New York

Multiple couples took wedding vows at a marriage bureau right across the New York courtroom where former US President Donald Trump made a historic appearance on April 4, days after he was criminally charged for allegedly making hush money payments to adult star Stormy Daniels, in the run-up to 2016 presidential polls. 

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During Trump's decades-long record as a Republican real estate business magnate, the New York city has witnessed former US president cultivating a reputation as a 'wedding crasher', surprising couples tying the knot at his golf courses with spontaneous speeches on his personal grievances and more.

On April 4, Trump's courtroom appearance lived up to his 'wedding crasher' reputation as it overshadowed the weddings taking place at a marriage bureau across the street where the Supreme Court of the state of New York is located.

Trump was in Manhattan to answer charges related to a hush-money payment to adult star Stormy Daniels, and crowds of protesters, reporters and curious tourists thronged the streets as would-be newlyweds waited for their turn to get hitched.

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ALSO WATCH | Former US President Donald Trump arrested on criminal charges

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"I didn't realise it was happening right here," Peter Don, 30, told NBC News as he prepared to declare "I do" at the New York City Marriage Bureau to Monique Beckford Khalia. "It's funny, but it's not going to ruin our day."

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"This is our day," added 25-year-old Khalia.

Dominic Lamarco and his spouse had also picked the day of Trump some time in advance and could not have anticipated the spectacle that would play out around them.

Lamarco told NBC News that Trump being formally charged on their wedding day only made the occasion "more joyful."

The videos and anecdotes of Trump's off-the-cuff speeches at weddings at his residence in Florida have continued to go viral since he left office in 2021.

Trump's own marriages have been described as 'Trump society events' by journalist-author Maggie Haberman in her 2022 book, 'Confidence Man: The Making of Donald Trump and the Breaking of America'. In January 2005, when he married his current wife Melania Klauss, among the attendees were Bill and Hillary Clinton. "The wedding marked a new phase for Trump’s public life," Haberman writes while referring to the Trump-Melania wedding coming in the wake of the success of The Apprentice, a reality TV series Trump hosted. 

"People on the street embraced him. He was mobbed. All of a sudden, there was none of the old mocking, the old New York Post image of him with the wives and the parties."

Donald Trump has been accused of 'repeatedly and fraudulently' falsifying New York business records to 'conceal criminal conduct that hid damaging information from the voting public during the 2016 presidential election', according to statement of facts related to hush money payments case made public by Supreme Court of the state of New York.

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