Trump Courts Biden’s Black, Hispanic Coalition in NY

AFP/APP

New York:Donald Trump rolled the dice on a campaign stop in deepest Democratic New York Thursday seeking to woo Black and Latino voters whose support for Joe Biden has shown signs of faltering.

The event, in the Bronx where the Republican was trounced in 2020, follows a trend of Trump sorties into traditionally liberal states, most recently in New Jersey and Minnesota.

But his speech in the South Bronx was more about signaling that he can draw large crowds among the Hispanic and African-American coalition seen as crucial to Biden’s hopes of retaining the White House.

Though the crowd was predominantly white, it was markedly more diverse than at the recent event in New Jersey.

In his first rally in his former hometown since 2016, Trump railed against uncontrolled immigration, invoking falsehoods about violent criminals crossing the southern border. 

“You look at these people… they are physically fit, they’re 19 to 25, almost everyone is a male, and they look like fighting age — I think they’re building an army,” he said.

“African Americans are getting slaughtered, Hispanic Americans are getting slaughtered,” he said, repeating debunked claims about crimes allegedly committed by migrants.

In fact, New York City in 2023 saw murders down 12 percent year-on-year, according to police figures. Overall crime was five percent lower in April than in the same month last year.

The Bronx is a Democratic  neighborhood where almost two-thirds of residents are Hispanic and one-third are Black.

There were isolated pockets of organized Democratic Party and trade union opposition to the rally, while one woman in a blue T-shirt held a banner aloft that read “convict Trump already.”

Ahead of Trump’s motorcade sweeping through Crotona Park to the stage, a line almost a mile (1.5 kilometers) long zigzagged around basketball courts and ponds as local children climbed on a crane that held a giant banner.

“He’s from New York, I don’t take offense to him being here,” said 68-year-old Bronx resident George Marrero, who had perched on a wooden fence to watch.

“He has a tiny bit of support here and I believe he’ll do a tiny bit better this time.”