The Trump campaign is venturing into increasingly hostile territory.
The strategy, we’re told, is to demonstrate that the former president can get his point across in Democratic areas, putting the Biden camp on the defensive.
But it goes deeper than that.
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Donald Trump is sending the message that he’s a fighter by campaigning in places where he’s not normally welcome, especially during the week-long recess in his hush money trial that resumed yesterday with closing arguments. Of course, a guilty verdict in the criminal trial could change all that.
The first step in Trump’s new strategy is a visit to the South Bronx, a symbol of urban decay. He didn’t go there with the hope of winning the Bronx, New York City or New York State, but to send a message to minority voters that he cares.
Trump gathered thousands of supporters in the park and played mostly his greatest hits. He also spent 10 minutes talking about how he rebuilt the skating rink in Central Park decades ago, providing construction details. But he also said he would rebuild the city. Polls show that Trump has a higher approval rating among black voters than any Republican candidate in more than a generation, while Joe Biden has fallen in a crucial Democratic constituency.
Former President Donald Trump held a rally in New York City on May 23, 2024, in the historically Democratic neighborhood of the South Bronx. (Spencer Pratt/Getty Images)
The Queens-born Trump’s trip to the Bronx, where he attended college for two years, was unexpected, and the controversy made headlines for days as some liberals lambasted the wealthy Republican for encroaching on their turf, a trait Trump excels at.
The former president also spoke at a mass rally along the New Jersey coast, another state he is unlikely to win, and visited Democratic-leaning Minnesota, a state he would win only if the election was decided by a wide margin.
I don’t think the Biden campaign will be fooled by this fake news. The President needs to focus on Michigan, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania, where he is trailing by a few points in most polls, to win the Electoral College. Scranton Joe is practically based in Pennsylvania near Delaware, but he is still slightly behind in most battleground polls. He and Kamala Harris are back in Philadelphia today.
Perhaps the clearest example of Trump’s unconventional approach was his speech at the Libertarian Convention over the weekend, which was widely reported as a disaster as he was booed throughout.
He made several promises, including appointing Libertarian members to his cabinet and pardoning a Libertarian member who was running an online illegal drug marketplace.
But the boos got louder when Trump sought the party’s nomination. The Libertarian Party has long criticized Trump’s record.
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Trump insisted that together they could win. When the boos continued, Trump fired back: “Maybe you don’t want to win. You just need to get 3% of the vote every election.”
The next day, Trump claimed that as a Republican he would not be allowed to seek the nomination of another party, and that is exactly what happened.
While many see this whole affair as a fiasco, I see it the other way around.
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, on May 23, 2024. (Michael Lewis/Fox News Digital)
Trump showed he was ready to step into the lion’s den. He stood firm in the face of hecklers. He knew he would face an unfriendly reception, but he was prepared to fight.
This stands in stark contrast to Biden, who has been delivering safe economic speeches in front of safe audiences, largely based on past legislation.
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Attention has now shifted back to the hush money trial, with the jury set to deliberate in that case today.
