The Mishap Critics Noticed In Donald Trump's FDNY Pizza Delivery

Former president Donald Trump has been seen with slumped shoulders during his New York criminal trial, which is determining whether he illegally falsified business records to cover up payments made in the run-up to the 2016 election to keep women quiet over alleged affairs with Trump. However, Trump is in the unique position of being a defendant in a criminal trial and running for president. 

Since he has to be in court during his trial, that limits how much campaigning he can do and where, but he was able to make a campaign appearance at a midtown Manhattan fire station after court on May 2. He came bearing Xeno's Pizza to give to the firefighters and was met with applause. But some eagle-eyed critics seemed to think that Trump wasn't actually carrying pizza at all. The angle at which the boxes were held and how Trump gestured while carrying them led some to think that the boxes were empty.

Watch how Trump transports these pizza boxes. pic.twitter.com/VggpfHrVhR

— PatriotTakes 🇺🇸 (@patriottakes) May 3, 2024

One person posted on X, formerly known as Twitter, "It'[s] apparent trump has never walked with a pizza box before. Or they're empty boxes." Others seemed to agree. "He's never carried pizzas or he's losing his coordination, either way there's cheese all over the place in those boxes," another person said, while still others thought one of the pizza boxes Trump was carrying was upside down.

After handing off the pizza boxes, which may or may not have contained pizza, Donald Trump's 10-minute visit at the fire station involved going on a tour, taking photos with some of the firefighters, and signing a book. His trouble with critics didn't end with the pizza boxes though. When Donald posted about the visit on Truth Social, he apparently first referred to visiting the NYFD — notably, the official name is the Fire Department of the City of New York and is abbreviated FDNY, not NYFD. The Truth Social posts with the typos seem to have been corrected, but not before they were screenshotted and shared on X by, among others, Ron Filipowski, editor-in-chief of liberal news site Meidas Touch. Filipowski wrote, "The real NYC 'Man of the People' doesn't know it's FDNY despite spending his entire life in the city."

While Donald grew up in Queens and lived in New York City much of his adult life — notably descending a golden escalator at Trump Tower in 2015 to announce his first run for the presidency — in 2020, he filed to make Florida his official state of residence. Donald and Melania Trump now live full-time at Mar-a-Lago in Palm Beach. Melania has not yet made an appearance at Donald's criminal trial, nor have any family members, beyond his son Eric Trump, and none were seen with him at the FDNY visit.