Trump and his allies have tried to suggest that his rally in the Bronx was massive and suggested overwhelming support. It takes a lot to have an impact in New York, though, and, as far as big events go, it didn’t.
Gift link: https://t.co/IYM7daDDdw— Philip Bump (@pbump) May 25, 2024
Because it’s a holiday weekend, and a gift link… The ever-reasonable Philip Bump, at the Washington Post:
… By dropping into the middle of a predominantly Black and Hispanic community in the Bronx, Trump was, among other things, doing the same thing: trolling the left and his critics. He hoped to get a rise out of his opponents, and he did.
At least among those who noticed he was there.
The rally had a footprint in the neighborhood, but a modest one. Despite the insistence of some Trump allies, the Bronx rally wasn’t huge. The hilltop where he spoke allowed for people to spread around the podium on all sides about 40 people deep, though it rarely extended that far. It was a small-club performance by design, not an arena show.
It was, however, much more diverse than any Trump rally I’ve attended. His audiences tend, like his voting base, to skew heavily White. This rally had a disproportionate number of Black, Asian and Hispanic attendees, reflecting the surrounding community. Many of those in attendance were, in fact, from the Bronx; others were from other places near New York City: Westchester County to the north, or out on Long Island…
The rally had the familiar microeconomies that accompany Trump as he campaigns. There were merchants outside selling hats (a visor with fake orange “Trump hair,” for example) and T-shirts. (“I WAS THERE!” one popular shirt read. “BRONX NEW YORK / TRUMP.”) A number of people had placards showing Trump’s mug shot photo from his arrest in Georgia, but those were being given out by the campaign. There was also a surfeit of members of the pro-Trump media universe that has been fostered by the overlap of his popularity and the advent of cheap tools for streaming content.
Some of America’s more famous hustlers also showed up. Former New York congressman George Santos was there, as was Billy McFarland of Fyre Festival infamy. As rapper Sheff G made his way through security, fans called out to him from the line of people waiting to get in. He would later join Trump onstage, each of them dealing with the criminal justice system in New York City. This was the first Trump rally I’ve attended where the smell of marijuana was pervasive, though it was not the first park in the city where I’ve experienced that…
At about 6:30 p.m., the main event began. Trump started his speech by celebrating being back in New York City, where he was born. In fact, Crotona Park is near some landmarks in Trump family lore: His father was born in a building just outside the park, and Trump attended nearby Fordham University. But this praise for the city quickly got bogged down in the details of how he repaired Central Park’s ice rink and how he built a golf course near the Whitestone Bridge. The crowd deflated slightly.
It was humid and sunny, and by the time Trump started to speak, the free water being distributed by the campaign had run out. People had been waiting in line for hours to get in and, not long after he started speaking, as others were still filing in, people began filing out. (“I just wanted to be here for the beginning,” one man said as he walked toward the exit.)
Despite the relatively modest crowd size, or because of it, there was an obvious enthusiasm for Trump from the audience. This isn’t surprising; few people show up to Trump rallies who don’t like Trump. It’s easy, though, to downplay that enthusiasm or to suggest that it is insincere, particularly since so much of this particular crowd looked a lot different from Trump’s usual base of support.
It is also easy to see a diverse crowd of a few thousand people and overestimate what that suggests about the rest of the state. On one hand, hundreds or thousands of Black and Hispanic people came out to see Donald Trump in the Bronx. On the other hand, there are hundreds of thousands of Black and Hispanic people a short cab ride away from Crotona Park, in the borough where Trump fared the worst in 2020. Claims from Trump and his allies about the scale of the event and what it portends for November should be taken with a grain of salt…
The park felt like any other New York park, if a bit more unkempt. It was dusk, and a group of people were playing soccer in an overgrown field. People were walking their dogs; kids were goofing around on bikes. Trump plunked down in the heart of New York City and — the city being the city — New York City barely noticed.
HumboldtBlue
All those words, all that prose… for a fat fucking traitor.
