Candidate and former President Donald Trump has headed to the Bronx, the bluest party in New York, to rally thousands of supporters.
It has been 40 years since a GOP nominee has carried the state of New York in a presidential election. President Ronald Reagan won the state during his landslide 1984 reelection victory.
However, former President Donald Trump hopes to end the GOP losing streak. “We’re coming to the Bronx,” the former president touted on social media the night before his Wednesday campaign event in New York City borough, known as one of the bluest parts of a deep blue state.
Trump’s campaign said they expected a crowd of a few thousand supporters when Trump is set to speak at Crotona Park, a public park in one of NYC’s most economically challenged and diverse boroughs.
The population of the Bronx is overwhelmingly Black and Hispanic, with roughly a third of the residents living before the poverty line, according to data from the U.S. Census. The Bronx is one of the most left-dominated counties in the country.
Then why is Donald Trump, who frequently holds campaign events and rallies in locales that are safer politically, heading into what has long been considered “enemy territory.”
“President Trump is unafraid to bring his message to every borough of New York, to every corner of this great country, because he believes his message is a winning one,” said Karoline Leavitt, Trump campaign national press secretary.
Donald Trump won less than 10% of the vote in the Bronx in the 2016 presidential election victory. The former president’s support in the Bronx increased to 16% in his 2020 reelection defeat, with Joe Biden winning 83.5% of the vote.
However, polls suggest Trump gains are continuing to make gains with Hispanic and Black voters.
The Trump campaign thinks the former president can reduce President Biden’s support among Hispanic and Black voters, particularly younger males who may be frustrated with economic conditions—especially inflation—and are attracted to Trump’s leadership.
“The strategy is to demonstrate to the voters of the Bronx and New York that this isn’t your typical presidential election, that Donald Trump is here to represent everybody and get our country back on track,” said GOP Representative Byron Donalds of Florida.
Donalds is a potential running mate of Trump, who grew up in New York City and was scheduled to join the former president at the gathering in the Bronx.
Republicans in New York City note the GOP won a seat on the Bronx city council last year for the first time in four decades.
“There is improvement. And you have to question why there wouldn’t be more,” said Joe Borelli, New York City Councilman.
“Who has been in charge of the Bronx for the better part of a generation? It’s been Democrats at every level, including local, state, and federal government,” emphasized Borelli. “So, you shouldn’t be surprised when people come out tonight in great numbers to hear someone who’s not, you know, singing from the same choir book. Donald Trump is going to go out there and really confront the public with why they’re being faced with so many economic problems from Joe Biden.”
MAGA apparel-wearing attendees rallied to support Trump, chanting, “USA! USA!” before the former president took the stage.
“I’m thrilled to be back in the city I grew up in, the city I spent my life in, the city I helped build, and the city that we all love,” said Trump. “We are going to turn New York City around, and we are going to turn it around very, very quickly.”
It was Donald Trump’s first rally in the five boroughs in years. Between the 2016 and 2020 elections, he saw substantial gains with Bronx voters—he got 15.7 percent of votes in the borough in 2020, an increase of 9.4 percent four years earlier.
“We are going to work with them, and we are going to get this state and this city to a level that it’s never been before,” said Trump.
“It doesn’t matter if you’re Black or brown or white or whatever the hell color you are, it doesn’t matter. We are all Americans, and we’re going to pull together as Americans,” Trump said.
Trump continued claiming Hispanic and Black voters have been most affected by the recent surge in asylum seekers and drew chants of “build the wall!”
Democrats planned a counterprotest to Trump’s visit
Democrats planned a Thursday evening counterprotest, with the Bronx Democratic Party having their own event in the same park.
In a social media posting, they argued, “Trump isn’t welcome in the Bronx.”
The political arm of the New York Immigration Coalition pointed to Trump’s record and rhetoric on immigration, charged “there is no place for Donald Trump’s hatred and racism in a neighborhood as diverse, vibrant, and rich with immigrant history as the South Bronx.”
The campaign event on Thursday comes amid a brief pause in Donald Trump’s criminal trial. Closing arguments are expected when the court resumes Tuesday following the Memorial Day federal holiday break.
President Donald Trump is charged with the falsification of business records related to payments made to porn actress Stormy Daniels during the 2016 election to keep quiet about their alleged affair. Trump’s former attorney, Michael Cohen, paid Daniels $130,000 in an alleged hush money payment to bar Daniels from discussing the alleged 2006 affair with Trump in public.
Both Daniels and Cohen testified for the prosecution. Trump’s lawyers grilled them during cross-examination in a case that has drawn intense attention online, on cable news networks, and social media.
Trump is making history as the first former or current president to stand trial in a criminal case and has denied falsifying business records repeatedly along with the alleged sexual encounter with Daniels, and has claimed repeatedly, without providing evidence, that the case is a “SHAM TRIAL instigated and prosecuted directly from the inner halls of the White House and DOJ.”
With Trump confined mainly to New York City for the past month and a half since the beginning of the trial, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee has made several campaign stops in the city that was his longtime home before changing his residence to Florida.
His stops have been at a construction site, a local firehouse, and a Harlem bodega.
A Former Councilman from the Bronx took to the stage before Trump and led the crowd in a chant of “Donald Trump is welcome here!”
Trump campaign volunteers set up tables and a flag reading “TRUMP 2024,” hoisted above the rally by a massive crane. They also helped register voters.
“We’re showing our support because we’re looking for a big turnaround with closing the borders, getting somebody in charge that can run the company financially,” said CEO of U.S. Crane and Rigging LLC., a business partially based out of nearby City Island, Thomas Auringer.
