Donald Trump was greeted by hundreds chanting ‘USA, USA’ as he met union workers in New York on the morning of a monumental day in the courts.
The former president greeted teamsters on a construction site and signed MAGA hats as he prepared for another day of testimony in the Manhattan hush money trial.
Crowds of construction workers and supporters lined up through the night as they anxiously waited to catch a glimpse of their beloved former president.
Meanwhile, Trump’s lawyers are heading to the Supreme Court in Washington, D.C. on Thursday morning in attempts to persuade the nine justices that he is immune from prosecution.
‘This whole thing it’s election interference’ Trump told the crowd regarding his multiple legal battles before taking a shot at President Joe Biden.
‘We’re leading by a lot. He is the worst president in the history of our country. He makes Jimmy Carter look great.
‘He is destroying our country. Our country is going to hell.’ He then insisted it would take Biden ‘one phone call’ to close the border.
Supporters had started gathering shortly after 4AM, adorning themselves in signature red MAGA hats and carried flags and banners with them, one of which said ‘Trump won, save America’.
Construction workers at the site followed suit, also wearing MAGA hats, while others wore hard hats plastered in Trump stickers.
As his motorcade pulled up outside the site, the crowd broke into chats of ‘USA! USA! USA!’ before breaking into applause as Trump made his appearance.
The former President then spent the next 30 minutes signing hats and helmets, taking selfies with supporters and workers who waited anxiously to meet him.
After the motorcade left the area, the large group quickly dispersed with the majority of workers who had gathered for hours returning to the site.
After his stop in Manhattan, he will head downtown to court, where he will sit and listen to the third day of former National Enquirer publisher David Pecker’s testimony
Just a few hundred miles south of New York, the Supreme Court will consider on Thursday arguments that could have huge implications for Trump’s federal criminal trials.
‘Well, we have a big case today, the judge isn’t allowing me to go,’ he lamented.
He added of the Supreme Court case: ‘A president has to have immunity. If you don’t have immunity, you just have a ceremonial president.’
Trump claims that should not be prosecuted for election fraud or crimes linked to January 6 because he was president at the time.
Speaking to Fox News on Wednesday, Trump said that Judge Juan Merchan ‘thinks he is above the Supreme Court’, after he prohibited him from attending arguments on presidential immunity.
He told the outlet: ‘Because he thinks he is above the Supreme Court, he is prohibiting me from going to the presidential immunity hearing where some of the great legal scholars will be arguing the case — the most important case in many years on the Supreme Court.’
Judge Merchan is currently overseeing his hush money trial and has implemented a gag order barring Trump from attacking witnesses, jurors, trial prosecutors and some others.
On Thursday morning, Trump told reporters that he doesn’t know if he would pay fines if Merchan finds he has violated that gag order.
Trump said: ‘I have no idea. They’ve taken my constitutional right away with a gag order. That’s all it is. It’s election interference.’
Judge Merchan must decide whether to punish Trump for alleged violations of the gag order, prosecutors want the former President fined $1,000 for each ten alleged violations and to warn him of possible imprisonment should he continue.
Pecker ended his second day of testimony on Wednesday by laying out how he coordinated with Michael Cohen when Playboy model Karen McDougal came forward with affair allegations.
The tabloid executive also detailed how he would ‘catch and kill’ stories that could have hurt Trump and embellish headlines of the Republican’s rivals in the 2016 presidential race.
On Thursday he is set to continue testifying about McDougal and could also face questions about Stormy Daniels.
Trump’s meeting with union workers came less than 24 hours after rival Biden nabbed an endorsement from the North America’s Building Trades Union.
Biden hinted that his 2024 opponent deserves a punch and mocked his ‘bleached’ hair.
He then sparked mockery when he read the teleprompter word-for-word by saying: ‘Four more years. Pause’.
The president will also be in New York on Thursday, visiting Syracuse and Westchester to tout his economic agenda and participate in a campaign event, respectively.
Emily Foster is a globe-trotting journalist based in the UK. Her articles offer readers a global perspective on international events, exploring complex geopolitical issues and providing a nuanced view of the world’s most pressing challenges.