Ten Bears
Second that …
MagdaInBlack
Was sitting out on the balcony (here in the Chi nw suburbs) and it was peacefully quiet. No jets from O’hare, no sirens, nothing….just breeze thru the trees and faint sound of traffic far away.
trump is just pathetic.
eclare
Power still out here. Grrr. It was out for four days last summer, am I in the first world?
I understand if we had had a tornado etc., but the winds here never got loud.
I lost at least $200 worth of food last summer, plus my sanity. It was over 90 in my house at midnight one night.
Odie Hugh Manatee
I saw a clip of TFG at a NASCAR event where his people were recording him waving, pumping his fist, giving thumbs up and whatnot to an empty parking area while the NASCAR crowd was cheering whatever was going on at the actual event. I think he was looking for some cheering to cheer himself up, even though the crowd wasn’t cheering at him…lol!
Speaking of laughing my ass off…
TIL that “The Villages” down in Florida is actually named “Christian Advent Villages”. Hold it. Rampaging STDs? Check. Rampaging sexual assaults? Check. Spouses cheating on each other? Check. Old fart fights breaking out over women? Check.
The above perfectly describes the conservative Christian old farts that make up the core of the Republican party. It’s almost as if they don’t fear their God at all, like they know that He doesn’t actually exist and that there is no Hell for them to suffer in for eternity.
Convenience Christians… they’re Christian when they need to be but in the meantime it’s old people gone wild!
eclare
@Odie Hugh Manatee:
Except no one wants to see the Gramps Gone Wild video.
Jay
@eclare:
Sadly, in some regards, there are entire PornHub categories about Grandma’s, Grandpaw’s, and Grandma’s and Grandpaw’s,
But in The Villages, I think #1 is Gay Porn, #2 is Trans Porn and #3 is Lesbian Porn, based on Florida stats.
eclare
New ETA for power is 5 am. If it comes on by then, I won’t lose anything. Fingers crossed. Again, the weather here did not get bad, so I don’t understand
Brachiator
@eclare:
Hope you got your power back.
TBone
We are on tornado watch here today, all kitties stowed indoors and all hatches battened. We already had one hit in our yard a few years ago (on Tax Day of all days) and it was no picnic. Roof repairs, about 5 or 6 downed trees to clean up, telephone pole snapped like a twig left live power lines down across the front lawn and driveway…tornadoes are the worst. We cowered in the basement while water, being driven sideways by the wind, poured in through the furnace chimney and literal fireballs of lightning exploded in midair out in the yard like bombs. My heart goes out to all affected! I hope the odds of being hit twice are high…
Severe thunderstorms with damaging winds 60 mph or greater and
large hail exceeding 1 inch in diameter are possible from late this
morning into the late afternoon. Tornadoes are also possible. Heavy
rain from thunderstorms may lead to scattered incidents of flooding.
TBone
The good news: our homeowners insurance adjuster was here the next day. He was sympathetic and generous, paid for most of new roof & new gutters and right away bought us a hotel room nearby that still had electricity for hot showers. I’ll stick with Juanita Mutual for the rest of my life.
eclare
New eta is 6 am. This is BS. The lights have turned on for a second or two, so this is only to test for others. They can turn them on.
If power comes back on by 6 am, I won’t lose anything.
TBone
@eclare: usually once they flicker, it won’t be long. Fingers crossed for you!
TBone
@Jay: part of the reason I want to visit with my former employer attorney guy that makes hubby jealous is to ask him what life in The Villages was really like. The biggest reason I want to see him is I suspect he’s going through something bad medically. But I’m dying to find out about The Villages first hand and to know why he moved there in the first place – it MUST have been the party scene, he is not a religious whacko or a trumper and was in a monogamous relationship as far as I know. He was never a “ladies man” but was always kind of aloof in that dept. I’m contemplating just having a phone conference with him instead of a meeting…
Jay
@TBone:
Funny how things go,…….
Separated, not yet quite divorced, (first wife)
Had an Ex ex GF get back in contact.
Drinks and dinner at the English Bay Cafe, (sea view, romantic).
Okay.
