NEW YORK (1010 WINS/WCBS 880) — Former President Donald Trump will be getting out of Manhattan, where he has been spending time as a defendant in a criminal trial alleging he falsified business records to cover up a hush money payment, on Thursday evening to host a campaign rally in the deeply-blue Bronx.
The event is to be held at Crotona Park in the South Bronx, with guest entry opening at 3 p.m. and Trump’s arrival slated for 6 p.m., with his campaign stating in the rally announcement that “President Trump will ease the financial pressures placed on households and re-establish law and order in New York!”
Trump, a native New Yorker who changed his permanent residency from the city to his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida in 2019, is following up his recent rally in the Jersey Shore’s Wildwood that was held on May 11 and drew in a “mega crowd” of 80,000 to 100,000 people, according to estimates from city spokesperson Lisa Fagan.
The campaign reportedly has a permit allowing for 3,500 guests to attend Thursday’s event.
On April 16, in his first campaign event during his criminal trial, Trump visited a bodega in Harlem where an employee was stabbed in 2022. The Manhattan District Attorney’s Office dropped the charges against his alleged attacker, allowing Trump to criticize Alvin Bragg’s treatment of crime and call for “law and order.”
The presumptive Republican presidential nominee, 77, is expected to talk about the effects of high inflation since President Joe Biden took office, the migrant crisis and crime, with his campaign referencing increases in crime since 2019.
“We can Make America Great Again by tackling lawlessness head-on, ceasing the endless flow of illegal immigrants across our southern border, and reversing the detrimental effects of inflation by restoring people’s wealth,” the Trump campaign said.
Rep. Ritchie Torres, who represents the 15th congressional district covering the South Bronx, took to social media following the rally announcement to state that “The South Bronx has no greater enemy than Donald Trump, who is on a mission to dismantle the social safety net on which Bronx families depend for their survival.”
“The South Bronx—the most Democratic area in the nation—will not buy the snake oil that he is selling,” Torres continued.
New York, not considered to be a battleground state for the general election, went largely to Biden in the 2020. In the South Bronx, the current president won by about 77 percentage points, according to the New York Times.
A Siena College poll from April found that Biden is up by 10 points in the Empire State.