Visitors to the Trump Bronx rally talk about their top issues for 2024
Attendees at former President Trump's rally in New York City on Thursday came from diverse backgrounds, but many said they had the same two issues at the top of their minds when choosing between the former president and President Biden.
CROTONA PARK, NY – Attendees at former President Trump's South Bronx rally Thursday came from diverse backgrounds, but many said they had the same two issues at the top of their minds when choosing a 2024 candidate.
The economy and illegal immigration.
In a sea of red hats, American flags and pro-Trump banners, supporters of all stripes said they came for very similar reasons.
Tyrone, from the Bronx, said the 2024 elections are an opportunity “for us to get our country back.”
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Former President Trump, center, during a campaign event at Crotona Park in the Bronx, NY, May 23, 2024. (Bing Guan/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
“I'm proud that people are waking up and seeing that we need this change for this country,” he said.
Illegal immigration was his biggest concern, he said, made worse by the taxpayer money the government spends on housing and aid to migrants.
“Do it the right way so we know who's who, and we know we're not going to allow that to happen [in] murderers, rapists… ex-prisoners from different countries,” he said.
Illegal immigration has skyrocketed during the Biden administration. Foreign spending continues while Americans suffer the effects of domestic inflation. And President Biden's handling of these issues is making voters in traditionally blue New York take Trump more seriously this election season.
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Supporters of Donald Trump try to catch a glimpse of the former president during a rally in Crotona Park in the Bronx, New York City, May 23, 2024. (Michael Ruiz/Fox News Digital)
“I think there's a wave of people changing their minds about him, especially in the black community that I know,” said Marilyn Miller, a former NYPD officer who attended the meeting from Queens. “They don't like the policies that Joe Biden has imposed on us – the inflation, the migrant situation.”
Democrats have set up several migrant shelters in her neighborhood, she said.
“We need boundaries,” she said. 'Every country has a border, and in the United States of America he just lets everyone cross the border. Now I have them in my neighborhood and they are committing crimes.”
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People gather for an election rally for former President Trump at Crotona Park in the South Bronx on May 23, 2024 in New York City. (Spencer Platt/Getty Images)
KT, an Orange County resident, drove an hour from the Hudson Valley to reach the meeting, but he said his family was from the Bronx.
“In terms of where we are now versus where we were, it's like night and day,” he said.
He said he hopes a Trump victory will reduce inflation. The 45th president later joked to the crowd that bacon had become so expensive that he had stopped eating it.
Crystal, from Queens, wore a Trump banner as a cape, but said she had never been political until after Biden took office.
“Look around,” she said. “It's clear that people are taking him much more seriously now, and New York will turn red.”
Trump supporters raise their phones as the former president takes the stage at Crotona Park in the Bronx on Thursday, May 23, 2024. (Michael Ruiz/Fox News Digital)
For her, who lives thousands of miles from the border with Mexico, the consequences of unchecked illegal immigration are all around her, she said.
“Close the damn border now – not now, but now, like yesterday,” she said. “All the effects of the border are all around us.”
The rally in Crotona Park in the Bronx, traditionally a Democratic stronghold, drew people from New York and surrounding states. Trump is the first Republican in decades to make a campaign stop in the city. And if he makes good on his promise to win his former home state, he would be the first Republican candidate to do so since the 1980s.
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He received only single-digit support in the municipality in 2016, but he made a significant improvement in 2020, and polls show him continuing to make gains among Black and Hispanic voters.
