The corner of New York City’s 5th Avenue and 56th Street is typically dotted with shoppers, designer goods and more than one reaction to the famous building casting its shadow over the block. Images of Donald Trump’s “Fight Fight Fight” are held in the air, others choose to put a choice finger in the air, merchants hawk T-shirts with the president’s mugshot. A few buskers hope to sell MAGA hats to anyone who breaks stride.
On Thursday, that typical NYC chaos turned into actual – but short-lived – chaos. MAGA-red was replaced by protest red and cop blue as protestors were dragged outside the famous tower after “occupying” it.
“Free Mahmoud! Free them all!” protestors shouted from the street as they watched about 100 detainees marched onto NYPD buses.
Around noon, about 150 pro-Palestine protesters flooded Trump Tower. Some waved banners demanding: “Fight Nazis, not students.” They wanted a free Palestine and the release of a former Columbia student for his alleged role in protests on campus last year in the wake of Israel’s response to the October 7 Hamas attacks.
“We see that the president is taking action in the name of combating anti-semitism,” Jay Saper, with Jewish Voices for Peace, told The Independent. “And so we’re here to say, get our name out of your mouth. This is not about Jewish safety. This is about an attack on students.” Saper estimated 300 demonstrators occupied Trump Tower.
Mahmoud Khalil, a recent Columbia University graduate, was arrested Saturday and had his green card revoked. He was processed for deportation for his “advocacy for Palestinian rights,” as his lawyer put it. The Trump administration, however, painted him as “pro-Hamas” for his role in the campus protests.
Protests erupted on the Ivy League campus last year, demanding the university divest from Israel in the wake of its attack on Gaza. The protests lasted for weeks and ended with police breaking them up. They became fodder for the right to say education was pushing “leftist ideals.” Khalil mediated between university officials and the activists and students who demonstrated, his supporters claim.
The Columbia Jewish Alumni Association called him a “ringleader” of the chaos on campus. The university has investigated several allegations against him, most recently whether he violated university policy by calling a dean “genocidal.”
“This is the first arrest of many to come,” Trump warned in a post on Truth Social Monday. “We know there are more students at Columbia and other universities across the country who have engaged in pro-terrorist, anti-Semitic, anti-American activity, and the Trump Administration will not tolerate it.”
Khalil is now being held in a Louisiana jail as his lawyers fight his deportation.
The protesters, angered by the president’s move and the continued holding of Khalil, decided to make 5th Avenue their town square. About an hour after the demonstration began, NYPD cops lined the streets. Barricades prevented entry to Trump Tower. A helicopter and drones buzzed overhead.
“We will not comply, Mahmoud we are on your side!” some people shouted from behind the steel barricades.
By 1.30 p.m., about 100 red-shirted protesters were hauled out of the building. They stood in a single-file line, their hands cuffed behind their backs, before being boarded onto a city bus. They were arrested on charges of trespassing, obstructing government administration and resisting arrest, police told NBC News, noting there were no injuries or damage to property.
As the protestors stood in a line waiting to board the bus, a few passersby shouted for them to take off their masks and called them offensive terms.
When asked about whether Saper and other organizers were afraid to act, given this divisive political climate and apparent harassment on sidewalks, Saper said they find “strength in community.”
“What we’re seeing is that the president is emboldening people to attack our movements and attack people who are taking action for justice, and I know that I find strength in community,” they said.
The organization is striving to “build a world that doesn’t support fascism, to build a world where everybody gets to live in their homes without fear that bombs will be dropped upon them, to be able to graduate from college without fear of being deported, deported,” Saper said. “It’s OK to be afraid and to do something brave at the same time.”
By 1.50 p.m., the inside of Trump Tower looked untouched. A massive American flag hung down from the ceiling. A handful of probable tourists strolled each floor. The golden escalator, the same one that Trump rode down 10 years ago to announce his candidacy, glistened.
A white-gloved doorman outside of Trump Tower said he didn’t see anything; the entire event transpired while he was on his lunch break.
The protestors were gone. The corner had returned to normal. The newest chaos had subsided.