She was always smoking hot, but blond and English, I don’t mean that as a diss. But we hadn’t seen each other in over 10 years.
So meet and greet, first drinks, followed by,………
A 30 minute rant on how I had never treated her right, but she now had some one who did.
I let her vent, agreed, paid the bar bill, said goodbye, wished her well.
Now, when we were going out, I was not an a-hole, but I was stupid.
NotMax
@eclare
Could be a tree branch came down on a line. Could be a transformer blew. Could be a car hit a power pole. Could be a faulty breaker tripped at a substation. Could be any of a hundred other things.
If doors remain shut, fridge will certainly keep foodstuffs okay for several hours* if power goes off , the freezer for a full day. FDA guidelines.
*Government says 4 hours. Power recently went out here for 8 hours and nothing in the fridge was spoiled (I don’t keep containers of fresh milk in the house, generally).
Dorothy A. Winsor
@TBone: Someone in my writer group is visiting The Villages in what sounds like a sales event to me. For some reasonable amount of money, they get their lodging, a golf cart, golf privileges, and some other stuff I don’t remember. She was very excited to see what it was like. I held my tongue.
Liminal Owl
@TBone: Hoping you stay safe! Best wishes. Glad the insurance company is treating you well.
Liminal Owl
@TBone: The first time I ever heard of The Villages was an NPR piece that made them sound appealing. They must have avoided talking about all the RWNJ stuff; I actually looked into whether retiring there might be a possibility. Learned about what NPR hadn’t covered and promptly dropped the idea. But maybe your friend heard similar initial reports and didn’t follow up sufficiently?
Spanky
@TBone:
Juniata Mutual, I think you mean. One of the most beautiful rivers I’ve seen.
Liminal Owl
The Texas GOP has come out with an explicitly Dominionist platform. (Apologies if this has already been discussed and I missed it.). Not that it’s a real surprise, but saying the quiet parts even louder, I guess.
NotMax
@TBone
Hunker down safely.
satby
@eclare: hope it’s back on now. Stuff should still be ok if it’s still cool to the touch (when the power comes back on and you can check), as long as you can use the most perishable stuff within a few days. After power outages I made a lot of flan and baked stuff 😉
Dadadadadadada
Fun fact: I live in the Bronx, and am a political junkie, and I took my family to the Bronx Zoo (which is only about a mile from Crotona Park) yesterday.
And yet I had no idea (until just now) that this rally was happening. If not for making one of my rather infrequent Balloon Juice checks, I might never have found out about it.
Jeffg166
TFG looks like he could drop dead any moment. Gladdens my heart.
Baud
@Jeffg166:
The celebrations would be off the hook.
Jinchi
I’ve never understood the draw of age segregated communities. I understand why people with common life experiences, like single 20 year olds, or people with kids would want to spend more time together, but everyone in you entire neighborhood?
That sounds like a nightmare.
Jinchi
I think they’d just swap him out with an actor and try to convince us it was the same guy. Considering his base falls for all the AI generated garbage and buy pictures of him riding a Trex while holding a machine gun, they’d probably fall for it.
RaflW
“Some of America’s more famous hustlers also showed up [including] Billy McFarland of Fyre Festival infamy.”
Oh, let this be an omen from the gods/goddesses/underworld/zuul.
Kent
I, for one, do not understand the compulsion of some seniors to create a kid and young adult-free living environment. One of the only things that makes our neighborhood lively and interesting is the kids out on the streets doing kids stuff, and all the families out and about. The last thing I want to do is be stuck some place with only old people. The dining, for one, has to absolutely suck. And the arts and music options? Sheesh.
My wife and I are sending our youngest off to college this fall and so will be free to retire in a few years. We are already over 55. But I’d rather put a gun in my mouth than live in some curated over 55 community like the villages.
Baud
@Kent:
Nominated!
different-church-lady
I’m so old I can remember when people tried to say Hillary’s kick-off rally was tiny because they had to squeeze all these people into the narrow end of a park.
different-church-lady
@Kent:
Then what are you doing here?