NEW YORK ― Donald Trump used to love this city, but apart from a minority of voters and (possibly) the wife he left in Manhattan, the city just doesn’t love him back.
The president was late to his own homecoming ceremony Thursday ― he had to make a quick detour to D.C. to celebrate the successful House passage of the American Health Care Act ― which would be his first official visit home since his inauguration.
But the only constant in New York is change, and if Trump were to walk through the streets he once knew, he’d find a city that had both moved on without him and loathed his return. While hundreds of protesters met him during his visit to an Intrepid museum event, a smattering of a hundred more held court at Trump Tower to boo his return.
Over at the swanky Jean-Georges restaurant inside Trump International Hotel, he would find no warm welcome. The meal of frog legs and garlic soup he so fondly shared with Mitt Romney last year was no longer on the menu. Did it signal standard menu turnover at a Michelin-starred restaurant, or was it a sign that the president had finally lost all grip on his city? We may never know.
But in all fairness, Trump would be delighted to learn that two of his supporters dined there for lunch, though his glee might be short-lived. Those supporters seemed to worry only for Melania Trump, who, despite braving a transition from private to public life, apparently would not be sharing the night with her husband. After a short visit at the Intrepid Sea, Air and Space Museum, Trump whisked himself away to New Jersey.
“Oh, that poor woman!” said Debbie Duggan, 60, of California, fresh off a plate of poached eggs and mushrooms. “We have to give her a break, and God bless her for trying to stay in that marriage ... Why would he do that [become president]? They had such a beautiful life, they had everything.”
To the west, Trump would surely be disgusted to find that the well-done, ketchup-bastardized meat he orders at one of his other highfalutin haunts, 21 Club, was back to its marbled blue glory. An Australian couple vacationing from Melbourne noted ― after dining on “very good, very red lamb chops” ― that Trump’s arrival on Thursday did have at least some impact: His impending speech on the dock-bound aircraft carrier, the Intrepid, would undoubtedly delay their cruise on the Hudson River.
Bartenders, meanwhile, said the restaurant still enjoyed its crowds and celebrities despite Trump’s exodus.
Walking home, the president would have seen his worst nightmare: Trump Tower, his gigantic erection standing in the face of every architect and business owner on Fifth Avenue, was attracting only a smattering of photo-taking tourists and even more protesters three blocks away chanting for his removal from office. Police lined the streets with barricades, and a dozen massive dump trucks filled with sand to act as a barrier in front of the building.
Oh, and the lying mainstream media was also there, covering the crowd of people expressing their disdain for the “dealmaker.”
The only welcoming party Trump may have actually seen Thursday was the crowd of protesters across the street from the Intrepid, where he was scheduled to speak after 7 p.m.
“No, he’s not welcome in New York City,” said one of those protesters, Renee Leehim, 31, of Harlem. “We’ve been gentrified, our schools don’t have libraries, and he’s just not here. We feel like this isn’t our president — and he should probably stop going to Florida and, back in New York, stop charging us while we pay already high rent.”
Trump was once hailed as a savior of old New York. But this is New York now. And he’ll never be our savior.