After weeks of making headlines in a criminal trial in Manhattan, Donald J. Trump will travel to Crotona Park in the Bronx on Thursday for a rally where he no doubt hopes to take a more favorable star turn.
As expected, many people in the Bronx are not happy about it.
“I wish it would go away,” said Noel Rivera, a retired Metro worker who was walking his dog in Crotona Park on Wednesday. “No one I know supports him.”
Mr. Trump’s event Thursday evening at the sprawling South Bronx park is his first campaign rally in New York state since 2016.
His choice of the Bronx may seem strange, since it is one of the most deeply Democratic counties in the country. In 2020, President Biden won the Bronx with 68 percent. In 2016, Mr. Trump lost the Bronx by more than 300,000 votes.
Brian Hughes, a spokesman for the Trump campaign, said the rally was part of an effort by Mr. Trump to “make sure that voters who are not traditionally Republican to talk to are seen and heard.”
Mr. Trump, a lifelong New Yorker who now lives in Florida, spent much of his final weeks in Manhattan during his criminal trial on charges of falsifying business records to conceal a payment to a porn star, who reported having had a sexual relationship. meeting with him in 2006. The defense rested without Mr. Trump speaking; final arguments are scheduled for Tuesday.
At the rally, Mr. Trump is expected to talk about inflation and violent crime, a campaign spokeswoman said. The gathering is allowed to accommodate 3,500 people, according to police.
“We’re making progress across the city,” said Rep. Nicole Malliotakis, the only Republican member of New York City’s House delegation. “But you have to show up and talk to people about the issues they care about. Right now, those issues are the economy and public safety.
The Bronx is 57 percent Hispanic, 28 percent black and 8 percent white, according to census date. Recent polls show Mr. Trump gaining ground among some black and Latino voters. Last year, a Republican councilwoman was elected to represent the Bronx for the first time in more than 40 years. Lee Zeldin, the Republican candidate for governor in 2022, is six points behind Gov. Kathy Hochul. But Ms. Hochul beat Mr. Zeldin by 55 percentage points in the Bronx.
Rep. Ritchie Torres, a Democrat from the Bronx, said Mr. Trump owes the borough an apology because of its “catastrophic handling” of the pandemic, which has claimed thousands of lives in the borough.
“He’s so unpopular in the Bronx that he’s radioactive,” Mr. Torres said. “Its approval ratings are lower than those of lead and arsenic.”
A protest elsewhere in the park is planned during Mr. Trump’s rally by Bronx Congresswoman Amanda Septimo and Kirsten John Foy, president of the activism group Arc of Justice.
Mr. Foy said the rally, attended by prominent municipal unions, is designed to counter the narrative that Mr. Trump will do much better in places like the Bronx.
“He’s trying to distract and deflect attention from the fact that he’s facing a criminal charge,” Mr Foy said. “The best way to stop making headlines as a criminal and make headlines as a candidate is to hold a rally in the media capital of the world.”
On Wednesday morning, most Crotona Park residents seemed unhappy about Mr. Trump’s visit. Maggie Rodriguez, 57, an electrician who was walking her chihuahua in the park, grimaced in front of the site where Team Trump was preparing for the rally.
“We will no longer have a democracy” if Mr. Trump is re-elected, she said. “God bless America.”
But the feeling was not unanimous. Erica Perez, 37, a store clerk, said she appreciated that Mr. Trump referenced the Bible.
“I’m happy he’s coming,” she said. “When Trump was president, America was better.”
Arsenio Colon, 79, a retired maintenance worker, said he used to vote Democratic but now supports Mr. Trump and the Republican Party because he likes his tough stance on politics foreign with China.
“Every time the Democratic Party is in power, this country has more problems,” said Mr. Colon, who lives near the park. “This country needs a strong president at all times. »
As workers prepared a stage for Mr. Trump on Wednesday, a campaign representative asked a New York Times reporter to leave and threatened to call the police, saying the permit allowed the campaign to evict the uninvited guests of the public park.
Karoline Leavitt, a Trump spokeswoman, said park security and law enforcement “are notified to assist” when an “individual refuses to leave the permitted area.”
Mr. Rivera, who has lived in the Bronx since 1958, said he would need no encouragement to leave the area once the rally began.
“He’ll be lucky if he can count on 35 people here to support him,” he said.
Michael Gold And Chelsia Rose Marcius reports contributed.
News Source : www.nytimes.com
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