Approximately 500 people protested against Donald Trump and the just-passed Senate tax bill Saturday morning, gathering across from a Trump fundraiser at Cipriani 42nd Street. The protesters included large union contingents from 1199SEIU and the New York State Nurses Association along with a mix of other seemingly unaffiliated protesters. The Republican tax bill, passed in the Senate just a few hours earlier, was the primary focus of the protesters’ shouts and signs.
Protesters gathered on 42nd Street between Park and Lexington Avenues, just across from Cipriani 42nd Street. Guests attending the fundraiser waited in line on 42nd Street, within easy earshot of the protesters. As protesters shouted “shame on you” and other criticisms some of the attendees waved and took photos while others tried to ignore their would-be antagonists.
President Trump’s motorcade rolled by near the protest just before 11:00, turning down Lexington Avenue and heading for a back door entrance without quite directly passing by the protest. On departure Trump’s motorcade passed directly by the protest site, but the protesters had mostly dispersed shortly after Trump’s arrival.
Early last week Governor Andrew Cuomo scheduled a protest rally in opposition to Trump, initially slated to be held about 15 blocks away at the New York Hilton. Late last week Cuomo’s rally was moved to Vanderbilt Avenue, a block away from the Trump fundraiser, but Saturday morning organizers melded it into the 42nd Street protest without holding a separate rally on Vanderbilt.
The Cuomo effort produced the paradox of people at a Cuomo-organized protest shouting at Cuomo donors entering a Trump fundraiser. (I spotted one major Cuomo contributor entering the Trump fundraiser – we’ll try to compare fundraiser attendees and Cuomo contributors after the next Trump campaign and RNC finance filings.) Cuomo did not appear, instead announcing Friday evening that he would travel to Puerto Rico for a brief visit on Saturday.
No elected officials attended the protest.
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