At GOP Gala in NYC, Talk of Jobs, Borders and Alpha Males

Pictured: Ted Cruz addresses a room of Manhattan Republicans. Photos by John V. Santore

MIDTOWN MANHATTAN, NY — As protesters took over the streets below Manhattan's Grand Hyatt hotel on Thursday night, a long line of formally attired GOP members at this year's New York State Republican Gala fundraiser waited for more than 30 minutes for their turn to pass through a security checkpoint.

"Have you ever been to AIPAC?" one man in line said, referring to an annual conference run by the American Israel Public Affairs Committee. "They have a lot more metal detectors there."

Anti-GOP protesters outside the Grand Hyatt hold a sign that reads, "Down with racism and anti-immigrant bigotry"

The only guests advancing with relative speed were VIPs like former New York governor — and former presidential candidate — George Pataki, who later in the evening endorsed Ohio governor John Kasich in the vortex of a media scrum.

Over a plate of appetizers outside the ballroom where the gala would take place, Staten Island resident Donna Fagan said she raises money for charity. Asked which candidate had her support, she said: "Donald, baby!"

Trump "says it like it is," Fagan explained. And unlike the other candidates, she said, he's not a politician — a word she associates with people who are "sleazy, lying, grubbing, always looking for something for free."

Under a Trump presidency, she said, "it won't be business as usual."

A Teamster supporting Donald Trump outside the GOP Gala

Although Fagan admitted to feeling safe in New York, she said that without the increased national security on Trump's agenda, "there's nothing worth anything."

"He's tough, he doesn't take any crap, and he's going to make us what we were: a force to be reckoned with," she said of Trump. "I'll be screaming later, don't worry."

As promised, during Trump's speech, Fagan stood and waved her napkin overhead while yelling out support — leading the candidate himself to pause and question if she was a supporter or a heckler.

An attendee who asked to be called Pierre said he was a 54-year-old immigrant from Haiti who has lived in Queens for years.

Pierre said he has long identified with Republican Party values like family, education and hard work.

As a fellow black American, Pierre said, he "really wanted" Obama to succeed after the "prideful moment" he was elected president.

But Pierre said his hope faded fast. "I was especially disappointed with [the Affordable Care Act], how it was done," he said, noting that he has 10 doctors in his family.

"I thought he was going to unite us instead of divide us," Pierre continued. He said he regretted Obama's "demagoguery."

Asked about a recent estimate that Trump's tax plans — as well as that of Texas senator Ted Cruz — would reduce federal revenues by $9.5 trillion and $8.6 trillion respectively over a decade, Pierre said: "That's concerning, but you have to look at the whole picture. Cut the fat. Government doesn't need to be that big."

Before dinner, a trio of singers performed a harmonic rendition of the national anthem

A woman attending the gala named Dee, another Trump supporter in her mid-30s, said the NYC businessman is "intimately aware of what New Yorkers, and more generally Americans, expect and what they need."

"The economy is critical," she said. Dee talked up Trump's business background — which she also took as evidence that his charged campaign rhetoric may not be indicative of his true nature.

"I don't think you can be a successful businessman unless you can work well with people," she said.

Inside the ballroom, Trump spent at least half his speech discussing his real-estate successes in the city, including the Grand Hyatt itself — his first Manhattan project — and the Wollman Rink in Central Park.

"I've never been interested in an election before," said Manhattanite Victoria Exnicios, a communications consultant with a master's degree in counselor education.

Exnicious said she was drawn into the race by the "diversity" of candidates running, but gravitated toward Trump because he's an "alpha male."

Obama, by comparison, seems like a nice person, Exnicios said, but is instead a "beta male."

"We need some 'get it done' [attitude]," Exnicious said. "I need to have more confidence in the leader."

Julie Killian, running for a State Senate seat just north of NYC, said she cares about "getting rid of corruption in New York state" and Washington alike.

She expressed particular concern for those suffering from substance abuse, and called on "coalitions on the grassroots level" to address the problem.

The government often (unfairly) cuts off welfare payments, Killian said, if beneficiaries start earning extra income by working.

Asked about the impact Trump and Cruz' tax plans would have on federal revenues — and therefore on welfare — Killian responded: "I want our tax dollars to be spent wisely. I am very nervous about cutting off good programs."

However, she said she thinks federal budgeting puts too much focus on "inputs" and not enough on "outputs" — aka, program effectiveness.

"We never get rid of anything" that doesn't work, she argued.

Dinner at the fundraiser — which according to Fagan, cost $1,000 per seat — was served on tables set with small chocolate elephants with strawberries inside.

As attendees ate their chocolate and strawberries, John Kasich discussed the "tremendous anxiety" economic insecurity has caused the American people, and recalled his own hard-scrabble upbringing in a working-class family.

"You can feed on [voters'] anxiety and cause anger and division," Kasich said — a clear reference to Trump — "or you can talk to them about how we solve those problems. When we live in the dark, when we practice politics in the dark, people don't like it."

Cruz was the last to speak. He led with a discussion of national security — emphasizing his support for Israel and calling for the revocation of Obama's recent deal with Iran.

While multiple reports concluded that the crowd seemed uninterested in the candidate, Kasich had spoken over the din of diners as well. And Cruz did at least draw some applause when he sized up the Democratic Party's two remaining candidates as a "wild-eyed socialist with ideas that are dangerous for American and the world, and Bernie Sanders."

Outside, retired NYPD officer and East New York native Marilyn Miller said she was impressed by all three candidates, but above all wanted to be a delegate for Trump at the party's national convention.

Miller, who is African-American, said she campaigned for Obama in 2008, but switched to the GOP in 2012 after the president's policies "failed black people."

Earlier Thursday night, Trump had spoken at a Republican fundraiser in Patchogue, Long Island — not far from the spot Ecuadorean immigrant Marcelo Lucero was murdered in a 2008 hate crime.

Throughout his campaign, Trump has called for a wall to be built between the United States and Mexico, and has said all undocumented residents in the U.S. should be deported.

Protesters in Patchogue said Trump was exploiting Lucero's murder for political gain.

"This is not easy for me,” Lucero's brother, Joselo, told Patch. “For the last seven years, I’ve tried to build a community between the immigrants and the local people, but what do I have? I have a slap in my face that [Trump’s anti-immigrant rhetoric] is okay.”

Back in Manhattan, though, Miller defended Trump's record.

"People keep saying that he's a racist. He is not a racist," she said. "He wants to be for all people."

Miller applauded loudly over dinner as Trump discussed his concept of "New York values," which included resilience after the Sep. 11th attacks.

Miller said she was a first responder on that day, and knew 23 officers who died in the former World Trade Center towers.

And although Trump personally lacks government or military experience, Miller said she believes he'll surround himself with the right security advisers to protect the nation.

"I want someone to stand up for closing the borders," she said. "Trump is that person who is going to make us safe."