Patchouli-scented liberals, fur-clad performance artists and a small army of television reporters jostling for a few square feet of sidewalk — Manhattan’s weirdest new club is located just steps outside of Manhattan Criminal Court as spectators gather ahead of a possible felony indictment of former President Donald Trump.
Curious onlookers and reporters began camping outside of the courthouse in earnest on Monday following comments made by Trump on Truth Social over the weekend, in which he insisted he'd be arrested on Tuesday and called on his supporters to protest.
Tuesday came and went without an arrest or much of an outcry from Trump fans. But that didn't stop droves of reporters — and, to a lesser extent, supporters and protesters — from posting up outside the courthouse, aching for a glimpse of a potentially historic occasion.
“It’s definitely a historical moment in American history and something that’s unprecedented,” said John Paul Marcelo, a traveling artist painting a depiction of the Manhattan courthouse’s hulking tan facade. “I figured I would document the moment.”
While the scene outside of the courthouse on Tuesday featured an odd assortment of performance, protest, and paraphernalia, the momentum slowed by Wednesday afternoon.
“I want to go home,” lamented one cameraman with a sigh.
“Nothing for days,” another joked.
Those whose attendance wasn’t contractually obligated seemed unfazed by the delay.
A man with long gray locks paced around the courthouse’s perimeter, ringing a bell and waving a wooden crucifix. Another slurped a Foster's through a straw and shouted about how the election was stolen. A subway DJ blasted tunes through a loudspeaker, taking requests from passersby.
On social media, New Yorkers stumbling across the horde of people outside of the courthouse joked that the scene resembled a tailgate. Meanwhile, others took to vlogging their experience as they awaited a decision, like public defender Eliza Orlins, who previously ran for Manhattan district attorney.
Laurie Arbeiter, a 64-year-old Brooklyn resident waving an “Arrest Trump sign,” said she hoped an indictment would be “an opportunity for us to examine who we want to be as a people.”
“This type of harm has no borders,” she said, though it wasn’t clear if she was referring to the $130,000 in hush payments paid to former adult film star Stormy Daniels ahead of the 2016 presidential election, or if she was speaking more broadly.
By midday, news broke that the grand jury had also been told to stay home on Wednesday. The reasons for the reported delay were unclear.
Trump, meanwhile, was posting on Truth Social through the whole ordeal.
“The Rogue prosecutor, who is having a hard time with the Grand Jury…is attempting to build a case that has NEVER BEEN BROUGHT BEFORE AND ACTUALLY, CAN’T BE BROUGHT,” he wrote Wednesday morning. “If he spent this time, effort, and money on fighting VIOLENT CRIME, which is destroying NYC, our once beautiful and safe Manhattan, which has become an absolute HELLHOLE, would be a much better place to live!”
