Donald Trump is headed to the Bronx on Thursday for a rally making him the first Republican presidential candidate to visit the borough for a campaign event in more than 40 years.
The ex-president paying a visit as he looks to woo black and Hispanic voters away from President Joe Biden.
Trump will be speaking to supporters in Crotona Park around 6pm ET. His campaign, which often touts crowd size, expects several thousand people to attend.
In the event’s announcement, Trump’s campaign said the visit will highlight Biden’s ‘disastrous’ record on the economy and surge in violent crime.
The ex-president and former New Yorker insists he could win the state in November. But those chances are extremely slim for Republican presumptive nominee and an even greater stretch in the Bronx.
Donald Trump is set to hold a campaign event in the Bronx on Thursday. He is the first Republican presidential candidate to campaign in the borough since Reagan
Biden beat Trump in the Empire State by double-digits in 2020 with more than 60 percent of the vote to Trump’s less than 38 percent.
Trump won less than 10 percent of the Bronx in 2016. In 2020, he won just 16 percent of the borough against Biden.
No Republican presidential candidate has won New York state in the presidential election since President Ronald Reagan in 1984.
Trump has been in New York for his criminal trial as he faces 34 felony counts of falsifying business records over the hush money payment to porn star Stormy Daniels.
Outside the courthouse, he has made several stops throughout the city including visiting a firehouse, construction site and a bodega.
Ahead of the rally in the Bronx, Democratic Congressman Ritchie Torres who represents the districts slammed the ex-president visiting his neighborhood.
‘It’s obvious to all of us that his priority is not the people of the Bronx,’ Torres said on MSNBC. ‘His priority is a self-pardon and self-preservation.’
‘His presidency was a catastrophe for the Bronx, his mismanagement of COVID left a death toll of more than 7,000 in the Bronx which is greater than the combined death count of Pearl Harbor and 9/11.’
Torres said instead of holding a rally he should be ‘apologizing for the damage he’s done.’
The congressman said he’s confident the people of the Bronx are not going to ‘buy the snake oil he’s selling.’
The Biden campaign on Thursday released a 30 second ad warning Trump poses a ‘dire threat to black America.’
The ad highlights Trump calling for the execution of the Central Park Five. The five black and Latino teenagers from Harlem were wrongfully convicted for the brutal assault of a white woman in New York’s Central Park in 1989. Their convictions were vacated in 2002.
It began airing digitally ahead of Trump’s visit targeting Bronx and New York zip codes. The campaign also is airing the ad in battleground states.
One of the Central Park five is now a New York City Councilman. He blasted Trump on Thursday.
‘During that dark period, Donald Trump took out full-page ads in New York City newspapers calling for the reinstatement of the death penalty. He pointed his finger at us, calling for our execution without a shred of evidence,’ Yusef Salaam said in a statement.
The Biden campaign released a 30 second political ad on Thursday calling Trump a dire threat to Black America. The ad highlighted Trump calling for the death penalty for the Central Park Five. It began airing in New York ahead of Trump’s visit as well as battleground states
‘Unfortunately, this personal experience is not just a chapter of my life but a stark illustration of the kind of leader Donald Trump is—a man who has consistently disrespected and dehumanized our community,’ Salaam added while urging black and Latino communities not to sit out the election.
In the Bronx, more than 28 percent of the population identified as black and more than 56 identified as Hispanic in 2022.
Reagan is the last Republican presidential candidate to hold a campaign event in the South Bronx. He visited the borough when he ran against President Jimmy Carter in the summer of 1980.
He gave remarks in front of a vacant lot on Charlotte Street, the same place Carter had visited in 1977 and vowed to make improvements, but little had change since then.
Ronald Reagan during his visit to the South Bronx in 1980 giving remarks in front of a sign that said ‘decay.’ The Republican presidential candidate went to Charlotte Street, the exact spot where President Carter had visited years earlier. It was still lined with vacant lots and rubble
President Reagan was the last Republican presidential candidate to campaign in the Bronx. He was also the last Republican to win the state of New York.
Reagans visit was met with some protests. Demonstrators behind barricades across the street shouted ‘you ain’t going to do nothing’ and ‘go back to California.’
During his 1977 visit, Carter’s motorcade drove past blocks of burned-out buildings and vacant lots. Twice he got out of his motorcade to chat with residents and praised the spirit and hope of the people.
President Jimmy Carter in the South Bronx on October 5, 1977 as they toured one of the city’s most ravaged areas.
Presidents Barack Obama and Bill Clinton both visited the borough as well. President George W Bush threw out the first pitch during the World Series only weeks after the attack on 9/11.
