In a big challenge to Democrats, former President Trump will hold a campaign rally in the Bronx on Thursday. He wants to turn the Empire State red in November, which would have been unthinkable when he left the White House in 2021.
Trump’s team said Friday night that the rally on Thursday will be held at 6 p.m. in Crotona Park, a 127-acre public park that is only a few blocks from the edge of Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s district. This is what the New York Post says: The campaign has a pass to hold 3,500 people.
Last week, Trump held a rally in New Jersey that broke all kinds of records by bringing together up to 100,000 supporters. This move comes after that gathering.
It will be Trump’s first gathering in the state since 2016 when he held one in upstate Buffalo. There were 76% more votes for Biden than for Trump in the city in 2020. Biden got 60.87% of the vote across the whole state.
The Trump campaign made several attacks on President Biden’s record over the last three and a half years when they announced the gathering. These attacks were aimed at crime and inflation.
“Both New York City and the state at large have been ravaged by monumental surges in violent crime as a direct result of Biden’s and Democrats’ pro-criminal policies,” the campaign said in the statement. “From 2019 to 2020, murders in New York City are up 23.1%, and felony assaults are up 35.4%.” These increases are hard to understand and very bad.
The campaign focused on how much Trump liked the state he used to live in before he moved his permanent home to his Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach, Florida, in 2019. Even though he has to go back to court for his “hush money” case and his defamation case with E. Jean Carroll.
It says, “The Empire State, a place close to President Trump’s heart, has been decimated by Biden.” “President Trump will ease the financial stress on families and bring law and order back to New York! We can “Make America Great Again” by taking on crime head-on, stopping the never-ending flow of illegal immigrants across our southern border, and restoring people’s wealth to undo the bad effects of inflation.
Different people have different reactions to the protest news.
In a statement to Fox News Digital, Rep. Ritchie John Torres, a Democrat from New York’s 15th Congressional District, where the gathering is taking place, criticized the former president.
“The South Bronx has no greater enemy than Donald Trump, who is on a mission to dismantle the social safety net on which Bronx families depend for their survival,” said Torres. “Trump is a liar and always has been.” His sales pitch won’t work in the South Bronx, which is the most Democratic place in the country.
On the other hand, when Fox News Digital called many shop owners in the borough this morning, they didn’t know about the rally.
One person who didn’t know was Liz Adreu, manager of the Bronx restaurant Chocobar Cortes. She said she would “probably” vote for Trump.
Aduanipa African & Caribbean Grill owner Reggie O said he supported Trump’s policies when he was in office, but he wouldn’t say who he would vote for. He also said he thinks there’s a good chance that the state will change hands at some point in the future and that his restaurant has only been open for a short time and hasn’t been the victim of any crime.
Inflation is making it hard for many businesses to make money, especially since they had to weather the economic storms of lockdowns during the pandemic. The Trump team said that families are also hurting.
“New Yorkers have suffered a lot because of Biden’s bad policies.” “Prices in the Empire State have gone up by 17.5% since Biden took office, making it harder for New York families to buy everyday things,” the statement says.
When Trump went to the Sanaa Convenience Store in Upper Manhattan last month, it was a sign that he would be campaigning in New York City. It was there in July 2022 that an ex-con struck a former clerk named Jose Alba. Infamous self-defense, Alba stabbed the ex-con to death.
Trump told reporters outside, “We’re going to come into New York, we’re making a big play for New York.” “I love this city, and it’s gone so bad in the last three years, four years, and we’re going to straighten New York out.”