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Former President Donald Trump waded into hostile political territory Thursday in the South Bronx to tell voters that people of color have been the biggest losers on President Biden’s watch.
Mr. Trump said the Biden administration is responsible for the policies that have fed inflation, rising crime and illegal immigration. These problems have hit impoverished communities the hardest, he said.
“African Americans are getting slaughtered, Hispanic Americans are getting slaughtered,” Mr. Trump said. “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 who are losing their jobs, losing their housing, losing everything they can lose.”
Home to one of the nation’s most demographically diverse communities and the poorest borough in New York City, the Bronx served as an ideal backdrop for Mr. Trump’s message.
“On Day One, we are going to throw out Bidenomics, and replace it with MAGAnomics,” Mr. Trump said, sparking applause from the crowd. “The minute Joe Biden shuffles out the door, I will rapidly rebuild the greatest economy in the history of the world.”
Mr. Trump said everybody was better off economically when he was in office.
Mr. Trump’s star power was on display as the event attracted an estimated 25,000 people, according to a Republican National Committee spokesperson.
Democrats panned the idea that Mr. Trump has a big Bronx fan base.
“Donald Trump’s rally may be IN the South Bronx but it is not OF the South Bronx,” said Rep. Ritchie Torres, who represents the area, on social media. “Bluntly put, the Trump transplants are much whiter than the locals of the South Bronx, which is almost entirely Latino and Black.”
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, also of New York, said the visit was done solely out of political convenience. “He is doing it in the South Bronx not to make a point, but because he has court and the man practically has the legal version of an ankle bracelet around him,” she said before the rally.
The event played out during a hiatus in Mr. Trump’s hush money criminal trial has kept him trapped inside a New York courtroom four days a week since mid-April.
The case has forced Mr. Trump to trade campaigning in key battleground states for campaigning in the Big Apple.
He has visited a Harlem bodega, mingled with union workers at a construction site and visited a fire station in Midtown Manhattan to drop off pizzas and pose for photos with first responders.
New York has been reliably Democrat in presidential elections.
President Reagan was the last Republican to carry New York in his 49-state landslide victory over Democratic presidential nominee Walter Mondale in 1984.
Mr. Trump, meanwhile, lost New York by more than 20-point margins to Mr. Biden in 2020 and to Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton in 2016.
Despite that, he has promoted the idea that “we are going to win New York.”
Political analysts, however, say Mr. Trump’s visit to the South Bronx and campaigning around New York is about sending a signal to Black and Hispanic voters in key battleground states across the country that he wants their support, and that Mr. Biden no longer deserves it.
There also is a sense that the visit could help soften his image in the eyes of suburban voters.
Mr. Biden rode the support of young voters, women voters and people of color to victory in the 2020 election, recreating the so-called Obama coalition that has powered Democrats in recent elections.
Polls, though, show Mr. Biden’s support among Black voters and Hispanic voters has slipped.
Mr. Trump, who first became famous as a New York City real estate mogul, said his hometown has become a shell of its former self and pledged Thursday to return it to its former glory if elected president.
He said New York City used to be a “testament to the American spirit and the American dream,” but “sadly this is now a city in decline.”
He said homelessness has reached a crisis level, criminals are running wild, and “mobs of migrants are fighting our police officers and giving America the middle finger.”
“The simple fact is Joe Biden is not getting the job done for the Bronx, he is not getting the job done for New York and he is not getting the job done for America,” Mr. Trump said. “He is incompetent. He is grossly incompetent.”
Mr. Trump vowed to “make New York City great again.”
“Remember this, if a New Yorker can’t save this country — no one can,” he said.
• Seth McLaughlin can be reached at smclaughlin@washingtontimes.com.
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