Trump holds marketing campaign rally in South Bronx
Former President Donald Trump is campaigning in one of the Democratic counties within the nation Thursday, holding a rally within the South Bronx. He is hoping to woo minority voters by showing in one of the numerous and impoverished neighborhoods within the metropolis the place he grew up.
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Trump addressed supporters in Crotona Park, a public inexperienced house in a neighborhood that’s among the many metropolis’s most numerous and its most impoverished, a change from the majority-white areas the place he holds most of his rallies. Whereas the gang was not fairly as numerous because the South Bronx as an entire, it included giant numbers of Black and Hispanic voters; Spanish was heard all through the gang.
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Some within the crowd responded by chanting, “Construct the wall,” a reference to Trump’s push whereas within the White Home to construct a U.S.-Mexico border barrier.
However the Bronx rally was his first occasion open to most of the people as he insists he’s making a play to win an overwhelmingly Democratic state that hasn’t backed a Republican for president since Ronald Reagan in 1984. Apart from making a spectacle of rallygoers and protesters, the rally additionally gave Trump a chance to spotlight what he argues are benefits on financial and immigration points that would lower into key Democratic voting blocs.
The previous president opened his rally with an ode to his hometown, speaking about its humble beginnings as a small Dutch buying and selling put up earlier than turning into a glamorous capital of tradition that "impressed your entire world." Whereas Trump established residency in Florida in 2019, he reminisced on Thursday about his efforts to revitalize Central Park's Wollman Rink and folks he knew in the true property enterprise.
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“Everybody wished to be right here,” he instructed the enthusiastic viewers. “However sadly that is now a metropolis in decline.”
Hours earlier than Trump’s rally was set to start, a protracted line of supporters decked out in purple “Make America Nice Once more” hats and different Trump gear snaked across the park, ready for safety screening to start. Individuals had been nonetheless getting into the park properly into Trump’s speech, with some keen supporters sprinting up a hill towards the rally website after getting via safety.
The Bronx Democratic Get together protested Trump’s look with its personal occasion on the park.
“We’re used to elected officers, to authorities officers, to opportunists of all types who come to our group and use our painful historical past,” stated Democratic State Rep. Amanda Septimo, who represents the South Bronx. “They speak in regards to the Bronx and every thing that’s improper with it, however they by no means get to the half that talks about what they’re going to do for the Bronx and we all know that Trump is rarely going to get to that half in his speech.”
NYC Assemblymember Amanda Septimo, in addition to civil rights activist Kirsten John Foy, instructed the New York Submit on Monday they don’t need Trump and his views on points corresponding to immigration to go unchallenged within the borough, so that they organized counter-programming.
Members of the Democratic and Working Households Get together, pro-immigration advocates and union activists may even be a part of the anti-Trump rally, the Submit reported.
A number of longtime figures in New York politics — each Republican and Democrat — argued there’s good motive for Trump to go to the Bronx and different majority Black and Latino communities.
Trump has usually pointed to the success of former Rep. Lee Zeldin, a Republican who ran for governor in 2022 in opposition to Democratic incumbent Kathy Hochul. Zeldin in the end misplaced the race by an unusually shut margin.
Whereas different presidential candidates have visited and met with native leaders, Díaz recommended Trump for being “the primary and solely president or presidential candidate who has proven respect to minority communities within the Bronx” by holding a rally.
“Individuals are fed up,” he stated. “Democrats say they’re there to assist us … however our individuals are doing worse underneath the Democratic management.”
“There’s a focus of Latino ministers who’re pro-life within the Bronx and they’re mobilized and energized,” stated Cuomo, who selected to look with Diaz in 2022 as he floated a political comeback months after the Democrat resigned after being accused of sexual harassment by at the very least 11 ladies.
Bronx voting historical past
Barack Obama gained 91.2% of the borough’s vote in 2012, the best anyplace within the state. Biden gained 83.5% of the borough in 2020. Trump garnered solely 16% of the vote.
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Individuals collect for a marketing campaign rally by former US President and 2024 Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump in Wildwood, New Jersey, on Might 11, 2024. (Picture by JIM WATSON/AFP by way of Getty Photographs)
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Hours earlier than he was scheduled to take the stage, hundreds of Trump loyalists donning “By no means Give up” T-shirts and purple “Make America Nice Once more” hats crowded onto the sand between the boardwalk and carnival rides to greet the previous Republican president.
The rally comes throughout a pause in Trump’s legal hush cash trial. Court docket will resume following the Memorial Day weekend with closing arguments.
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The Related Press wire companies helped contribute to this report.
