NEW YORK – The leadership of the New York Young Republican Club, a far-right group, wants to be very clear: It’s actually a good thing that only a handful of Donald Trump supporters showed up to Monday’s pro-Trump rally in his face. the city. Manhattan District Attorney’s Office.
“We kept it small on purpose,” club president Gavin Wax told HuffPost.
“I think there are more cameras than people here,” noted Vish Burra, the club’s executive secretary and staffer for Rep. George Santos (RN.Y.).
“I would prefer a smaller turnout,” said Troy Olson, a sergeant-at-arms.
Turnout cannot be reduced much. Despite Trump’s call just days before the “Take Our Nation Back Protest” pending years of criminal charges quiet money payments for adult actor Stormy Daniels, members of the media far outnumbered Trump supporters at the rally.
As a result, Monday’s event turned into a media zoo for endangered Republicans, some of whom asked for interviews while others hid their faces for fear of being identified.
“I had about 50 cameras with me!” exclaimed one man, his face covered by an American flag mask, before looking secretly excited that he would probably be in the paper tomorrow.
Above all, there was paranoia: The media and the feds were looking for Trump supporters, those present said.
“They’re trying to incite something, violence,” said Braxton Foley, 15, referring to the gathered reporters. Then the self-described “paleocon” went on his podcast. “I have 5,000 subscribers so…”
A woman who declined to give her full name noted that if Trump were indeed arrested, “there are a lot of patriots in this country who would not accept that.” He stopped short, saying any protest would be peaceful.
A man wearing an “ATF” hat — an alleged right-wing Internet troll in nature — told HuffPost he didn’t expect a Jan. 6-style reaction to Trump’s potential impeachment. The prosecutions for the riot that day “scared a lot of people,” he said. But, the man added, “I’d like to see what happens.”
Another man, who did not release his name, sat on a park bench playing an out-of-tune guitar with the words “HANG JAWS AND GATES” written on it.
When asked by HuffPost if he wanted to hang Fauci, he clarified.
“No. We want to torture him for three years first,” she said, later adding: “Take out his eyes, let him live with one eye and, like, he’s bleeding.”
Dozens of reporters were hustling, desperate for interviews, waiting for the New York Young Republican Club press conference to begin. A reporter started asking someone questions before it became clear that he too was a reporter.
When Wax finally launched into his speech, he emphasized that Trump supporters should peacefully protest the former president’s impending arrest. But she took a very different tone at a black-tie gala she hosted in Manhattan late last year.
“We want total war,” he said in his December speech as he discussed the supposed enemies of the MAGA movement. “We have to be ready to fight in every arena. In the media. In class. At the polls. And on the streets.”
Among the crowds that night, according to a report by the Southern Poverty Law Center, were white nationalists and members of an Austrian political party formed from members of the Nazi Party during World War II. Also in attendance was Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.).
“This is the only language the left understands,” Wax said. “The language of pure and genuine power.”
Wax also has a history of supporting the Proud Boys, the violent neo-fascist gang whose leaders were charged with seditious conspiracy for their role in the January 6, 2021 attack on the Capitol. He once attended a speech in Manhattan by Proud Boys founder Gavin McInnes, during which McInnes recalled the 1960 assassination of the leader of Japan’s Socialist Party, killed with a samurai sword by a far-right activist on television.
It was unclear how much of the assembled media knew about Wax’s history of extremism. Many were there to get footage for the evening news, which might have been unusable because of a man who repeatedly interrupted Wax’s speech by yelling “Shit! and “Damn Trump!”
Earlier, surveying the crowd, Wax assured reporters crowding around him that Trump’s base was alive and well, but not today, and not in New York City.
“Everybody can make fun of how many people are here, but this is lower Manhattan, I mean it’s not Tennessee, it’s not Alabama,” he said. “Someone like Trump has no problem drawing crowds.”
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