For the past several years of Trump’s term in office, protesters have routinely gathered outside the Trump National Golf Club. Despite its Capitol claims, it isn’t in Washington, DC but in a suburban neighborhood in Northern VA bordering the Potomac. The protesters are local even though some images of the protests have gone internationally viral, including a large protest when the Senior PGA Championship was held here three years ago.
It’s taken Trump’s beleaguered and reluctant re-election campaign for his supporters to finally show in numbers. And they have come, not wearing masks, not social distancing, not really doing anything but bragging on MAGA fumes.
Trump was supposed to hold a rally in New Hampshire today, but after a pit-stop at Doral on Friday and a check on the weather, he called it off. And then went golfing. Like his groupies at previous rallies at Tulsa, OK and Phoenix, AZ, his supporters showed up outside the golf course along with their raucous insensitivity and bad behavior They left their neighbors and neighborhood the worse for it.
The morning arrivals
Poor Brett Samuels, the WH Pool Reporter for today. His morning began at 9:19 a.m. with COVID testing and departure to “an undisclosed location.” Since I was onsite for Trump’s arrival at 9:58 a.m. I decided to update Mr. Samuel and give more detail to his arrival report with a quick photo.
(All in all, he helped WOAT—worst of all time trend on Twitter. I noticed afterward that “No Justice No Peace” wasn’t written in chalk, it was spray-painted in white as was “Black Lives Matter” several yards further away.)
Last week, LCSO held the other end of the sign
The motorcade left at 2:10 p.m. During that period of time, according to Mr. Samuels, the White House offered no information about Trump’s activities for the day. One NBC reporter was able to take a long-distance photo of him on the golf course and noted that he had a photographer on-site, which was unusual.
The afternoon departures
Mr. Samuels caught more of the crowd’s shouting and signs than my footage did. Although we both saw the “Putin’s Apprentice” display across the street. Most supporters of Trump shouted slogans related to his re-election or words of admiration for him as President. The most consistent shouts of protesters were “Traitor”, chants about COVID death, and the Russian bounty for U.S. soldiers.
The neighborhood aftermath
Just one weekend ago, Trump arrived and left much the same as other times. Protesters were visible, but as written about before, Secret Service didn’t come down to monitor the curb. On that particular Friday before July 4, they didn’t even block off traffic as they departed.
It was the Sunday after July 4 that maskless Trump supporters started to show up and mingle with protesters. Up until that time, counter-protesters who did come, were usually a small group of women. They would stand across the street with flags or Trump/Pence swag. There were a few barbs shouted across the street, but mostly in jest as the people knew each other by name. They were neighbors.
This was pre-COVID. This was pre-election ramp up.
Now there are more men among the Trump supporters. None are wearing masks. They aren’t interested in making jests. They are interested in amplifying their own bravado.
The protesters are mostly female. Today they used their creativity to sing a rendition of “I beg your pardon, I want you out of the Rose Garden” or “Along came Mary” to lampoon Trump about his niece, Mary’s, book. Trumpers, who aren't fond of wearing masks found it more entertaining to try and cough on a protester. Even worse, today two men got physical. The Trump supporter initiated the incident by shoving a protestor, who then pushed back. The two men live closeby in the same neighborhood.
All of this comes with the territory of public protesting. This is a far cry from negotiating between tear gas and helicopter blades. Still, the irony of it all is the failure to see just how worse everything is getting and who is making it so.
We’re going to have to live with each other and live with what happened for years to come.