Presumptive 2024 Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump’s campaign confirmed that he will host a campaign-related event in New York City’s South Bronx for the first time.
Some media outlets described the Bronx event as a rally, but The Epoch Times has not been able to independently confirm those claims. The news release describes it as a “visit” but not a rally.
If it is indeed a rally, it will be the first rally he’s held in New York state since April 2016 when he held two in Albany at the Times Union Center and also in Buffalo.
“President Trump will ease the financial pressures placed on households and re-establish law and order in New York! We can Make America Great Again by tackling lawlessness head-on, ceasing the endless flow of illegal immigrants across our southern border, and reversing the detrimental effects of inflation by restoring people’s wealth,” the news release added.
That release added that New York is a “place near to President Trump’s heart,” adding that if elected, he will attempt to deal with relatively high violent crime rates in New York City and state.
It comes as the 45th president is currently forced to remain in New York City for his criminal trial on days that it’s in session. He’s accused of falsifying business reports in connection to the 2016 election, which he has denied.
President Trump, a native New Yorker who officially moved to Florida in 2019, has been forced to stay in New York City, a heavily Democratic jurisdiction, for his trial. On several other occasions, the former president has made several stops at New York City locations before and after court ended for the day.
Earlier this month, the former president held a campaign rally in Wildwood, New Jersey, for which tens of thousands of people were said to have turned out, according to local officials.
In April, President Trump told reporters at the courtroom that his campaign may make a play for New York, a state that has heavily favored Democrats in national elections in recent years. President Biden had a more than 20-point advantage over the former president during the 2020 election in New York state, which has two Democratic U.S. senators and a Democratic governor.
Meanwhile, testimony in the criminal trial is scheduled to conclude in the coming days after prosecutors called up their last witness, former Trump attorney Michael Cohen, to the stand.
President Trump’s lawyers last week accused Mr. Cohen of lying about a key phone call that he made to the former president’s bodyguard, while they claimed that he spoke about harassment from a 14-year-old instead of a repayment scheme to an adult film performer.
It was unclear whether President Trump would testify next week, when the defense will have an opportunity to present its case. Before the trial, the former president said he would testify, but attorney Toddy Blanche has since said he has yet to decide whether to do so.
The former president has argued that his payments to Mr. Cohen several years ago were for his work as personal lawyer to the president, meaning there was nothing improper about the word “retainer” being written on the checks that he had signed.
The former president is also under a gag order that limits his ability to publicly speak about certain individuals connected to the case, including Mr. Cohen, members of the jury, other witnesses, and the presiding judge’s family, which has come under fire for political connections to prominent Democrats.
The trial is expected to last about another week or possibly two.
