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Breaking News: Man Climbing Trump Tower In New York City [Video]

By Selina Leavitt
Published on: 10:36 PST, Aug 10, 2016

At around 4 p.m. Wednesday, a man began to climb the Trump Tower in New York City using suction cups.

Donald Trump’s bid for the presidency has caused a great deal of polarization among voters. People either love or hate him, and there are very few in between. Could that be the reason this daredevil has decided to scale the Trump Tower? Is it a show of support or of protest?

No one knows. In fact, no one even knows who this man really is.

The daredevil appears to be a white male in his twenties with light brown or dirty blonde long curly hair. He’s wearing a forest green shirt, light khaki shorts, and carrying a black backpack with him. At one point, during his climb, the daredevil (or protester) reached into his backpack in order to take out a white hat.

Witnesses told ABC that the climber was on the sub roof garden on the East 56th street side of Trump Tower when he started climbing. During the day, the Trump Tower opens many terraces and other parts of the building to the public, including that garden.

New York police were alerted to the Trump Tower climber at around 4:30 p.m. EST. At first, according to the Gothamist, officers simply waited and watched as the man climbed. He was already well out of reach of ground forces at that time.

As the man climbed higher, officials entered Trump Tower and broke through a window in order to try and negotiate with him. They placed a blue quilt over the broken glass in an attempt to try to lure him inside. According to FOX News, the man told officers that he had a message for Donald Trump before slowly climbing away from the police negotiator.

FOX also claims that the climber said his reason for scaling Trump Tower would be made clear to everyone if they were to watch his YouTube video. Unfortunately, without any knowledge of his real, or user, name, there is no way to locate the video in question. NBC New York reported that the man told officials that he’s from Virginia and his name is Steven (or Stephen).

Jason Chu, a witness, was the first person to begin tweeting about the Trump Tower climber. His original tweet said that there was a man “scaling Trump Tower with cops watching.” A later tweet from the same witness indicated that the man climbing the Tower had tried to show something written in his notebook to people, but the notebook slipped out of his hands and fell. There have been no reports or comments on what he was trying to say at that time from officials.

The New York Daily News reported that the man has slipped a couple of times during his climb. The weather in New York City is muggy, and rain is due within the next few hours. If the rain starts before the man has reached the end of his Trump Tower climb, there is a possibility that his suction cups will no longer be able to hold him and he could fall.

Whatever the climber’s message is for Donald Trump might not actually reach the presidential hopeful. Although Trump uses the New York Trump Tower as his official residence and the headquarters of his presidential campaign, he’s not there today. According to KTAR, Trump was in Virginia earlier and will be in Florida later today.

Watch the full video here.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_QobWf20dXs

[Photo by Julie Jacobson/AP Images]

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