NEW YORK — President Donald Trump didn’t get much of a warm welcome back from his not-so-dearly departed hometown.
Trump, who recently gave up his lifetime New York residency for Florida, faced “lock him up” chants and anti-Trump banners suspended from overlooking apartment windows as he kicked off the city’s Veterans Day parade in Madison Square Park in Manhattan on Monday.
Speaking behind bullet-proof plexiglass, Trump tried his best to drown out a throng of protesters shouting and blowing whistles outside the park’s west entrance.
“Our veterans risked everything for us. Now it is our duty to serve and protect them every single day of our lives,” Trump said, as a chorus of boos echoed in the distance.
“Lock him up! Lock him up! Lock him up!” a man with a megaphone could be heard shouting from an apartment window on Broadway.
Anti-Trump New Yorkers had also plastered windows overlooking the park with makeshift banners spelling out “IMPEACH,” “CONVICT” and “DUMP TRUMP.”
Trump became the first president to ever initiate New York City’s famed Veterans Day parade, which marked its 100th anniversary this year.
“It is truly an honor to come back to New York City, right here in Madison Square Park, to be the first president ever to attend,” Trump said.
Some 25,000 people, including veterans, active-duty members of the armed forces and others, marched a 1.2-mile stretch north along Fifth Avenue after Trump’s remarks. Trump did not participate in the parade, and was instead taken by car to his namesake skyscraper in Midtown after the speech.
Past presidents have typically spent Veterans Day at the Arlington National Ceremony in Virginia for a ceremonial wreath laying.
A number of Trump-skeptical New York politicians were in attendance Monday, including Mayor Bill de Blasio, who’s used to trading jabs with the president over Twitter.
Trump, who invariably calls de Blasio “incompetent” and “the worst mayor” in the country, struck an unusually cordial tone as he recognized Hizzoner from the podium.
“With us is New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio. Thank you very much, Mr. Mayor,” Trump said, gesturing with his right hand toward de Blasio, who was sitting in the audience.
Other notable attendees included First Lady Melania Trump, New York Sen. Chuck Schumer, Eric Trump, Lara Trump, outgoing NYPD Commissioner James O’Neill and disgraced ex-Fox News anchor Bill O’Reilly.
De Blasio did not interact with the president during the event, City Hall spokeswoman Freddi Goldstein said.
However, de Blasio was spotted shaking hands with Eric Trump on his way out of the park.
The mayor walked in the parade and said he was “glad the president kept it nonpolitical.”
“Look, it’s the hundredth anniversary of this parade. So I think it’s very appropriate that the president was here. This is not a day for partisanship,” de Blasio told reporters while taking a break along the Fifth Avenue parade route.
Outside Madison Square Park, dozens of protesters fired up by the fast-moving House impeachment inquiry touted signs mocking the president, including one saying “Draft Dodger,” a reference to his getting out of serving in Vietnam thanks to five draft deferments, including one for bone spurs.
A 52-year-old woman who only identified herself as Liz said she showed up for the protest to “support” veterans like her grandfather.
“My grandfather fought in World War II, he was a colonel and an immigrant from Russia. He would be horrified at the corruption and hate in the White House right now,” Liz said. “He was a Republican, but he was not a racist. He was completely committed to this country.”
Liz added of Trump, “There is no place in New York for him today.”
Bronx native Dennis Currier, a 72-year-old U.S. Army veteran of the Vietnam war, disagreed.
“It makes me feel proud of my country,” Currier said of Trump’s speech.
Of the protesters, Currier said, “I think they’re traitors, if they don’t like him, vote him out … like we’ve done for 200 years.”
