‘Biden didn't come to the Bronx’: Trump makes a foray into Democratic turf

BRONX, New York — Donald Trump made a direct appeal to Black and Hispanic voters in one of the bluest parts of the country on Thursday, boasting he could expand the electoral map into traditionally Democratic strongholds.

Speaking to a raucous crowd in the South Bronx, the former president claimed he would win his home state of New York, a state that hasn’t gone for a Republican presidential candidate since Ronald Reagan 44 years ago.

“Who said we're not going to win New York?” Trump said. “We're going to win New York.”

For Trump, it was the latest foray into Democratic turf, including in states he’s unlikely to win like New Jersey, where he held a rally earlier in May. His top campaign advisers and pollster told donors recently they believe they have the potential to expand the electoral map to Virginia and Minnesota in November. Trump came within 2 points of winning Minnesota in 2016 but lost the state by 7 points four years later.

The inroads Trump is seeking to make with young voters and people of color could help him tremendously in swing states. And the former president on Thursday claimed that illegal immigration is specifically harming minorities — an apparent attempt to drive a wedge between communities in a city that has absorbed thousands of recent migrants.

“These millions and millions of people that are coming into our country — the biggest impact and the biggest negative impact is against our Black population and our Hispanic population,” he said.

His declaration that he would begin a massive deportation if he is elected was met with cheers from the crowd. He said, “The vast majority of New Yorkers agree with me it is unacceptable.”

Trump, who grew up in Queens, spent some of his 90-minute speech reminiscing about his time as a real estate developer. He barely mentioned the criminal trial that has brought him to New York for weeks.

Trump’s campaign specifically sees an opportunity with Black and Hispanic voters on the issues of immigration and economy, and recent polling suggests Trump has made some gains in recent years, especially with Latino voters.

With the former president confined to New York for much of the week due to the hush-money trial, his campaign has held events in different pockets of the city, including in historically Black neighborhoods like Harlem, to make targeted pitches to voters of color.

A Siena College poll released Wednesday showed Biden leading Trump in New York by only 9 points — 47 to 38 percent among 1,191 registered voters. Four years ago, Biden defeated Trump in the state by 23 points. And according to a recent New York Times and Siena College poll of battleground states, Trump and Biden had equal support with Latino voters, while Trump had 20 percent support from Black voters. Trump only needs to make marginal gains with Latino voters to make a difference in the November election.

If the polling suggests Trump’s appeal may extend even incrementally beyond his traditionally white base, it was evident at the rally too. The crowd reflected New York’s diversity, with Hasidic Jews, Blacks and Latinos in attendance wearing MAGA hats and holding signs with Trump’s mugshot and the slogan “Never Surrender.”

Andre Drayton, a Black man who was born and raised in the Bronx and voted against Trump in 2016 and 2020, said he is now a supporter.

“Don't think that just because I'm Black, or other people are Black, that we're not all aware of what's going on,” Drayton said. “It's time to right a wrong. For Black people, minorities, we have to wake people up.”

John McLaughlin, a pollster for Trump, said the demographic of Biden voters most likely to consider Trump are African American and Hispanic voters whose average age is 35, “which hits the Bronx very well.”

“A lot of Republicans just don't know how to win in New York and we haven’t won it since Reagan won the state and you know, we haven't had a statewide elected official since [Gov. George] Pataki,” McLaughlin said. 

Trump has also claimed that his recent criminal indictments have helped him with the Black community, controversially telling Black conservatives in February in South Carolina that Black voters like him because he also had been unfairly treated by the criminal justice system, an appeal that was widely criticized by Democrats.

Trump made gains with minority voters in New York City in the 2020 election — especially with Latino communities in the South Bronx. But Biden still won the area with over 83.5 percent of the vote in 2020. Trump only won 16 percent of the vote.

Democratic Rep. Ritchie Torres, who represents the Bronx, said Trump has “delusions of grandeur” and is “delusional enough to think that he’s remotely competitive in the Bronx.”

“Donald Trump is not going to win the Bronx. He’s less popular than the Mets and the Boston Red Sox,” Torres told reporters.

Bronx Republican Party Chair Mike Rendino said that while Trump’s visit is “largely symbolic” and “a good punch to the Democrats that he’s not afraid to he right to the belly of the beast,” even small gains here could make a difference.

“You’re not going to win the Bronx,” he said, “but cut down the loss margin you’re going to win New York state.”

Local Democratic legislators from the Bronx, and aligned labor unions, held a counter-rally of a couple hundred people at the other end of Crotona Park, and the Biden campaign released TV and radio ads with “receipts of Trump’s racist record” on Thursday.

Jasmine Harris, the Biden campaign’s Black media outreach director, said in a statement that the Trump campaign’s attempts to “pander” for Black and Latino votes is a reminder of his poor record on race, including promoting a “racist birther movement.” Harris said Trump “consistently demonizes and dehumanizes Black and Latino communities.”

But Janiyah Thomas, the Trump campaign’s Black media director, shot back against the Biden campaign, saying "our outreach efforts are a stark contrast to Joe Biden's failing campaign whose key tactic is to gaslight Black voters with desperate ads and pandering speeches that fail to address Biden's terrible policies.”

The last Republican presidential candidate to campaign in the South Bronx was Reagan. But other presidents have made pilgrimages to the area, including Jimmy Carter, Bill Clinton and Barack Obama. Republican President George W. Bush visited Yankee Stadium in the Bronx to throw the ceremonial first pitch shortly after 9/11.

Trump also has a personal history with the borough — he spent two years in the Bronx when he was a student at Fordham University before he transferred to the University of Pennsylvania. Trump’s company developed and operated a public golf course in the Bronx for nearly a decade — until he sold it to casino company Bally’s last year.

Khalik Carlis, 19, from the Bronx, came to the rally with his friends and said he appreciated that Trump is a New Yorker.

“Biden didn't come to the Bronx. Trump is here,” Carlis said. “He sees the writing on the wall."