Visitors came from across the street and across the country for presumed Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump’s rally at Crotona Park on May 23. As he spoke, a smaller but vocal crowd attended a nearby rally bearing the title “Trump is Not Welcome in the Bronx” — a juxtaposition that raised questions about how much ground Trump can gain in the reliably blue city.
During Trump’s speech, he told the diverse crowd that he is a better representative for Black and Latinx people.
Trump reportedly said that the arrival of migrants to New York is harming “our Black population and our Hispanic population who are losing their jobs, losing their housing, losing everything they can lose.”
While Trump faces an uphill battle in New York — which has not voted for a Republican presidential candidate since Ronald Reagan — some say it feels winnable.
Jimmy Gucciano of Staten Island told the Bronx Times he was attending the event “to support my guy, my uncle Donnie” and believes Trump has potential to win the state, based on turnout for the rally.
“Honestly, look around. Did you ever think you’d see this many Trump supporters in the Bronx?” he said.
Lawrence Gannon, 62, who lives across the street from Crotona Park, was among the locals pleased to see the former president in his own backyard. Ahead of the rally, Gannon sat on his stoop next to his dog, Dottie, with a sign reading “Vote Trump = Stimulus.”
Gannon said he actually isn’t a huge fan of either current President Joe Biden or Trump — referring to the candidates as “one devil or the other devil” — but said he appreciated the stimulus checks sent by the Trump administration during the COVID-19 pandemic. Gannon said he believes more checks would come if Trump was elected in November.
But despite the one-day flurry of activity in his neighborhood, Gannon said he’s “not sure” if Trump can realistically win over the majority of his fellow New Yorkers.
Jamie Bauer of Rise and Resist, a nonprofit formed following the 2016 election, said that won’t happen.
“[Trump] has never been popular among the people of New York,” Bauer said. “Maybe he’ll get 10%.”
Election results from 2020 showed that Trump won 12% of New York County (Manhattan) votes and 16% of Bronx votes, with 38% support statewide.
“I think New Yorkers know Trump better than anybody else, and the more you know, the less likely you are to vote for him,” Bauer said.
But some supporters remain optimistic about Trump’s chances in New York — and traveled from out of state to prove their point.
Eric Kratzer of Tempe, Arizona, drove five days to New York in a van filled with merchandise bearing artistic prints of Trump’s image. Speaking to the Bronx Times before the rally, he said he planned to both sell and give away items to enthusiastic supporters.
The artwork, created by a friend of Kratzer’s, prompted the former biology professor to start an online business, mankissesflag.com, which sells merchandise depicting Trump and other “free speech warriors,” including Martin Luther King Jr., George Carlin, Richard Pryor and Hunter S. Thompson.
Kratzer told the Bronx Times that his business is not associated with the Trump campaign — and none of the merchandise has slogans or election-specific messaging — but he hopes the campaign will adopt the imagery.
“We’re an artwork company, not a politics company,” Kratzer said, and while he came to Crotona Park with the primary goal of promoting “legitimate, original, unique artwork,” he also did not hide his support for Trump.
He said the former president visited the Bronx because it is “the jugular of America” with “real people.” In Kratzer’s drive across the country, he said he saw high prices all along the way — and witnessed an attempted break-in at a store across the street from his Bronx hotel.
For inflation and crime, Kratzer blamed Biden — and said he believes there is support in the Bronx because Trump is fighting “for us.”
But even if Trump cannot win New York, his Bronx visit was viewed as a signal to Black and Latinx voters in the rest of the country and showed that enthusiasm among his base has not waned.
“This is my 77th Donald Trump rally,” Edward Young from New Jersey told amNewYork Metro. “A Donald Trump rally is the greatest show on earth.”
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