Liberty snubbed
Don skipping opening of statue museum
President Trump is ditching Thursday’s opening of the Statue of Liberty Museum because he doesn’t want to hobnob with New York Dems, opting instead to stick with a more receptive right-wing crowd in the Rose Garden at the unveiling of a new immigration plan, according to sources familiar with the matter.
The White House was nearly all set on having Trump attend the Liberty Island shindig, which comes after two years of museum construction estimated to have cost $100 million, sources told the Daily News.
Secret Service officials swarmed the island last week to make security arrangements for the president, with tentative plans to shut down New York Harbor on Thursday morning, according to the sources.
But the White House backed off late last week after realizing Trump was likely not going to be well received by the heavily Democratic crowd, a source close to the event said.
Among the names on the extravagant guest list are Trump nemeses like Gov. Cuomo, Mayor de Blasio, Rep. Jerrold Nadler and Sen. Chuck Schumer as well as liberal New York socialites like Diane von Fürstenberg, who’s a member of the new museum’s board.
“These are not people who want to be seen with the president, period,” the source close to the event said. “Reality came to pass and the White House realized that they didn’t need [to attend].”
Moreover, Thursday’s event is expected to focus on the benefits of immigration, which would likely shine a less-thanflattering spotlight on Trump’s own pugnacious immigrantbashing rhetoric.
A White House official declined to comment beyond saying that Trump isn’t scheduled to attend the museum opening.
Instead, Trump is expected to stay in Washington to unveil a hard-line immigration plan that his administration is hoping to get through Congress.
Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner and senior adviser Stephen Miller were dispatched to Capitol Hill on Tuesday to pitch Republican senators on the plan.
While specifics are unknown, the plan is expected to call for beefed-up border security measures and a preference for immigrants with strong professional skills over relatives of migrants already in the country.
Some Republicans were not impressed with the KushnerMiller presentation. Moderate Maine Sen. Susan Collins told reporters the Trump advisers had given no assurances on extended protections for beneficiaries of the Obama-era Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program.
“They cannot be excluded from any immigration package,” she said.
Trump-loyal South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham also appeared at odds with parts of the plan, saying immigrants with all types of expertise are needed, not just highskilled applicants. “We need workers across the board,” Graham said.
Back in New York, Democrats and other guests are expected to take in the spectacular, 26,000-square-foot museum on Liberty Island.
The museum houses Lady Liberty’s original torch and other artifacts and will be open to anyone who comes to the island, with admission included in the ferry ticket.
From the outside, the museum’s glass walls and coppercolored roof appear to be rising out of the earth, with a giant staircase rising to a rooftop terrace at the center.
The structure is meant to connect to Lady Liberty, using the same granite that’s part of the statue pedestal and including copper as a nod to the recognizable light-green metal the statue is famous for.
It’s designed to make sure few will forget the trademark poem by Emma Lazarus that’s inscribed on a statue plaque reading, “Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free.”