NEW YORK — Former President Donald Trump campaigned Thursday in one of the nation’s most Democratic boroughs, holding a rally in the South Bronx as he tries to court minority voters, days before a Manhattan jury begins. deliberate on whether to convict you of felonies in your hush money criminal trial.
Trump addressed supporters in Crotona Park, a public green space in a neighborhood that is among the city’s most diverse and impoverished, a change from the majority-white areas where he holds most of his rallies. While the crowd was not as diverse as the South Bronx as a whole, it included large numbers of black and Hispanic voters; Spanish was heard in the crowd.
Trump, in his speech, presented himself as a better president for black and Hispanic voters than President Joe Biden and criticized Biden on immigration, an issue that Trump has made central to his campaign. He insisted that “the biggest negative impact” of the influx of immigrants in New York is “against our black population and our Hispanic population who are losing their jobs, losing their housing, losing everything they can lose.”
Some in the crowd responded by chanting, “Build the wall,” in reference to Trump’s initiative while in the White House to build a border barrier between the United States and Mexico.
With Trump confined to New York for much of the past six weeks due to his trial, the presumptive Republican nominee’s campaign has planned a series of local stops in his hometown before and after the trial. He visited a warehouse in Harlem, stopped by a construction site and had his photo taken at a local fire station.
But the Bronx rally was his first event open to the general public as he insists he is making a play to win an overwhelmingly Democratic state that hasn’t backed a Republican for president since Ronald Reagan in 1984. In addition to creating a spectacle of attendees and protesters, the rally also gave Trump a chance to highlight what he says are advantages on economic and immigration issues that could affect key Democratic voting blocs.
“The strategy is to show voters in the Bronx and New York that this is not your typical presidential election, that Donald Trump is here to represent everyone and get our country back on track,” said Florida Republican Rep. Byron Donalds. a potential Trump running mate who grew up in Brooklyn and spoke at the rally.
The former president opened his rally with an ode to his hometown, speaking of its humble beginnings as a small Dutch shopping center before becoming a glamorous cultural capital that “inspired the entire world.” While Trump took up residence in Florida in 2019, on Thursday he recalled his efforts to revitalize Central Park’s Wollman Rink and the people he knew in the real estate business.
“Everyone wanted to be here,” he told the enthusiastic audience. “But unfortunately now this is a city in decline.”
“If one New Yorker can’t save this country,” he went on to say, “no one can.”
Hours before Trump’s rally began, a long line of supporters wearing red “Make America Great Again” hats and other Trump merchandise snaked through the park, waiting for security checks to begin. People were still entering the park well into Trump’s speech, and some enthusiastic supporters were running uphill toward the rally site after passing through security.
The Bronx Democratic Party protested Trump’s appearance with its own event in the park.
Members of multiple unions were present, holding signs that read “The Bronx says no to Trump” in both English and Spanish.
“We are used to elected officials, government officials, opportunists of all kinds coming to our community and using our painful history,” said Democratic state Rep. Amanda Septimo, who represents the South Bronx. “They talk about the Bronx and everything that’s wrong with it, but they never get to the part that talks about what they’re going to do for the Bronx and we know that Trump will never get to that part in his speech.”
But some locals in Thursday’s crowd disagreed.
Margarita Rosario, a 69-year-old woman who has lived in the district for more than 60 years, said she saw Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York on television the night before suggesting that The Bronx would not support Trump. That prompted her to show up, holding a Trump flag and a sign that said, “Make America Great Again.”
“I got very upset with that. I said, ‘How dare you speak for the entire Bronx?'” Rosario said.
Muhammad Ali, a 50-year-old man who lives in the Bronx and said he planned to vote for Trump in November, said he once thought the former president was racist, but his views have changed.
“We need a patriotic president right now and I find Donald Trump more patriotic at the moment than Joe Biden,” said Ali, an immigrant from Bangladesh and a New York transportation agency worker.
At least one New Yorker in the crowd said he knew Trump from his days as a local billionaire real estate developer.
Alfredo Rosado, 62, said he had been a Trump supporter since 1998, when he worked for several months as a summer substitute doorman at Trump’s Trump Tower building.
Rosado recounted how Trump asked him his name and stopped to chat. “He is the same person you see,” he said of the former president.
The Trump campaign believes it can undermine support for Biden among black and Hispanic voters, particularly among younger men who may not follow politics closely but are frustrated by their economic situation and attracted to the type personality. tough from Trump.
He has also argued that the accusations he faces in New York and elsewhere make him relatable to Black voters frustrated by the criminal justice system, a statement that was sharply criticized by Biden allies.
Biden’s campaign on Thursday released two ads aimed at undermining Trump’s attempts to make gains among Black voters, highlighting his spread of the “birther” conspiracy against former President Barack Obama and his calls for the death penalty for five convicted men. wrongfully for rape in 1989. Central Park Case Five. A radio ad fictionalizing a conversation between a Trump campaign volunteer and a Black voter will air on national Black radio stations, while a shorter television ad will air in major cities, swing states and on platforms digital, with the goal of reaching Bronx voters near Trump’s rally.
The demonstration comes during a break in Trump’s criminal hush money trial. Court will resume after Memorial Day weekend with closing arguments. The jury will then decide whether Trump will become the first former president in the nation’s history to be criminally convicted and whether he will be the first major party presidential candidate to run as a convicted felon.
The Bronx was once the most Democratic district in the city. Barack Obama won 91.2% of the township’s votes in 2012, the highest in the state. Biden won 83.5% of the district in 2020. Trump got just 16% of the vote.
The area Trump visited is overwhelmingly non-white, unlike most of his rally locations. About 65% of residents are Hispanic and 31% are black, according to U.S. Census data. About 35% live below the poverty line.
Concluding his speech, Trump said he woke up Thursday unsure of the reception he would get in the Bronx.
“I said, ‘I wonder: Is he hostile or friendly?'” he said. “It was more than friendly. It was a love fest.”
Associated Press writers Zeke Miller in Washington and Liset Cruz in New York contributed to this report.
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