Cover photo: President Trump addresses the crowd at Nassau Coliseum (Credit – Matt Meduri)
With just under forty days until Election Day, the political world has been thrown boomerang after boomerang, ranging from indictments of former President Donald Trump (R-FL), the suspension of President Joe Biden’s (D-DE) campaign, the quick turnover to Vice President Kamala Harris’ candidacy, and two assassination attempts on President Trump within just two months of each other.
Naturally, the question of many has been that of the national playing field in both candidates’ quests to 270 electoral votes. New York hasn’t backed a Republican nominee since Ronald Reagan (R-CA) in 1984 and hasn’t seen a close race since 1988.
Donald Trump held his second rally in New York state this election cycle, and the first on Long Island, last Wednesday at the Nassau Coliseum in Uniondale to pitch to voters on why he would deserve another term.
Not only did Trump throw another boomerang at the political world by campaigning in solid-blue New York, but he also came to personally assert an objective that hasn’t been fulfilled in generations: flipping New York red.
The tectonic task before him is also accompanied by the necessity of both campaigns to run the table in the swing states and pick off margins in more reliably partisan areas. Polls had shown a competitive race in the Empire State before Biden quit the race. New York polling with Harris as the nominee has been scarce, but recent margins show a low-double-digit lead for Harris.
The Openers
Before President Trump took the stage just shortly after 7:00p.m., a cavalcade of New York officials and notable individuals addressed the audience.
“We will generate the vote that not only lets Donald J. Trump win New York but win the White House back for each and every one of us,” said Suffolk County Republican Party Chairman Jesse Garcia (R-Ridge). The Messenger caught up with the Chairman to discuss what he and others are seeing regarding the state of play in New York.
“I think [this rally] demonstrates the enthusiasm the Trump campaign has here on Long Island,” Garcia (pictured below) told The Messenger, adding that the Nassau Coliseum holds between 16,000 and 17,000 people, but that upwards of 60,000 people RSVP’d for the rally. The entire venue was packed for the former president, with large crowds estimated to be in the thousands who could not get into the arena watching outside from jumbotron televisions.
“What this demonstrates is that New York is in play. We knew it was in play by eight points before the ‘switcheroo’ by the Democrats and now we know we’re still in play,” said Garcia. “Suffolk County and Long Island are the tip of the spear that generates the votes needed to turn this state from blue to red.”
“New York was a battleground in 2022, and New York is a battleground again in 2024,” former Congressman and 2022 gubernatorial candidate Lee Zeldin (R-Shirley) told attendees. “We are unburdened by what has been and we are not going back!” he added, referencing a common line used by Vice President Harris to assert New York’s support to put Trump back in the Oval Office.
Congresswoman Nicole Malliotakis (R, NY-11) called President Trump “a successful leader and skilled negotiator who wrote The Art of the Deal,” while “the only thing Kamala Harris co-wrote is the disaster we are living through today.” Malliotakis has the distinction of being the only Republican member of Congress from New York City, as her district contains all of Staten Island.
Congressman Nick LaLota (R, NY-01) (pictured below) mentioned that nine months ago, he became the first member of Congress from a purple district to endorse Trump for re-election.
“Why? Because I believe America is the greatest nation in the world’s history. Over the last eighty years, we’ve built the strongest economy and the strongest military. We’ve been able to give our children just as much opportunity as our parents have been able to give to us,” said LaLota. “We see taxpayer-funded free hotels and free health care for migrants. And who’s paying for it? You’re paying for it. You’re paying us with higher taxes, with rip-offs like congestion pricing, and with cuts to our schools.”
LaLota called the election “deeply personal to all of us,” and added: “You and I don’t want a president who dodges press conferences and accountability, like ‘Border Czar’ Kamala Harris, we want a commander-in-chief who can dodge bullets for the United States,” said LaLota.
LaLota introduced fellow freshman Congressman Anthony D’Esposito (R-Island Park), who represents the blue-leaning NY-04, and candidate for NY-03, former Assemblyman Mike LiPetri (R-Farmingdale). LiPetri is looking to unseat Tom Suozzi (D-Glen Cove), who made his congressional comeback in February in a special election prompted by the expulsion of George Santos (R-Queens).
Former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani (R) asserted that Biden was elected “on a fraud,” given that his family received “$21 million from China.”
“Imagine if Eisenhower, Kennedy, or Reagan got $21 million from Russia!” said Giuliani, adding that the Chinese Communist Party “kills Christians” and “their own people.” He pivoted towards Trump’s indictments, stating that the corrupt system conspired to derail his electoral prospects.
“They indicted him four times in one year. Al Capone or John Gotti weren’t indicted four times in one year!” said Giuliani (pictured below). “This was an attempt to fix the election.”
Giuliani also leveraged his lengthy legal career, stating that he can “find anybody behind” the attempts on President Trump’s life.
“I did it to the mafia, I can do it to them!” said Giuliani.
