Trump vows to ‘make NYC great again’ at boisterous Crotona Park rally
Former President Donald Trump promised Thursday evening to “make New York City great again” during a raucous rally in the South Bronx, his first major campaign event in the state of his birth since 2016.
“This is some turnout,” Trump told a rowdy crowd in Crotona Park. “We have thousands of people outside the gate.”
The event was permitted to host up to 3,500 people, but thousands more gathered outside security checkpoints in the 127.5-acre public park in the hope of catching a glimpse of the 45th president or a snatch of his remarks.
Trump campaign senior adviser Chris LaCivita claimed to The Post that 20,000 people had RSVPed to the event, thought no immediate crowd estimate was made available by the NYPD.
In his remarks, the presumptive GOP presidential nominee lamented that “Joe Biden is not getting the job done for the Bronx” and “not getting the job done for New York.”
“Our subways are squalid and unsafe, the ceiling tiles are falling down, and they look worse than a Third World country,” continued Trump, 77. “The medians of our highways are crumbling, our sidewalks are littered with garbage bottles and trash.
“But worst of all are the discarded needles from people that so desperately are in need of help,” he went on.
“And we have mobs of migrants fighting our police officers and giving America the middle finger,
but we are not going to let this continue,” Trump declared.
“Joe Biden is the worst president in the history of our country,” the former president added later in his remarks. “He has no sense – doesn’t know what he’s doing, is grossly incompetent.”
“Our country’s going to hell, but we’re gonna turn it around,” he vowed.
At least one protest group – Rise and Resist – lined up near the entrance to the rally and unfurled a banner that read, “No dictators in USA,” ahead of Trump’s speech.
“Convict Trump already,” another protester’s sign read.
The Post witnessed a screaming match between one protester and a Trump supporter in one of the huge lines to get into the park.
There was also a small scuffle between Trumpers and anti-Trumpers, with some pushing and shoving, outside the gates.
There was a strong odor of marijuana in the air as well, though it was unclear if it was coming from protesters or Trump supporters.
There were no immediate reports of arrests or injuries.
Trump, who officially moved to his Florida Mar-a-Lago resort in 2019, has been stuck in Manhattan since mid-April as he stands trial on charges of falsifying business records to conceal “hush money” payments to porn star Stormy Daniels.
The Republican’s campaign team has aimed to make good use of Trump’s enforced time in the city as part of a larger strategy to reach out to traditional Democrat voters.
In the deep-blue Bronx, where Trump received 16% support four years ago, voter registration tables were set up right by the stage in Crotona Park.
More than 50 people attending the rally had registered to vote in the hours before Trump’s speech, which organizers deemed a good number while hoping for more.
With no court proceedings Thursday, the former president spent the day golfing at his Bedminster club in New Jersey before heading back to Trump Tower late in the afternoon and making the 10-mile drive from Midtown Manhattan to Crotona Park.
Thursday’s rally followed a seaside spectacle May 11 in the Jersey Shore town of Wildwood, which drew an estimated 100,000 fans of the former president to the Garden State.
Despite the outreach, it would be a major upset for Trump to take New York or New Jersey in 2024.
An April Siena College poll showed President Biden up 10 percentage points on Trump in the Empire State, and an Emerson College Polling survey from March had the incumbent up by seven percentage points in the Garden State.