Former President Donald Trump told a crowd of thousands of diverse supporters in the South Bronx on Thursday evening that he would offer his help to New York’s Democratic leaders if he’s reelected president in November.
Trump, the presumptive nominee for the Republican Party’s presidential nomination, held a large rally in the deep-blue borough of New York City as his criminal trial related to 2016 hush money paid to adult-film star Stormy Daniels winds down in Manhattan. Closing arguments for the trial, in which Trump maintains his innocence, are slated for Tuesday.
The former president garnered just 16 percent of the vote in the Bronx in the 2020 election, whereas President Joe Biden won north of 80 percent, according to the Associated Press. However, as Trump and Republicans have made gains with Black and Hispanic voters, his campaign and conservative supporters in New York are hopeful he will perform better in the borough and the state in an expected rematch against Biden later this year. About 65 percent of Bronx residents are Hispanic and approximately 31 percent are Black.
Several rally attendees who said they were registered Democrats or had previously voted for Democratic presidential candidates told Newsweek they were now solidly behind Trump. For his part, Trump extended an olive branch to Democrats in his remarks, saying he planned to offer his support to local Democratic leaders if he wins a second term in the White House.
“As soon as I get back into the Oval Office, I am going to pick up the phone and I’m going to call your mayor and your governor, and I’m going to say, ‘this is President Trump and I want to come back and help,'” said Trump, who was a lifelong New Yorker until he officially transferred his residency to Palm Beach, Florida, in 2019.
“You have a Democrat governor, you have a Democrat mayor and we are going to work with them, and we are going to get this state and this city at a level that it’s never seen before,” he said.
Continuing, Trump said that it “doesn’t matter” if they are Democrats or Republicans. “This is our city and our country, it’s really about the people and in this case, the people of New York City, New York state, we’re going to make you very happy,” he said.
While Trump is still seen as a long shot to win in New York, registered Democrats at the rally told Newsweek they plan to support him. Some even said that many of their family and friends felt similarly, while many expressed concerns about the influx of undocumented migrants as well as the economy during Biden’s presidency.
“We all voted for Biden, but now we’re going to vote for Trump,” Jerry Evans, a Bronx resident who described himself as a registered Democrat, told Newsweek at the rally when asked about his friends’ and family’s views. He said there are about “four or five members” of his family who have changed their minds from Biden to Trump.
Doris, a Brooklyn native who now lives in Harlem and said her family emigrated from Haiti, told Newsweek that she had previously voted for former President Barack Obama but now regretted that decision.
“We are big, big fans of Trump. We’re here because we want to represent and show all the many faces that represent Trump,” she said.
Doris dismissed some common criticisms of Trump, saying “his racism, his misogyny, that means nothing. It’s so minor compared to what Trump stands for,” she said.
Another attendee, who declined to give his name out of fear that he could suffer reprisals at his job, told Newsweek he is still registered as a Democrat, but sees Trump as the best option in this election.
“My family was traditionally Kennedy Democrats,” he said, adding that “over the years, the Democratic Party has kind of left us.”
“We didn’t leave the Democratic Party,” he added.
Although Trump expressed an interest in working with Democrats to solve problems in New York, he also returned to his familiar attacks against his political opponents. He described Biden as “incompetent” and said that Democratic policies are causing spikes in crime, undocumented immigration and foreign wars.
Steven Cheung, spokesperson for Trump, told Newsweek in an email after the event that 25,000 people attended. Newsweek could not independently verify that number. A spokesperson for the New York City Police Department told Newsweek that the department does not provide crowd size estimates.
Outside the rally, some anti-Trump protesters confronted attendees. A competing protest rally was held nearby, with a banner reading: “Trump isn’t welcome in the Bronx.”
“The only place in the Bronx where Donald Trump has any place being is Bronx Criminal Court,” Representative Ritchie Torres, a New York Democrat who represents part of the borough, said, according to Spectrum News.
“Donald Trump is broke. He needs money. He’s hosting a rally to try to con people and try to fleece them out of every dollar that they have to fund his own legal fees,” Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, a New York Democrat that also represents part of the Bronx, told reporters on Tuesday.
But other Democrats welcomed Trump.
Ruben Diaz Sr., a Democrat and former member of the New York City Council, officially endorsed Trump at the rally. Commenting on the beautiful weather, Diaz, a Pentecostal minister, told Trump on stage, “even God wants you in the Bronx.”
