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NEW YORK (AP) — Former President Donald Trump campaigned in one of the nation’s largest Democratic counties and held a rally in the South Bronx as he tries to court the minority electorate days before a Manhattan jury begins deliberating to convict him. Trial of a criminal for secret money.
Trump addressed supporters Thursday at Crotona Park, a public green space in one of the city’s most varied and poorest neighborhoods, a replacement for the majority-white regions where the Republican holds most of his rallies. In the South Bronx as a whole, it included large numbers of black and Hispanic voters, and Spaniards were among the crowd.
Trump, in his speech, presented himself as a better president for the black and Hispanic electorate than President Joe Biden and lashed out at Biden over immigration, a factor Trump has placed at the center of his campaign. He insisted that “the biggest negative impact” of the influx of immigrants to New York City is “against our black population and our Hispanic population who are wasting their jobs, wasting their homes, wasting everything they can lose. “
Some in the crowd responded by chanting “Build the wall,” a reference to Trump’s efforts at the White House to build a border fence between the U. S. and Mexico.
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While Trump has been confined to New York City for much of the past six weeks due to his trial, the presumptive Republican nominee’s crusade has scheduled a series of local stops before and after the hearing. He visited a winery in Harlem, went to a structure site, and had a photo shoot at a local fireplace station.
But the Bronx rally is his first occasion open to the general public, as he insists a role is being played in the victory of a Democratic-majority state that hasn’t supported a Republican for president since Ronald Reagan in 1984. In addition to creating a sampling of protesters and protesters, the rally also gave Trump a chance to point out what he sees as benefits on economic and immigration issues that could reduce more sensible Democratic voting blocs.
“The strategy is to demonstrate to the electorate in the Bronx and New York that this is a typical presidential election, that Donald Trump is here to constitute everyone and get our country back on track,” said Florida Republican Rep. Byron Donalds. Trump’s presidential candidate who grew up in Brooklyn.
The former president opened his rally with an ode to his hometown, recalling its humble beginnings as a small Dutch trading post before becoming a glamorous cultural capital that “inspired the whole world. “While Trump took up residence in Florida in 2019, he recalled Thursday his efforts to revitalize Central Park’s Wollman skating rink and the other people he knew in the real estate industry.
“Everybody wanted to be here,” he told an enthusiastic audience. “But unfortunately now it’s a city in decline. “
“If a New Yorker can’t save this country,” he added, “no one can. “
Trump called several other people with local ties to the stage, including Donalds and the Rev. Ruben Diaz Sr. , a former member of the New York City Council. He also pointed to local rappers Sheff G and Sleepy Hallow, who were charged this month. on charges of conspiracy to commit murder through the Brooklyn District Attorney’s Office.
Hours before Trump’s rally began, a long line of supporters wearing red “Make America Great Again” hats and other Trump memorabilia snaked through the park, waiting for security checks to begin. People were still pouring into the park for much of Trump’s speech, with some enthusiastic supporters climbing a hill toward the rally site after passing through safety.
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The Bronx Democratic Party protested Trump by hosting its own event in the park.
Members of several unions attended, holding signs “The Bronx says no to Trump” in English and Spanish.
“We’re used to elected officials, government officials, opportunists of all kinds coming into our network and using our painful history,” said Rep. Amanda Septtimo, a state Democrat who represents the South Bronx. Bronx and everything that’s wrong, yet they never go into the component that communicates about what they’re going to do for the Bronx and we know that Trump will never go into that component of 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 the Bronx would not accept Trump. to run, holding a Trump flag and a sign that read, “Make America Great Again. “
“It bothered me a lot. I said, “How dare you speak on behalf of the entire Bronx?” said Rosario.
Muhammad Ali, a 50-year-old man who lives in the Bronx and has said he plans to vote for Trump in November, said he once thought the former president was racist, but his opinion has changed.
“We want a patriotic president right now and I, Donald Trump, more patriotic right now than Joe Biden,” said Ali, an immigrant from Bangladesh and a worker with the New York Transportation Agency.
At least one New Yorker in the crowd said he knows Trump from his days as a billionaire real estate developer.
Alfredo Rosado, 62, has been a Trump supporter since 1998, when he worked for several months as a backup summer doorman at Trump Tower.
Rosado recounted how Trump asked him to call her and stopped to chat. “It’s the same thing you see,” he said of the former president.
Trump’s campaign believes it can kill Biden’s among black and Hispanic voters, especially younger men who may not be very attached to politics but are frustrated with their economic situation and attracted to Trump’s tough-man personality.
He also argued that the allegations he faces in New York and elsewhere make him comparable to the black electorate frustrated with the corrupt justice system, which has been harshly criticized by Biden’s allies.
Biden’s crusade on Thursday ran two classified ads aimed at undermining Trump’s attempts to penetrate black voters, highlighting his exposure of the “Birther” plot opposed to former President Barack Obama and his calls for the death penalty for five men wrongfully convicted of rape in 1989. A fictional radio ad featuring a verbal exchange between a Trump crusade volunteer and a Black voter will air on national Black radio stations, while a shorter television ad will air in primary cities, swing states, and virtual platforms, in an effort to triumph among Bronx voters, close to Trump’s rally.
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The rally comes as a pause in Trump’s criminal trial for hush money. Court will resume after Memorial Day weekend with closing arguments. The jury will then make a decision on whether Trump will become the first former president in the nation’s history to be convicted fraudulently and whether he will be the first presidential candidate from a primary party to run as a convicted felon.
The Bronx was once the city’s top Democratic neighborhood. Barack Obama won 91. 2% of the vote in the district in 2012, the highest score in the state. Biden won 83. 5% of the vote in the district in 2020. Trump got just 16% of the vote.
The territory Trump visits is mostly non-white, a departure from most of his meeting places. About 65 percent of citizens are Hispanic and 31 percent are black, according to U. S. Census data. About 35 percent live below the poverty line.
At the end of his speech, Trump said he woke up Thursday to the reception he would get in the Bronx.
“I said, ‘I wonder, will it be hostile or will it be friendly?’” he said. “It was beyond friendly. It was a lovefest.”
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