OPINION:
As opening arguments begin this week, former President Donald Trump’s so-called hush-money trial will trap him in Judge Juan Merchan’s Manhattan courtroom every weekday but Wednesdays for the foreseeable future. Democrats have plotted to keep Mr. Trump off the campaign trail. He should crush their dreams and spend weeknights courting Northeastern voters.
Mr. Trump previewed this strategy at the Sanaa Convenient Store at Broadway and 139th Street in Harlem, deep inside the 13th Congressional District. The Census Bureau describes the district as 53.4% Hispanic, 25.3% Black, and just 18.8% White. With a Cook Partisan Voting Index of D+38, this is the state’s most Democratic congressional district. This seemed like the last place Mr. Trump would dare to venture.
But when he did so on Tuesday evening, a warm crowd cheered, “USA! USA! USA!” and “We love Trump!” Chants of “Four more years!” erupted before these Manhattanites burst into “The Star-Spangled Banner.” Mr. Trump snapped photos with voters, shook their hands, and answered journalists’ questions.
Mr. Trump visited the bodega where ex-convict Austin Simon attacked store clerk Jose Alba in July 2022 while fighting over a bag of chips. As Simon’s girlfriend, Tina Lee, stabbed Mr. Alba, he fatally knifed Mr. Simon in self-defense.
Mr. Trump’s tormentor, far-left Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, jailed Mr. Alba (a novelty for the pro-criminal prosecutor) and charged him with second-degree murder.
After New Yorkers revolted, Mr. Bragg exculpated Mr. Alba, who decamped to the Dominican Republic.
“You have to stop crime, and we’re going to let the police do their job,” Mr. Trump said. “They have to be given back their authority.”
Harlemites captured these scenes on their cellphones and shared them with friends and loved ones who vote in New York and beyond. News cameras broadcast these images across America.
Mr. Trump achieved this triumph without leaving Manhattan.
Here is how Mr. Trump can duplicate this model every evening after Judge Merchan adjourns his trial:
• Return to upper Manhattan to see the Harlem Educational Activities Fund. This civil-society gem enriches low-income, inner-city students, 100% of whom graduate from high school and enter college. Mr. Trump should highlight the fund as a model for private sector minority uplift.
• Ride to Brooklyn to tour the Chabad Lubavitch headquarters. Surrounded by Orthodox Jews, Mr. Trump could reaffirm his stalwart support of Israel and solidarity with the Jewish people.
• Cruise to the Bronx to enjoy a burger in a diner and then catch a Yankees game.
• Step onto Staten Island, the Big Apple’s GOP stronghold. Rep. Nicole Malliotakis could reintroduce Mr. Trump to the voters who handed him a 56.9% to 42% victory over Joe Biden in Richmond County.
• Journey to Nassau and Suffolk counties, both run by Republicans. Mr. Trump could rally fans and comfort survivors of those murdered by MS-13’s homicidal illegal aliens.
A convincing margin on GOP-trending Long Island and a commanding lead in pro-Trump upstate locales would give Mr. Trump two of three ingredients to clinch the Empire State. The third: Get beaten but not bludgeoned in New York City. If Mr. Trump mirrors 2022 Republican gubernatorial nominee Lee Zeldin’s performance outside Gotham and secures 40.8% rather than Mr. Zeldin’s 30.2% in the city, Mr. Trump could take the state.
If you add Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to the ballot and subtract demoralized Democrats who stay home and sulk, New York’s 28 Electoral College votes could be Mr. Trump’s.
Probable? No.
Plausible? Suddenly, yes.
Mr. Trump’s helicopter could whisk him to Pennsylvania, which has 19 electoral votes, Bucks County and the posh Main Line. He could tell suburbanites his proposals to stop squatters, slash crime, and sandbag Mr. Biden’s plans to force high-rise apartment buildings into bedroom communities. In Philadelphia, Mr. Trump should appeal to minority entrepreneurs, Black parishioners, and parents aching for robust school choice.
Mr. Trump could fly to New Hampshire (four electoral votes) to rally his troops. Granite Staters love town halls. Mr. Trump should arrange them, so voters could see him up close and on local and national TV.
As the trial adjourns midweek, Mr. Trump should fly on Tuesday evenings and spend Wednesdays in Virginia (13 electoral votes), North Carolina (16) and Georgia (16). Trips to Michigan (15) and Wisconsin (10) would take longer, but that’s why God created jets.
Mr. Trump needs little sleep. Slumbering after events might be all the rest he needs before resuming each morning’s persecution. The kinetic, peripatetic Mr. Trump will contrast starkly against Sleepy Joe Biden, who seldom shuffles far from the White House or his Delaware mansions.
Mr. Trump’s appearances would rebut the left’s big lie that he “threatens democracy.” Who jeopardizes this constitutional republic — the candidate who asks Americans every evening for their votes, or the Democrats desperate to imprison him?
Mr. Trump’s positive gatherings would also outshine the menacing portraits of him that prosecutors will paint from 9 to 5.
Until this show trial ends, the days belong to New York’s injustice system. But the nights belong to Donald Trump.
• Deroy Murdock is a Manhattan-based Fox News contributor.
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