A few Trump supporters stay in the park outside the courthouse to wave at his motorcade at the end of the day.Andrea Renault/STAR MAX/IPx/AP

Donald Trump can’t stop complaining that his fans are being barred from showing their support for him outside the Manhattan courthouse where he’s on trial.

On Monday, he told reporters that “they” had brought in extra police to lock down the area around the New York Supreme Court building at 111 Centre Street in Manhattan, specifically to keep his backers away.

“And by the way, outside looks like it’s supposed to be Fort Knox. There are more police than I’ve ever seen anywhere because they don’t want to have anybody come down,” Trump told reporters. “There’s not a civilian within three blocks of the courthouse, but at Columbia University they can set up a tent and burn down the doors right opposite the front entrance. It’s a disgrace.”

Trump never explained who “they” is, but regardless, he is wrong.

Nobody is preventing large crowds of Trump followers from coming to the courthouse. There just aren’t any large crowds of Trump followers trying to do that. In fact, on some days when I’ve attended the trial, there didn’t appear to be any Trump supporters outside the courthouse. And while there are indeed quite a few police officers, including officers assigned from other nearby courthouses, the area is not locked down like Fort Knox.

Immediately to the north of the courthouse is Canal Street, where Chinatown and Little Italy intersect, and at any given moment during the day there are thousands of people, mostly tourists, wandering and browsing for........

© Mother Jones