Donald J. Trump arrived in New York on Monday, kicking off a 24-hour visit that will culminate with a polarizing arraignment in the city where he grew up and rose to the fame that catapulted him to the presidency.
Mr. Trump’s red-white-and-blue personal plane, emblazoned with his last name, flew over the East River and landed at La Guardia Airport at 3:28 p.m. It was quickly surrounded by more than a dozen police cars and motorcade vehicles.
He walked off the plane against the Manhattan skyline and entered an SUV that was part of a motorcade ushering him to his apartment in Trump Tower on Fifth Avenue in Manhattan. As he entered Trump Tower, he waved briefly to supporters behind police barricades.
Mr. Trump, the first former president to be indicted, is expected to stay overnight at Trump Tower before heading to Lower Manhattan on Tuesday to surrender at the office of the Manhattan district attorney, Alvin L. Bragg. He will then be arraigned in the Manhattan Criminal Courts Building as a rally of his supporters gathers nearby.
Before the former president arrived in New York, Mayor Eric Adams held a news conference and warned those supporters to behave themselves.
The mayor singled out Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene, a conservative Republican from Georgia and staunch Trump backer who has criticized the decision to indict Mr. Trump. She has advertised a demonstration planned for Tuesday with Jack Posobiec, an internet conspiracy theorist, and Graham Allen, a right-wing commentator.
“Although we have no specific threats, people like Marjorie Taylor Greene, who is known to spread misinformation and hate speech, she stated she’s coming to town. When you’re in town, be on your best behavior,” Mr. Adams said.
Shortly after his comments, Representative Greene riposted on Twitter: “Now Mayor Adams is threatening me. Unbelievable.”
President Biden said on a Monday visit to Minnesota that he was confident that New York authorities could handle any trouble. “I have faith in the New York Police Department,” he said.
Police and court officers, as well as Secret Service agents, are assigned to escort Mr. Trump through the city and to his arraignment, where he faces charges linked to a payment made during the 2016 election to buy the silence of a porn star, Stormy Daniels. Ms. Daniels has said she had a brief sexual relationship with Mr. Trump in 2006. Mr. Trump denies the affair.
The process includes Mr. Trump’s being fingerprinted and possibly having a photo taken.
Mr. Bragg’s case against Mr. Trump has already roiled the national political landscape, and Mr. Trump has attacked the proceedings as a partisan move aimed at crippling his bid for the Republican nomination for president in 2024.
While Mr. Trump encouraged protests last month to “TAKE OUR NATION BACK” in announcing that he expected to be arrested, he has not made any specific call to action for Tuesday comparable to his Dec. 19, 2020, post on Twitter explicitly summoning supporters to a rally in Washington on Jan. 6.
It is not clear whether Mr. Trump plans to make a statement in New York after he is indicted. Even if he does, signs are scant that the overt coordination of mass protests that characterized the weeks and months before Jan. 6 has taken place.
On Monday, his supporters were thin on the ground. As Mr. Trump arrived at Trump Tower, about 20 cheered as at least four helicopters hovered overhead. Dozens of police officers and detectives stood near the tower entrance, and photographers scrambled up ladders to gain vantage points for their shots.
Ariel Kohane, 51, of Manhattan gathered with other demonstrators behind pro-Trump banners. He said he showed up to “voice my outrage over what even some Democrats are saying is political persecution.”
“This has nothing to do with law and order,” he said. “It’s about stopping him from running and winning in 2024.”
Dion Cini, 54, appeared on the corner of East 56th Street and Fifth Avenue wearing a red “Make America Great Again” baseball hat and “Ultra Extreme MAGA” T-shirt.
“Give me liberty or give me death,” he yelled.
For some people simply trying to go about their day, the disruption fanned anti-Trump embers into flames.
“Good lord, it makes you hate this guy even more,” said Nick Jones, 48, of Minneapolis, as he attempted to navigate the tight spaces on the sidewalk.
The mayor and Police Commissioner Keechant Sewell said the city had been readying itself for protests and planned to close streets and barricade demonstrators.
“While there may be some rabble-rousers thinking of coming to our city tomorrow, our message is clear and simple: Control yourselves,” Mr. Adams said. “New York is our home and not a place for your misplaced anger.”
The Police Department sent a stand-ready order to its roughly 35,000 officers, a force larger and better trained than some national armies.
Mr. Adams reassured New Yorkers that the department was equipped to handle Mr. Trump’s two-day visit, whatever may unfold. He urged residents to go about their normal routines.
“New York City is always ready,” he said.
Even if Mr. Trump’s arraignment were to touch off disturbances in New York, the authorities seemed to have learned valuable lessons from the Capitol riot and from the challenges posed by the nationwide protests against police violence in 2020.
Robert Reilly, a former F.B.I. agent in New Jersey who handled domestic terrorism cases, said New York City itself was a deterrent, as it poses more problems than other locations where violent protests of have occurred, such as Washington and Charlottesville, Va.
“It is too far, and too many tolls,” he said, “and nowhere to park.”
Chelsia Rose Marcius, Nate Schweber Joshua Needelman, Glenn Thrush Adam Goldman, Alan Feuer Liset Cruz and Michael D. Regan contributed reporting.
