‘Just tired of these trials’: Why the MAGA crowd is so thin outside Trump’s New York trial

NEW YORK CITY — Beneath billowing, giant “Trump or Death” and “Trump 2024” flags, a few dozen supporters of Donald Trump gathered in a park across the street from the opening of his hush money trial.

They were there to witness history: The first criminal trial of a former American president, now his party’s nominee.

In the past, Trump has always been able to count on his supporters turning out en masse, from his signature rallies to the riot at the Capitol. But on Monday, at a pivotal moment for the MAGA movement and Trump's campaign, the faithful were uncharacteristically quiet.

Even among supporters so loyal they were drawn to an event publicized as a “rally for President Trump” organized by the New York Young Republican Club, the endless litany of Trump’s legal proceedings seemed to be wearing on them. More than two hours after the rally was scheduled to begin, demonstrators were still heavily outnumbered by hundreds of members of the news media, including from as far away as Germany.

“It’s 9 a.m. on a Monday in New York City, and you're asking Republicans to show up, mostly people who generally work,” said Vish Burra, the executive secretary of the club and a former aide to disgraced former Rep. George Santos of New York.

Burra maintained the rally was larger than expected because “of how quickly we announced it — basically over the weekend.” But the trial — and expected protests — had been looming over the campaign for weeks. And it is not as though the MAGA faithful who did turn out were unaware of the stakes, or their own sense of duty to represent the former president in the first of the four criminal investigations he faces.

“He can’t speak,” a bullhorn-wielding Laura Loomer, the former congressional candidate and conspiracy theorist who wore a black and white T-shirt that read, “DONALD TRUMP DID NOTHING WRONG,” said of Trump to a small group of mostly red-capped demonstrators gathered along a bank of television satellite trucks. “We have to be his voice.”

Inside the courthouse, just before entering the courtroom, Trump did speak.

“This is political persecution — this is a persecution like never before, nobody has ever seen anything like it and again it’s a case that should have never been brought, it’s an assault on America and that’s why I am very proud to be here,” Trump said.

No one had seen anything like this before, and those outside the courthouse didn’t seem to know what to do. Should they stand quietly in solidarity? Should they chant?

And so they did.

They chanted “Trump 2024” and “Judge Merchan recuse yourself” and “Fire Tish James” and “Fire Alvin Bragg,” though none of those verses that singled out Trump’s favorite foes seemed to endure longer than a few seconds. Under a cerulean New York sky, the protesters just took in the scene that few could quite process.

Their soundtrack was the clatter of construction on the jail down the street from the courthouse, the sporadic honking of a jacked-up truck flying Trump flags and playing a pro-Trump rap song while circling the block, and an anti-Trump protester playing “The Star-Spangled Banner” balefully on his flute.

Trump’s most ardent defenders wanted to be here.

“I think history is going to look back at this trial and see that this was the beginning of the end for our country,” said Mike Davis, the conservative legal firebrand who has appointed himself as Trump’s “viceroy of D.C.” should he win a second term. He arrived in town at 1 a.m. after jetting here from a wedding in Nashville, and stood in the media corrals, defending the former president in a blitz of hits on right-leaning outlets.

Detractors were just as enthused, and all of them committed to the bit amid this historic backdrop.

“It’s kind of sleepy,” said Marni Halasa, a figure skating coach and part of what she called a “theatrical protest group.” She wore sequined boots and a leopard print leotard festooned with a flurry of fake $100 bills and held a sign that said “FELONY,” one of several costumed onlookers. Another man wore a Santa shirt and identified himself only as “Hungry Santa,” gave his age as “immortal,” and said he hailed from “the North Pole.” One impersonator dressed as Trump brought a bag of Chick-fil-A with him. Another person performed a parody skit as Donald Trump Jr.

Bill Christeson, a 70-year-old activist, came up from Washington. Asked whether the trial — and a possible conviction — would change the trajectory of the race, he whipped out a sign that read: “It’s not about the mushroom” — a bodily reference used by Stormy Daniels, the porn star at the center of the case — “follow the money.”

At one point in the morning, in dueling demonstrations, the former president’s supporters chanted, “Donald Trump did nothing wrong,” while his detractors chanted, “No one is above the law. Trump is not above the law.”

For both Trump’s supporters and antagonists, it was not only history they had come to see unfold. They were also bearing witness to what will count for much of the setting of his campaign trail, at least for the next several weeks or, possibly, months.

“In some ways, for four days a week, this is where the campaign has to be stationed,” said Andrew Giuliani, the son of the former New York City mayor and former personal attorney to Trump.

In an interview, Guiliani said he was here to support a politician who has been like an uncle to him. He cut a contrast in his suit and tie with some others in the small crowd who wore T-shirts — “LOUD MAJORITY,” one read.

He lamented what he called “these coordinated political prosecutions against Donald Trump.”

Cara Castronuova, a Newsmax personality and Republican candidate for U.S. Senate in New York, all but acknowledged the pro-Trump crowd was small, but noted the anti-Trump crowd was even smaller and less coordinated.

“I just think that people are kind of just tired of these trials, and they know that they really mean nothing between the persecution of Donald Trump throughout the country, Rudy Giuliani and all of his allies,” she said of the handful of Trump supporters in the park across the street from the courthouse.