President Trump Brings Real Optimism to “the Hood of the Hood,” New York’s South Bronx

President Trump held a gigantic rally in New York’s South Bronx on Thursday night. Despite concerted Democratic Party efforts to keep Bronx denizens in their grasp by claiming that going to see Trump was equivalent to endorsing White Supremacy, the citizens of the South Bronx turned out in the thousands. Crowd estimates ranged from 15,000 plus to 25,000 plus. One rally participant told CNN, “Trump didn’t just come to the Hood. He came to the Hood of the Hood, Morrisania in the South Bronx. No other President did that and I respect him for it.”  Another Bronx citizen, Lou Valentino, said that the Democrats’ effort to block Bronx residents from listening to Trump had backfired. “You tell someone from the Bronx not to do something, not to listen to Trump, they’re just going to come to this rally in droves.”  Sending New York Democrats into a rug chewing fit, the crowd, on multiple occasions, spontaneously chanted “Build the Wall,” and “Send Them Back.”

Trump was relaxed and himself, telling stories of the New York he knew and loved and shared with those in the audience who had lived in the city prior to its last disastrous decades. The audience responded with enthusiasm and huge support. Trump noted on Truth Social, “This was a big, important, and even startling event, and the lame stream media refused to cover it. Gee, I wonder why??? “

Trump’s address was a love letter to the New York City which used to be, prior to its recent plunge into the maelstrom of cultural pessimism and conformist irrationality. That new New York, manifest in the insane Trump criminal trial taking place in lower Manhattan, is shocking to those who experienced this city when Trump was its major and most energic builder. New York City now has the starkest income disparity of any city in the United States and perhaps the world. 1% of the population has 44 percent of the income, four times what existed 30 years ago. In Manhattan, the wealthiest fifth earned an average household income of $545,549, or more than 53 times as much as the bottom 20 percent, who earned an average of $10,259, according to 2022 census data. COVID and the huge wealth transfer that resulted from it fueled this gap even further. The poverty in the South Bronx has become even more desperate post-COVID as the city seems intent on a permanent class divide. Inflation is now eating the livelihoods of the working and middle classes in all five boroughs. A Trump rally in Wildwood, New Jersey drew over 100,000 mostly working- and middle-class people on May 11^th. They see him as their last best hope for economic survival.

Donald Trump told the Bronx crowd what they knew in their hearts New York City once represented. He recounted its history, as a Dutch colony in inception, which became the greatest and proudest city in the world because of the united efforts of those who came to live and build there. “You tell somebody you’re from New York, they immediately recognize that these are the people with smarts,” Trump continued. Trump recounted what he learned from his father, Fred Trump, who was born in the Bronx and became the premier home and apartment builder in Queens. He told stories of his own experiences as a builder in the city, from the Wollman Skating Rink in Central Park to his refashioning of what was once a dingy Red-Light District, the area around 42^nd Street and Grand Central Station. He rebuilt the seedy old Commodore Hotel into the Grand Hyatt while refurbishing Grand Central itself in addition to his many other New York City building projects. He noted that if a New Yorker could not solve the nation’s problems, no one could.

He pledged to the citizens of the South Bronx that he would work with them to make New York City great again. He outlined programs to refurbish and rebuild the subway system and said his first call from the White House in 2025 would be to Democratic mayors in major American cities saying he was there to help them rebuild. That subway system, the largest in the world, is essential daily transportation for most New Yorkers. Its descent into filth, disrepair, and crime generates an obvious social malaise. Trump promised he could readily turn it into a beautiful and gleaming modern system worthy of New Yorkers. This vision was accompanied by his promise to end illegal immigration, now having a major impact on New York where illegals are hailed as “newcomers” and given funds and housing not available to the struggling denizens of the South Bronx. Many of the jobs illegals are now taking are the jobs formerly available to these rally participants. He also pledged to end the drug scourge, and the crime scourge, which disproportionately impact the South Bronx and all American inner cities.

At one point veteran New York politician and former City Councilman Ruben Diaz took to the stage to apologize, on behalf of the Puerto Rican community, for Judge Juan Merchan, the man conducting the regime’s show trial against Trump in lower Manhattan. Noting the large number of young people in the audience Trump abandoned his script and took the time to explain the discipline, self-motivation, and dedication to a larger mission which can drive success in the United States, no matter what the original background or hardship, citing various individuals he has known in his life.  “It doesn’t matter whether you’re Black, or White, or Brown, or whatever the hell color you are, we’re all Americans and we have to pull together,” Trump emphasized. The audience roared its approval. 

The blogger “Cynical Publius” contrasted this rally and the enthusiastic response from its participants to the Democratic peddlers of pessimism and victimhood:  “1. Trump did not put on an affected, fake accent of an A.M.E. Zion minister or Chi Chi Rodriguez (See: Hillary). He was simply Trump, without airs or any patronizing words or thoughts. 2. He did not tell the people of the Bronx that they were victims. He told them that they were powerful and could solve their community’s problems themselves. 3. He did not demonize any groups of Americans as the evil “Other.” Yes, he criticized the failed policies of Democrats and poked fun at their foibles, but he reminded everyone that we are all Americans first, from coast to coast. 4. He did not promise to solve the problems of the Bronx with handouts or wealth redistribution. He merely promised that he would help set the national economic conditions so the community itself could solve its own problems through jobs, business, and education. He promised empowerment, not victimhood.”