Suffolk County Executive Ed Romaine (R-Center Moriches) said that the main point of the rally was emphasized by the signage plastered around the venue as he entered: “Broken borders, broken economy, broken world.”
“That’s what this rally is about: people who want to make things better,” said Romaine. He hailed Trump’s handling of gang and drug activity, notably those of MS-13, which was highlighted by 2017 visit to Brentwood during his first term. Romaine added that he prefers Trump’s economic platform, stating that inflation has “robbed all of us.”
Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman (R-Atlantic Beach) said that “Nassau County is not a sanctuary county” and “protects women’s sports.”
“Your taxpayer dollars are being spent on people who came into this country illegally. They’ve been here for fifteen minutes; it’s got to stop,” said Blakeman. “Kamala Harris had only one job: to secure the border. She failed.”
Blakeman said that minorities are “being hurt the most” by the poor fiscal conditions of the Biden-Harris administration. He made a pitch to large suburban areas across the country to see the differences in the two candidates.
“One [Biden] is incapacitated, the other [Harris] is incapable and incompetent,” said Blakeman. “Under Donald J. Trump, we had peace and prosperity.”
Trump Takes the Stage
President Trump took the podium shortly after 7:00p.m., but not before meeting with eight-year-old Liam, an East Meadow resident who was recently diagnosed with a rare brain disorder. A staunch fan of the former president, Liam received a birthday card from Donald Trump, with the video of his emotional reaction being sent to family friend Kevin Smith, leader of the Long Island Loud Majority. Smith posted the video on X, formerly known as Twitter, where it has since received over three million shares, with one by the former president himself. Trump met with Liam and his family backstage with a large birthday gift prior to his remarks.
Trump discussed the second attempt on his life, just the Sunday before his rally. A gunman stalked Trump on his Palm Beach golf course, rifle barrel protruding from the bushes near hole five, when a Secret Service agent took fire and sent the perpetrator running. Trump shared that a passerby noticed the man rushing to his car, which she photographed and sent to law enforcement.
“God has now spared my life, not once, but twice,” President Trump told supporters. “These encounters with death have not broken my will, they have really given me a much bigger and stronger mission.”
Trump said that the assassination attempts are due to the vitriol spread by the mainstream media and prominent political figures.
“The fact is, I’m not a threat to democracy, they [the Democrats] are,” said Trump. “They’re doing things that have never been done before in the history of our country, and worst of all, with their open borders and bad elections, they have made us into a third-world nation, something nobody thought was even possible. Americans deserve a campaign based on the issues.”
New York State of Mind
Trump specifically leveraged most of his speech to issues facing New Yorkers, not only hoping to thin down total votes for his opponent, but to also aid in the monumental task of taking New York’s twenty-eight electoral votes. The former president said that if New York goes red, the election is won.
“We do it [flip New York], and the election nationwide is over,” said Trump, adding that some Washington officials chastised his campaign stop on Long Island, saying that no Republicans can win New York.
“Throughout American history, from generation to generation, New York has always set the standard for American life. Our cities were the center of business, arts, culture, ports, waterways, and they were the arteries of American Congress,” said Trump. “And our towns like Uniondale, Levittown, Hicksville, and Huntington, these were great, great towns where you grew up and you stayed. But look at what has happened to New York and the other states all run by radical left-wingers. Our heavy industries have exported overseas, and our middle class has been eviscerated. Housing costs are out of control, inflation has cost a typical family $28,000; we have horrible, disgusting, dangerous filthy encampments of junkies and homeless people living in places that our children used to play in little league baseball. In the past few years in New York City, there has been a 29% increase in robberies, a 36% increase in felony assaults, 42% increase in grand larceny, a 75% increase in carjackings, and 200 police officers leaving the NYPD, New York’s finest.”
Trump also railed against the “squalid” and dangerous conditions of the trains and subways, adding that the state’s infrastructure is “rotting.” He stated that “businesses are fleeing, mobs of illegal migrants are being put up in luxury hotels at your [taxpayers’] expense, while our great Veterans live on the freezing or steaming sidewalks right outside the main entrance.”
“How crazy has our country become?” asked Trump.
“And so, I say to the people of New York, with crime at record levels, with terrorists and criminals pouring in, and with inflation eating your hearts out, vote for Donald Trump, what the hell do you have to lose?”
“The Empire State will once again be the envy of the entire world,” Trump promised, adding that he is “driven” by “results” and “common sense.”
“Despite all of the persecution I’ve endured from the corrupt system in New York, I love the people of this state, and I want to give back to you,” Trump told attendees. “Together, we will rebuild our roads, bridges, highways, and airports. We will renovate the New York subway. The greatest city in the world will finally have the greatest transit system in the world.”
Trump also railed against cashless bail, the controversial set of laws passed by Albany Democrats and then-Governor Andrew Cuomo (D) in 2019, a problem that has affected some states who have chosen to enact the progressive criminal justice reforms but has hit New York the most prominently.
