Donald Trump took a break from the campaign trail on Wednesday to attend the tremendously grand opening of his new Washington, D.C., hotel—you know, the one he keeps talking about at random points in debates and campaign speeches—and was greeted by unions and other protesters. Here’s the funny part:
Trump hatched a unique plan top keep opponents away from his event. A subsidiary of Trump’s company applied for its own public space permit for Wednesday morning, which could have given the magnate some control of the sidewalk along Pennsylvania Avenue and possibly forced protesters across the street. [...]
Permits are typically issued on a first-come, first-serve basis and different groups are sometimes given different sections of space on the sidewalk or street.
For Wednesday’s event, Trump was second in line in terms of requests, but late Tuesday withdrew its request. Permits went to the local chapter of the AFL-CIO, which received permission to form a picket line to support workers at a Trump hotel in Las Vegas, similar to a previous event the group held recently.
After decades in the hotel business and more than a year of presidential campaigning, neither the Trump business nor the Trump campaign had its act together enough to get the permit for the sidewalk. That’s some serious organizational incompetence right there.
Politico estimates that “the crowd number[ed] roughly 150 by the time the event was set to begin.”