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Zach D. Roberts

When Trump Went to the South Bronx

Trump rallied in New York for the first time in years, but drew few actual New Yorkers and even fewer protesters.

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In April, former President Donald Trump announced that he would be holding a rally in the South Bronx. It would be just a forty-five minute train ride from Trump Towers, as he’d already be in the city for one of his many ongoing trials. The announcement, as expected, caused quite a stir, given that it would be his first campaign stop in New York in eight years.  

The rally was held on May 23 in Crotona Park, an open public park in the South Bronx. It was no doubt intended to prove that Trump could draw minority voters and maybe bait New York City’s left into counter-protesting. 

Trump, infamous for being creative with rally counts, bragged that 20,000 supporters showed up to the park. The campaign estimated between 8,000 and 10,000. The city permitted the rally for 3,500 people, according to The New York Times. Aerial images showed the rally space more than half empty. At least 1,000 were waiting outside of the security line when Trump took to the stage at around 6 p.m. 

The bigger story than deducing the crowd size is the people who weren’t there—residents of the Bronx. Based on multiple conversations and interviews I had with rally-goers in line, including activists and influencers, many were from other parts of the city, out of state, or Long Island.

The front row at Trump rallies are always filled with regulars (they refer to themselves as the Front Row Joes). They’re a devoted bunch of MAGA supporters that will show up the night before a rally, camping out in line like they’re waiting for Taylor Swift tickets. Mike (right) from Indiana and Adam (left) from North Carolina arrived early but not early enough to get the front-of-the-line status. This was Mike’s eighty-ninth rally and, while Adam couldn’t give me an exact number, he had been to more than forty. I asked Mike why he thought Trump chose the South Bronx as a rally site instead of Manhattan or Queens. 

“It shows that no matter where, whether it’s a crime-ridden area or a poor area,” Mike says, “ Trump is supported by all demographics . . . . I mean, you see the crowd here, it’s a mixture of everybody.”

The demographic makeup of the area around Crotona Park is 64 percent Hispanic and 31 percent Black. The line into the rally was certainly more demographically varied than any other Trump rally I had ever been to, but I’ve only been to twenty-three—rookie numbers for Front Row Joes like Mike and Adam. 

There were a few people from the Bronx there, like Margarita, who was holding a sign that she told me was normally in her window. On the sign, Trump’s image is in a question mark; Margarita claimed that it was like that so it wasn’t too “obvious,” as she feared someone would light her house on fire. The sign declared “MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN” at the bottom all in caps. 

Outside of every Trump rally there is a circus of vendors selling every type of Trump merch one can think of, from t-shirts to pins to bobble heads, all emblazoned with MAGA catch phrases. The shirts—most not endorsed by the campaign—often play on Trump quotes, and sometimes they play on extremely sexist and bigoted ideas. Several of them at the Bronx rally connected Trump with Jesus. 

Among the reasons support for Trump stays strong is his devoted social media influencer fandom that rides the grift train to different levels of MAGA success. One of the most known figures in that world is the rapper Forgiato Blow, who often refers to himself as “Trump’s nephew.” He’s a regular fixture outside of rallies and Trump’s court dates. Forgiato sports Trump’s $400 gold sneakers, a gold bust of the former President on a chain, and a large leg tattoo of The Donald’s face. 

While Forgiato and other MAGA rappers put on an impromptu show, by far the most popular person outside of the main stage was Trump himself . . . or at least a guy that looked just like him. A Trump impersonator appeared and people immediately swarmed excitedly yelling “TRUMP! Oh my god, it’s TRUMP!” Ending with the quick and somewhat disappointed, “Oh, no . . . it’s not.” The unnamed impersonator briskly walked up and down the lines raising and dashing the hopes of hundreds of rally attendees who still wanted their selfies with the mystery man. 

Former Representative George Santos was outside of the rally doing interviews for the disinformation site Gateway Pundit. The Long Island Republican who was expelled from Congress was being bothered by a counter-protester; when he walked away to take a break, he asked aloud to no one in particular, in classic Santos style, “is murder legal today?” 

Volunteering for the campaign were the far-right New York Young Republicans. The two volunteers seen near the table set up for voter registration are wearing America First hats sold by white supremacist Nick Fuentes. 

In a different park a half mile away from the Trump rally, local Democrat-aligned groups and unions held a rally of their own. It was smaller, but had a greater percentage of people from the area. Leonna (left), a Bronx resident, told me that Trump came to her borough to intimidate locals. “He’s trying to scare people . . . the fear about Trump talking about being a dictator and all that. It’s real enough to me that we have to be very vocal out here.”

Another smaller action against Trump, made up mostly of pro-Palestine protesters, convened near the exit of the park. They chanted against Trump and Biden, who they believe are both supporting the genocide in Gaza. 

As the Trump rally goers petered out of the park while Trump was wrapping up his speech, a small group of protesters planted themselves on a rock overlooking the exit chanting “People of the Bronx say Fuck Trump and Biden too,” the crowd chanted, “they don’t give a fuck about you.”