“We will deliver massive public safety funding to New York and other Democrat-run cities that are under siege, but in exchange, they will give our police back their protection and their respect,” said Trump.
Of note, Trump also took the liberty of using the Uniondale rally as the venue to announce his latest New York-centric promise: designating Ground Zero as a national monument.
“The hallowed ground and memories of those who perished will be preserved for all time,” said Trump. Such recognition of the former site of the World Trade Center’s Twin Towers would afford it guaranteed protections and maintenance from the federal government in perpetuity.
SALT Deductions
Trump also discussed another New York-centric campaign issue: SALT Deductions. State and Local Tax Deductions allow taxpayers to deduct certain state and local taxes that have already been paid from their federally taxable income. The purpose of SALT allows for taxpayers to avoid double taxation and give property owners in states with high state and local tax rates some room for relief. New York, especially Long Island, is no stranger to this, boasting some of the highest salaries and property taxes in the nation.
The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017, championed by then-President Trump, reduced the cap to just $5,000 for married persons filing a separate return, and $10,000 for all other filers. The deduction cap is multiplied by the local tax rate of any given taxpayer, with the product being their federal deduction.
With the reduction in the SALT cap being unfriendly to Long Island, it did not receive support from then-Congressmen Lee Zeldin (pictured below) and Peter King (R-Seaford). However, Congressmen LaLota, D’Esposito, and Garbarino have spent their near-two years in Washington assembling a national coalition of U.S. House members whose constituents also recognize the importance of restoring the cap.
Trump pledged at his Nassau County rally that he will be working with Congress to increase the cap for federal deductions.
“I will cut taxes for families, small businesses, and workers, including restoring the SALT deduction, saving thousands of dollars for residents of New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and other states who are facing high costs of living,” said Trump.
Campaign Promises
Trump railed against the Biden-Harris Administration’s policies on the border, inflation, talks of Democrats packing the Supreme Court, and their warm stances to the “defund the police” movement.
“She [Harris] wants mass amnesty and citizenship for all illegals, which means totally bankrupting Social Security and Medicare,” said Trump. He also added that under her watch as the “Border Czar,” Harris “lost 325,000 migrant children,” many of whom, he added, have been “trafficked, raped,” with “many” being “dead.”
“As California Attorney General, she [Harris] redefined [the charges of] child sex trafficking, assault with a deadly weapon, and rape of an unconscious person,” said Trump. “She vowed repeatedly to ban fracking, she imposed a natural gas export band, she praised the idea of a tax rate between 70% and 80%, and her only idea for solving inflation is to impose communist-inspired price controls, which have never worked.”
Trump also lambasted Harris’ inability to connect rural America with broadband Internet, stating she was given $42 billion to implement the upgrades, but that three years later, “not a single home has been connected to broadband.”
“In the Midwest, they only built eight charging stations. They spent $9 billion to build eight charging stations,” said Trump, adding that he thinks electric vehicles are “incredible,” and that “some people want them,” but that others “don’t want the additional costs” or for vehicles to be manufactured overseas.
“I think I’ll take a pass on that one if you don’t mind,” Trump told supporters.
Trump closed the rally with reports that confirm actors for Iran hacked email accounts of the Trump campaign, with intentions of giving the information to the Harris campaign. Trump criticized the incumbent administration, the FBI, the Director of National Intelligence, and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency for dropping the ball.
“They [Iran] gave them [Biden-Harris] all of the [hacked] materials because Biden is working with Iran and Iran doesn’t exactly like me,” said Trump, adding that the uncovered plot is “real election interference,” not the claims of Russia’s now-debunked cooperation with Trump to interfere in the 2016 election and the call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy that resulted in Trump’s first impeachment in 2019.
Trump threatened higher tariffs on foreign imports to boost American production, staging the “largest deportation operation of criminals in American history,” and bringing the national economy back to what it was under his presidency. He also pledged no taxes on tips for service workers, no taxes on Social Security payments, and no taxes on overtime wages.
“You know why you deserve it [no taxes on Social Security]?” Trump asked seniors in attendance. “Because you live like hell with the highest inflation probably in the history of our country and you can’t make ends meet.”
Trump also promised a temporary cap on credit card interests around 10%, terminating the “Green New Scam” – a reference to the Democrats’ Green New Deal environmental proposals – paying down national debts, and creating “real infrastructure,” as opposed to “fake infrastructure” that has contributed to inflation.
Trump also promised to end the war in Ukraine – he gets along “very well” with both Putin and Zelenskyy – and the “chaos” in the Middle East, stating that a “vote for Kamala Harris is a vote to obliterate Israel.”
“We will end the era of inflation, mayhem, and misery, under Kamala and Crooked Joe, and unleash safety, prosperity, and peace for Americans of every race, religion, color and creed,” said Trump. “Together we will deliver low taxes, low regulations, low energy costs, low interest rates, low inflation, so that everyone can afford groceries, a car and a home. Very simple.”
