Donald Trump, the former president, rallied in the South Bronx Thursday night, bringing thousands of supporters and detractors to Crotona Park.
Trump, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee who is currently on trial in New York on fraud charges for an alleged hush money scheme, railed against Democrats and the media while vowing to flip New York red in the upcoming presidential election. New York has not voted Republican in a presidential race since Ronald Reagan’s 1984 49-state landslide, and Trump’s rally took place in the heart of a solidly blue Bronx district.
Nevertheless, the Crotona Park rally drew several thousand individuals from across several states, including devotees who say they follow him around the country — including outside the Manhattan Criminal Court House and Trump Tower.
“This is my 77th Donald Trump rally,” Edward Young from New Jersey said. “A Donald Trump rally is the greatest show on earth.”
Others say they came from out of state to catch a glimpse of the man who has maintained a consistent stranglehold of the Republican Party.
Trump — a Queens native who built a development empire in Manhattan, but made Florida his official residence during his presidency — positioned himself as a hero of the hometown “he helped built.” He bemoaned the current state of the Big Apple as brimming with homeless encampments and crime (though the NYPD has repeatedly reported falling crime rates month after month for more than a year now).
“I’m here tonight to declare we are going to turn New York City around,” Trump told his rabid fanbase. “I’ve never seen it quite like this.”
It didn’t take long in his hour-long remarks, however, for Trump to turn his attention to his two foremost targets — President Joe Biden, who defeated Trump in 2020; and the free press, whom Trump repeatedly called “the enemy of the people” during his time in office.
“You see what they want to do to us. They come along, and they don’t mind because Joe Biden is the worst president in the history of our country. He has no sense, doesn’t know what he is doing, [is] grossly incompetent and our country is going to hell but we’re going to turn it around,” Trump claimed.
He also criticized the journalists covering his rally, preemptively alleging that the press would not accurately report on his rally.
“Look at all the cameras back there, that’s amazing. It’s the fake news,” Trump stated. “You know, they’ll say tonight, ‘Donald Trump spoke to a very small crowd of people in the Bronx. It was a very hostile crowd, very hostile. They hated him very much.'”
This sent his fans into a frenzy, many of whom began chastising photographers and reporters as they hollered “Tell the truth” and flipped the bird.
Outside the rally, a band of determined protesters marched to the entrance of the venue to voice their opposition to Trump and MAGA’s presence in the Bronx. There, they were met by a legion of cops who separated supporters from opposers.
Earlier in the day, Bronx elected officials and residents railed against the planned Trump rally. One lawmaker, Bronx Assembly Member Amanda Septimo flatly declared that Trump was using the borough “as a tool” and exploiting “our painful history” for politics.
