Donald Trump is heading to New York City on Thursday, his first visit since taking the oath of office in January. He is not going to be in his home city for very long:
His 107-day absence, friends say, is the longest stretch he has spent outside of New York since he was born in Queens in 1946.
Yet the President isn't returning for long. He is scheduled to meet Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull, who will join Trump at the 75th Anniversary of the Battle of the Coral Sea aboard the USS Intrepid, the aircraft carrier-turned-museum parked along Manhattan's West Side.
Friends close to Trump and former campaign advisers tell CNN the homecoming could be clarifying for the President, a one-time New York standard whose name is plastered around Manhattan -- usually in gold. Some acknowledged his loneliness and longing for New York.
According to CNN, he’s speaking on the USS Intrepid and then flying off, likely fearful of the crowds that would gather near his wife and son’s home in Trump Tower.
Nevertheless, protesters say they are ready:
But Trump is unlikely to get a friendly reception. Several protests are planned across the city, including near the USS Intrepid and his home at Trump Tower, threatening to snarl streets and produce images of a city rejecting its famous native son.
"Thousands of people are ready to protest Donald Trump," said Steven Choi, executive director of the New York Immigration Coalition which is co-organizing one of the large-scale protests. "On the president's first trip back to New York City, the world will see us rise up and oppose him again."
If previous Trump protests are an indicator, Trump’s going to hear it from his former neighbors.
This trip marks one of the few times Donald Trump has ventured out of the southern United States while president, spending most of his time in D.C., Virginia and Florida. Of course, after his speech on the USS Intrepid, he’ll need some time off to relax and where better to do that than (drumroll, please) … a Trump-owned golf course in New Jersey? That’s right. Another weekend, another promotional tour of Trump-owned properties. On your tax dollars. Golf cart rentals for Secret Service agents, fully booked golf cottages on the course, restaurants at capacity with staff and security. Day after day, week after week, Trump’s presidency brings high profits for his own properties. And Congress does nothing.