Former President Donald Trump said ahead of Wednesday night’s a rally in Uniondale, New York, that he told people in Washington, D.C., he was going to be campaigning in the Empire State, which no Republican presidential candidate has carried since Ronald Reagan in 1984.
"They said, What do you mean New York? You can't ever … nobody can win ... Republicans can't win," Trump told a highly energized crowd at Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum in a rally that aired live on Newsmax and was simulcast on the Newsmax2 online streaming platform. It was his first campaign rally since the Secret Service foiled Sunday in Florida a second assassination attempt on him in two months.
"I said, 'I can win New York,' and, 'We can win New York,'" Trump said. "We’re going to win New York.
"With your vote, we are going to rescue our country. We are going to rescue our Democrat-run states. We are going to start by saving the great state of New York. Is that good?"
The crowd responded with cheers and roaring chants of "USA! USA! USA!"
"If you vote for me, I'm going to reduce your taxes, reduce your crime and reduce your levels of stress," Trump said. "The only thing that I will increase are your incomes and your love for your state."
Trump lost New York by nearly 23 percentage points in both 2016 and 2020, and no Republican has come within striking distance of taking the state since George H.W. Bush lost to Michael Dukakis by 4.1 points in 1988. But Republicans have been buoyed by flipping four New York House seats in the 2022 midterms that secured the GOP the House majority, and by the performance of former Rep. Lee Zeldin, who lost to Democrat Gov. Kathy Hochul that year by 6.2 points, the best performance by a GOP gubernatorial candidate since George Pataki won in 2002.
"Throughout American history, from generation to generation, New York has always set the standard for American life, and it has been a high standard, too," Trump said. "Our cities were the center of business, arts, culture.
"Our streets, ports, waterways were the arteries of American commerce. Our towns like Uniondale, Levittown, Hicksville, Huntington … these were great, great towns where you grew up and you loved and you stayed. But look at what has happened to New York and the other states all run by radical left Democrats.
"Our heavy Industries have [been] exported overseas, and our middle class has been eviscerated right here at home.
"Housing costs are out of control. Inflation has cost a typical family $28,000 … and we have horrible, disgusting, dangerous, filthy encampments of junkies and homeless people living in places that our children used to play Little League baseball, which they don't get to play very much anymore. ... There's been a 29% increase in robbery, a 36% increase in felony assault, a 42%, increase in grand larceny, a 75% increase in carjackings."
Trump then returned to a slogan he used when trying to rally support from Black voters in 2016.
"So, I say to the people of New York with crime at record levels, with terrorists and criminals pouring in, and with inflation eating your hearts out, vote for Donald Trump. What the hell do you have to lose? What do you have to lose?"
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Michael Katz ✉
Michael Katz is a Newsmax reporter with more than 30 years of experience reporting and editing on news, culture, and politics.
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