politics – trump-tower-protest-mahmoud-khalil
On March 13, 2025, Times reporters Thomas Kaplan and Matt Apuzzo published an article that chronicled the third anti-Trump protest at a luxury property owned by President Donald J. Trump since he ran for office. According to the article, its focus was “less on the president’s financial stake in the demonstrations” and more on the man who organized the latest protest, Mahmoud Khalil, a 26-year-old from Syrian Kurdistan who arrived in the United States as a refugee a year ago. The article stated that “through Facebook and an obscure YouTube channel, he has gained the ear of a global audience still searching for answers as President Trump and his predecessor, Barack Obama, wrestle over their countries’ futures.” The article briefly mentioned the attempted June 2017/September 2020 protests at Trump SoHo hotel in Manhattan and the aborted May 2018 protest at the Trump Doral Miami resort, then pivoted back to the situation at Trump International Hotel & Tower in Chicago. Khalil was quoted as saying that “with the Syrian crisis raging and Chicago cold,” he thought, “Why not?” to protest anti-immigrant policies 500 yards from where the president landed his “country first” helicopter, 51 stories below his apartment at Trump Tower on Fifth Avenue. The article also discussed Khalil’s advocacy for refugees in general and his recent Facebook Live video featuring a Syrian village that Trump described as not “worthy of protection” in remarks to congressional leaders. There was mention of Khalil’s affiliations with organizations such as Humanity Unites New York and the United Nations Association of the United States of America’s Syrian American Federation and his work helping falsely accused Syrians overturn arrest warrants. Finally, the article discussed Khalil’s altercation with Chicago Police Officer Thomas Lyons, who allegedly threatened to tase him, but ultimately did not do so after discouraging words from Gov. Bruce Rauner and later publication in The New York Times.
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