It took some light pressure for 13-year-old Ben Shapiro to persuade his parents to wake up at the crack of dawn so that he could take the subway downtown for a chance to watch Trump stand trial in his New York hush money case on Tuesday.
“At first, they were like, ‘No, you’re not. That’s crazy,’” said Shapiro, a New Yorker who had the day off from school because of Passover. But they relented.
“We didn’t think he was serious — but then he wouldn’t stop asking about it,” Ben’s dad, Aaron Shapiro, said.
A judge at the court — a classmate’s father — told Ben to get to Centre Street before 7 a.m. He said he woke his mom up shortly after 5 a.m. to take the train with him to stand in line. The waiting paid off — Ben got a seat in the courtroom.
Just after 7 a.m., Owen Berenbom made the 10-minute trek to meet Hope Harrington outside her Upper West Side home. Childhood friends and both 14 years old, they took the subway downtown to Canal Street for a chance to see the courtroom action in person.
“This is the trial of the century,” said Owen, and he did not want to miss the opportunity to see it firsthand. Wearing a turquoise sweatshirt, he was seated in the overflow room with reporters and other members of the public who had lined up for a chance to see Trump and the attorneys defending and prosecuting him up close.
An aspiring lawyer, Hope said she has followed the coverage closely.
“I asked Owen how much he would bet that Trump falls asleep in the trial,” she said, peering over wire-rimmed glasses to chat before the judge gaveled in.
It took some work to persuade Hope’s parents to let her come to Centre Street — she said they would not let her go alone. And she has other obligations. “I had a lot of homework yesterday,” she said.
Ben was first in line and said he was surprised by how few New Yorkers had shown up. “There are only 12 people in the entire city?” he said, as the line trailed behind him.
He said he is not doing this because he wants to be a lawyer or even necessarily a journalist. He’s just interested in politics and “kind of” interested in seeing Trump, though it will probably be a one-time thing.
“I feel like after, like, five hours, it’ll kind of get boring,” he said. “You go once and you can be like, ‘I went there.’”