For decades, Charlotte Street in the South Bronx was a symbol of New York’s urban decay. Riven by crime, unemployment and outright destitution, countless politicians — from Jimmy Carter to Bill Clinton — would visit the street, decrying the treatment of the residents of this unloved hellscape.
Democrats, by and large, were welcomed. Republicans were not. When Ronald Reagan visited in 1980, he was heckled to such an extent that he cut his visit short. Indeed, his experience was so scarring for the party that few followed in his footsteps for the next 50 years. Some 44 years later, however, no such treatment was visited upon his successor. Just a stone’s throw from Charlotte Street (now a tree-lined road populated by bungalows and 4×4 trucks) lies Crotona Park, where the former president is due to speak.
Thousands are queuing, impatiently, to squeeze through the five makeshift security gates to make it into the main area. Notwithstanding a few secret service personnel attempting to part the red sea of MAGA hats, the crowd is already boisterous. In typical New York fashion, local salesmen are haggling with supporters over the cost of various pieces of Trump merchandise; one offers to sell his Trump-on-the-cross shirt for $50 before slyly upping the price to $60 for his next customer. Another hawks a t-shirt reading “If u still hate Trump after this shitshow your commitment to stupidity is impressive” to a gleeful teenager.
This is Trump’s first rally in his hometown of New York in eight years. But Joe Biden’s lead in the state has slipped from 23% to single digits (9%) this year and there is little sign he is clawing any of that support back. Although the state — and the Bronx — remains solidly blue, it may only take a few seats in the House to give Republicans control of the lower chamber of Congress. Evidently, Trump smells blood.
“I’ve been a lifelong Democrat, but I’ve had enough,” Emilio says. “I stayed at home during the last election, but food prices are so bad now there is just no way I’m voting for Biden. I feel betrayed.” Emilio is here with his wife and three young children, who all hold their own “Never Surrender” placard featuring Trump’s mugshot. They’ve managed to secure a prime viewing spot for Trump, who takes to the stage after his day in court in Manhattan.
He is greeted by hordes of supporters, soaking in the adulation with his familiar half-pout. “I’m a New Yorker,” he proudly booms. “Out here, you had to have smarts, grit, and energy — and you had to have heart.” “This is where you came to make it big,” he continues, “but now it is a city in decline.”
Join the discussion
Join like minded readers that support our journalism by becoming a paid subscriber
To join the discussion in the comments, become a paid subscriber.
Join like minded readers that support our journalism, read unlimited articles and enjoy other subscriber-only benefits.
SubscribeTrump is Reagans predecessor?
That typo aggravated me as well.
But is Trump the man to fix it?
‘Fixing it’ is not really that difficult a task. All he has to do is collapse the oil price by removing the ‘green’ barriers to production. The US economy will boom as never before.
All this austerity we’re experiencing at the moment is entirely artificial.
Scorch the earth and watch the good times roll like never before, maybe forever. Just be sure not to live near the center of the frack zones, or get used to flaming water on tap at no extra charge.
I’d say you never met a superlative you didn’t like, but that’s not entirely fair.
The ‘flaming water on tap’ thing is an urban myth debunked long ago.
Wrong. I’ve seen documentary footage, in no way doctored. You seem to credit almost anything that supports your hardened worldview, even if it comes from the frackers and Big Oil concerns themselves. Granted, most of us are guilty of a version of that, me included.
Your eff-the-environment economic “solution” seems too simple and convenient to be true.
https://www.propublica.org/article/scientific-study-links-flammable-drinking-water-to-fracking#:~:text=For%20the%20first%20time%2C%20a%20scientific%20study%20has%20linked%20natural,can%20be%20lit%20on%20fire.
Some of the shale gas includes ethane so it would boost chemicals industry as well.
I’m not so sure I would write off his chances of carrying NY or NJ.
Are the odds against him? Yes
But for him to be within single digits in NY says a lot and given that A) Trump traditionally polls lower than the votes he gets and B) the shy Trump voter is gonna be just that much more shy in NY, says that that 9% is probably closer to 5% and THAT is something that can be moved.
That said, if all he does is force Biden and the democrats to play some defense in their home turf, invest time and money, that is a win for Trump.
“Launches his heist.” Was there not a more loaded word available? Like many blue cities, NY is dealing with left-inflicted problems. That would be true if all Trump were doing was real estate.
Back in 2020, Biden ran a successful campaign by promising a return to normality.—// He ran on not being Trump. Biden also talked about being a uniter and has spent his time letting half the country know how much he hates it while allowing the wholesale importation of feral migrants who are crashing local budgets.
You don’t have to like Trump to recognize that the husk-in-chief who can’t deliver his lines half the time is not the answer. Unless the goal is the further deterioration of the country and another step in the fundamental transformation his former boss talked about.
I was gonna write something but you really covered it….including that “loaded” headline.
A few quibbles. 1. The migrants did not “emigrate” to NYC. They were sent there in buses by Greg Abbott, the governor of Texas. (And Ron De Santis of Florida sent some as well.) Chicago received just as many. Most of these people had no jackets to protect them for the cold winter temperatures. Whatever you think of illegal immigrants, they are human. 2. The Trump is a great businessman argument. Trump was a multimillionaire when he was a toddler, thanks to his father’s financial expertise in hiding money. Over the course of his career, he declared bankruptcy six times, and his father saved him from more bankruptcies with an infusion of money. Trump is most famous for refusing to pay for the work done on his properties. Small business owners—plumbers, electricians and others—received little to no payments. Illegal Eastern Europeans who worked on the demolition of the site that would become Trump Tower were left out to dry. It went to court, and Donny had to pay them $25 million. I’m running out of space. You get the idea.
They declared themselves to be ‘sanctuary’ cities and apparently thought illegal migrants were great, so Texas and Florida sent some there.
Doing business with Trump is NOT a good idea. Voting for him is different.
Trump loses New York in a landslide.
He loses the election in another landslide!
Maybe then you MAGA clowns will wake up from whatever fever dream has taken a hold of you and realize that fat crooks in clown makeup are not the best leaders of your cult.
Don’t be a sillyhead, CS!
Oh goodie! We have an election truther among us. This will be fun!
People are waking up (unlike becoming woke) and recognizing that the policies of the Democrat party are not working for them. High prices, climate fixation, racial monetization (as in more and more DEI training that never seems to do the trick), an open south border and more Palestinian flags and than American ones can be address by voting differently this fall.