Donald Trump headed into hostile territory Thursday for a rare rally in deeply Democratic New York — hoping to woo Black and Latino voters whose support for Joe Biden has shown signs of faltering.
The event, in an area where the Republican ex-president was trounced in 2020, follows a trend of Trump sorties into traditionally liberal states, most recently in New Jersey and Minnesota.
But his speech in the South Bronx is more about signaling that he can draw large crowds among Hispanics and the African American coalition seen as crucial to Biden’s hopes of retaining the White House.
In his first rally in his former hometown since 2016, Trump will focus on crime and tough economic conditions in one of the most Democratic and diverse US neighborhoods, where almost two-thirds of residents are Hispanic and one-third Black.
Around 10,000 people signed up to attend the event in Crotona Park, although the Trump campaign’s permit is for 3,500 people, according to US media outlets.
The Trump team did not respond to a request for details on the rally but a campaign spokeswoman told The Hill that New York state had been “decimated” by Biden.
“President Trump will ease the financial pressures placed on households and re-establish law and order in New York,” she said.
– Banner year –
In fact, New York City had a banner year for crime-fighting in 2023, with murders down 12 percent year-on-year, according to police figures. Overall crime was five percent lower in April than in the same month last year.
The rally caps a turbulent period for Trump, who has been kept off the campaign trail by his criminal trial in Manhattan for allegedly falsifying business records to conceal hush money payments made to cover up a sex scandal.
When the rally was arranged, the tycoon had been anticipating another week in New York as proceedings draw to a close — although the judge sent the jury home on Tuesday for a week-long pause.
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, an outspokenly liberal Democratic congresswoman whose district includes parts of the Bronx, said Trump was rallying in the borough “because he’s got the legal version of an ankle bracelet… truly an embarrassment to him.”
New York state last voted for a Republican president when Ronald Reagan was reelected in 1984.
Biden won almost 85 percent of the vote in the Bronx in 2020 and went on to welcome the first African American women to the Supreme Court bench and to the vice presidency.
The White House has been touting Biden’s accomplishments for both Hispanic and Black communities on home ownership and economic opportunity, lowering child poverty and expanding voting rights and healthcare.
– Racial controversies –
Meanwhile Trump was roundly rebuked when he argued recently that the 88 felony charges he faces in multiple jurisdictions make him relatable to Black voters mistreated by the criminal justice system.
But polling shows he has been making inroads with Black and Hispanic Americans, particularly younger voters who are increasingly unengaged in politics and those who blame Biden over a surge in illegal immigration at the Mexico border.
The latest Ipsos Survey of Black Americans found that while Biden maintains a comfortable edge over Trump, his favorability is down seven points since 2022, while those certain to vote sunk from 74 to 62 percent between elections.
The Biden campaign released an ad ahead of the rally focusing on the 1970s and 80s New York racial controversies surrounding Trump, who was sued for refusing to rent apartments to Black families and called for the execution of five innocent Black and Latino teenagers wrongly blamed in a notorious rape.
The Trump campaign countered that his opponent was panicking because “Black voters aren’t buying what Biden is selling.”
“Black voters, like all Americans, are worse-off now than they were under President Trump and every poll reflects that reality,” said spokeswoman Janiyah Thomas.
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