The protests that erupted in cities nationwide after the surprise presidential election of Donald Trump Tuesday are continuing into their fourth day. In New York this afternoon, Michael Moore, whose anti-Donald doc Michael Moore in Trumpland was an October Surprise that couldn’t compete with the FBI’s, was turned away from Trump Tower on Fifth Avenue, with press pool reports saying he left a Roger & Me-type note for his nemesis: “Mr. Trump. I’m here. I want to talk to you.”
Moore reportedly entered Manhattan’s Trump Tower, the president-elect’s residence, just after 1 p.m. ET, taking escalators to a fourth-floor elevator bank when he was stopped by Secret Service.
He later tweeted:
The pool report says Moore left the note for Trump after being rebuffed at the fourth-floor elevator bank.
Today’s protest in New York, with marchers walking from Union Square on 14th Street to Trump Tower near 57th Street, grew in size throughout the afternoon. Shortly after 5 p.m. ET, CNN was estimating the crowd at 10,000.
Moore’s request for a Trump meeting is the second such attempt by an outspoken critic in as many days: On last night’s Real Time With Bill Maher, the HBO host invited the president-elect onto his show sometime after the series returns from hiatus in January.
The protests in New York – 11 demonstrators were arrested last night – was just one of the many anti-Trump demonstrations taking place today. Similar protests have been ongoing in Miami, Atlanta, Charleston and Portland, Oregon among other cities. In Los Angeles, an estimated 8,000 demonstrators have gathered in downtown as part of a march that begin at 10 AM in MacArthur Park. Unlike last night’s demonstration, which saw the arrests of 187 adults and eight juvenile protesters by LAPD, this morning’s protest has been peaceful, with attendees carrying signs and chanting slogans identifying core grievances, chief among them Trump’s policy preferences and campaign rhetoric that were widely criticized as racist during the election season.
The protests in Los Angeles are the first in the city to occur during daytime hours – previous protests have taken place at night. News networks are reporting that LAPD is trying to clear the streets near MacArthur Park, which remain blocked.
While Moore was protesting in Manhattan, MSNBC re-ran his Morning Joe panel appearance from Friday almost in its entirety. Moore lambasted not only Trump, but Democrats who betrayed the Flint residents whose drinking water has been poisoned by lead. When Barack Obama drank the water last summer as a sign of its safety, “it was like a knife in the heart of the people of Flint, a black city,” Moore said.
He also criticized the pundits of Morning Joe, who laughed last summer at the notion that Trump spent more money on red ball caps than polls and “a ground game.”
“‘They have no ground game! They have no ground game!’,” Moore mocked. “Are you kidding me? Their ground game started 30 years ago.”
