately on streets north and south of the aircraft carrier and march toward each other.

Trump National Golf Course in Bedminster, N.J., where the president is scheduled to spend the night Thursday. Credit Bryan Anselm for The New York Times

Some protests incorporated the whimsical, with reminders that Thursday is also Star Wars Day (May the Fourth) and suggestions that participants dress accordingly. Other marchers were asked to wear white and to bring pots and pans to bang.

“We want to get as close as possible so they hear us inside,” said Nelini Stamp of the Working Families Party.

That may prove difficult. In early September, as the presidential campaign entered its final weeks, Mr. Trump and Hillary Clinton visited the Intrepid for a forum moderated by Matt Lauer of NBC’s “Today” show, and security was tight, with pedestrian barriers radiating outward for blocks.

The New York City police declined to provide specific details regarding road closings and the managing of protests near the Intrepid during Mr. Trump’s visit.

The event on the Intrepid, now a sea, air and space museum, is being hosted by the American Australian Association. “The guests of honor for the evening are seven surviving veterans from the Battle of the Coral Sea — three Americans and four Australians,” said John Berry, the group’s president. “They’re all in their mid-90s.”

The Australian veterans spent up to 28 hours traveling to New York for the event, a black-tie affair for 700 guests that is open to the press, Mr. Berry said.

Dinner includes steak and sea bass, and Mr. Trump and Mr. Turnbull are expected to make remarks.

Much of the neighborhood around the Intrepid still bears the industrial, worn facade of its nickname, Hell’s Kitchen. Residents greeted news of the event in their backyard with mostly bemused irritation about how it might affect their business or commute. Mr. Trump lost overwhelmingly in Manhattan in last year’s election, and some showed lingering antipathy toward the president on Tuesday.

“I guess it will be good to see him off the golf course,” said Paul Masters, a salesman at Grand Cru Wine and Spirits, a few blocks from the museum. “But I hate we miss the irony. It would have been much better if he came the next day — for Cinco de Mayo.”

John Khe, 24, a Pakistani immigrant who operates a pretzel cart across the street from the Intrepid, said he would be forced to take the day off since the museum will be closed to the public.

“The N.Y.P.D. would move me around too much, and all of those V.I.P. people wouldn’t buy from me anyway,” he said.

But he said it was for a good cause.

“Trump is my guy,” Mr. Khe said. “I don’t have a reason. I just like him.”

Maggie Haberman, Emily Palmer and Ford Fessenden contributed reporting.

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/05/02/n...city.html?_r=0

What a nice thing the Australians are doing to sponsor this nice dinner event with the President to honor these 7 survivors of that so-important battle of the Coral Sea against Japan. In their 90's and the Australians are traveling 28 hours just to be there.

I hope the neighborhood is respectful and the city of New York kind and welcoming to them, although it sounds like they plan to put their worst food forward, which appears to be the soup du jour in our country right now.

"SAD!"

When Trump meets the Prime Minister...tell him NO DEAL on the refugees Australia wants to DUMP on US taxpayers.

They do not want them and WE do not want them.

Australia should do the right thing and SEND them all back to their Country of Origin.