UNIONDALE, NY – In front of a packed arena on Long Island, New York, former President Donald Trump predicted a victory for the reliably blue state in November.
“That hasn’t happened in a long time. But we’re going to win New York. And this is the first time in many, many years that a Republican can honestly say that. And we’re going to do it,” Trump vowed.
“We have to do it. We do it, and then the election is over across the country,” Trump added, speaking outside an arena in Nassau County, a Republican stronghold in a suburb of New York City, that his campaign said was packed with about 16,000 people.
Trump made a similar promise four years ago before losing his home state to President Biden by over 23 percentage points. And polls strongly suggest that Trump has no serious chance of winning New York in his 2024 campaign against Vice President Kamala Harris.
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Former President Donald Trump, the Republican presidential candidate, headlines a rally at Nassau Coliseum in Uniondale, New York, on September 18, 2024 (Fox News – Julia Bonavita)
It has been 40 years since a Republican candidate won The State of New York in a presidential election.
You have to go back to President Ronald Reagan, who won the state as part of his landslide re-election victory in 1984.
Trump promised New Yorkers that if he wins back the White House, he will “lower your taxes, reduce your crime, and reduce your stress levels.”
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And the former president promised that during a second Trump term, he would “officially make the Ground Zero site at the World Trade Center a national monument, protected and maintained by the United States government.”
Wednesday’s rally was Trump’s second major campaign event in the Empire State this year, after drawing large crowds in New York’s Bronx borough in May.
Republican presidential candidate and former President Donald Trump speaks during a campaign rally in the South Bronx in New York City on Thursday, May 23. (AP/Yuki Iwamura)
While there were some rumors that New York might be in play when President Biden’s poll numbers began to decline following his disastrous performance against Trump in the debates in late June, the talk was fleeting and quickly dissipated when Harris replaced Biden at the top of the 2024 Democratic ticket two months ago.
So why – less than 50 days before the election day and time has become an extremely precious commodity – did Trump hold a campaign rally just outside New York City?
“New York is clearly the biggest media hub in the country,” Trump campaign spokesman Tim Murtaugh told Fox News on the eve of the rally.
Murtaugh stressed: “When (Trump) delivers a message there, it goes straight into the homes of all markets in all swing states. The most valuable commodity we have is President Trump’s time. And this event is about using it efficiently.”
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While it is highly unlikely that Trump will win the White House race in New York, the boost could help Republicans in the election down the road as they seek to maintain their majority in the House of Representatives in November’s elections.
Several Republican-controlled seats in the New York State House of Representatives are considered at risk this year, including one held by Rep. Anthony D’Esposito of Long Island. Some of them were at the rally and spoke before Trump. And the former president praised House Republicans and congressional candidates as he addressed the crowd.
In an interview with Fox News’ Bryan Ilenas, D’Esposito said, “It’s perfectly clear — maybe New York isn’t a swing state, but there is a swing state, right here on Long Island. And if Trump wins on election night, he’s going to need a majority in the House, and that majority in the House extends across the Empire State.”
Trump’s rally was his first since what appeared to be a second assassination attempt on the former president last weekend, and the 78-year-old Republican candidate insisted the incidents had “strengthened my resolve.”
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“These encounters with death did not break my will,” he stressed. “In fact, they gave me a much greater and stronger mission. They only strengthened my resolve to use my time on earth to make America great again for all Americans, to put America first.”
And Trump said: “God has now given me life – it must have been God, thank you – not once, but twice.”
Jennifer Johnson of Fox News contributed to this report
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