Former President Donald Trump’s planned Thursday evening rally in the Bronx is generating excitement and anticipation in the traditionally blue NYC borough.
The Post took to the streets Tuesday to get reactions to the 45th president’s first major campaign event in his birth state for eight years — and to see what kind of traction the Republican’s message might get in a borough that hasn’t gone for the GOP in 100 years.
Joe Randazzo, owner of Randazzo’s Seafood on Arthur Avenue, said President Biden had ushered in a wave of high inflation and violent crime.
“We had a group of some gang members from Venezuela, who met up with each other and they started shooting at each other on the street at 9:30 in the morning,” Randazzo, 70, told The Post.
The seafood monger added that he was emphatically behind Trump and said he planned to attend Thursday’s scheduled Crotona Park rally if his schedule allowed.
“Everybody was working, the prices were lower and the economy was great,” Randazzo said of the Trump administration, before adding of the possibility of voting for Biden: “Not on my deathbed.”
“I really hope he wins,” Randazzo added of Trump before exhorting: “Vote him in!”
Artist and entrepreneur Cherie Corso said she “went through the fire for Trump,” with neighbors in her left-leaning Westchester suburb calling her “racist” and cutting her out of social gatherings after she went public with her support in 2016.
“I lost friends and everything, OK? He’s bombastic. He’s a loud mouth. He could ruin a wet dream, OK?” Corso told The Post. “This guy, honestly, is like just shocking.
“But I liked his policies. And I still like his policies. And I don’t like the direction that the country’s gone. So I definitely am going to vote for a Republican. I always vote Republican, and I’m always gonna vote for Trump.”
“Always Trump,” added the MAGA diehard.
Corso said she was hopeful Trump might become the first Republican to win New York since Ronald Reagan in 1984 and added that many of her closest friends are closet Trump supporters who don’t want to endure the same backlash she did.
“So many people will talk a show [that they] like Joe Biden, then they get me behind closed doors and they are like ‘[I’m] voting for Trump, too but I can’t say anything.’ And I’m like, ‘Girl, your secret’s safe with me,’” she explained.
Corso said it was “possible” she’ll attend Thursday’s rally but added her support is unwavering even if she is unable to see her “favorite president” up close and personal.
For twins John and James, retired city workers from Westchester, a Bronx Trump rally is an exciting prospect and they both plan to attend.
“I think people are waking up. I really think people are waking up. They’re seeing Biden is lying about everything,” James said.
“No, say the whole [Democratic] party,” John chimed in. “The whole party is lying about everything.”
Like Randazzo, the twins are nostalgic for the Trump economy and are frustrated with the direction the country is heading in under the Biden administration.
“Everything is sky high. The prices, everything is sky high,” said James. “It’s so sad, I hear everybody complaining.”
For John, America’s social shift is just as worrisome as its economic woes. He said his 95-year-old mother, a daughter of immigrants, no longer recognizes the Democratic Party she once knew.
“She’s a good woman, she loves God, goes to church on Sundays,” he said. “The Democratic Party does not stand for that.
“They are backwards, I can see they don’t care for America at all.”
Christopher Bryan, a disabled South Bronx resident, was intrigued by the idea of attending a Trump rally in his backyard.
“Wow, oh boy, that’s interesting, that’s not far from where I live,” Bryan, 61, said when told about the event.
“I’m going to look online to see what this rally is all about, what he is promising, and why he says that he’s the right person.”
Bryan, a laboratory worker, said the tough job market has made it impossible for him to choose a candidate and he was considering not voting at all.
Trump has spent most of the past month cooped up in a Manhattan courtroom, where prosecutors are arguing that he criminally concealed evidence of “hush money” payments to two women ahead of the 2016 election.
With the 77-year-old unable to mount a traditional campaign, his team has tried to use smaller pop-up events to demonstrate the support Trump purportedly has among ordinary New Yorkers.
The Bronx rally will be another opportunity for Trump to engage with voters who have not traditionally voted Republican, including black, Hispanic and younger voters, campaign rep Danielle Alvarez told The Post Tuesday.
But not all local residents are happy about a Trump rally in their neighborhood.
“I didn’t like him before, and I don’t like him now,” said Belmont native Robert Calderon. “He’s a con man.”
“He’s just doing this to get himself out of jail,” added Calderon, 63, who added that he planned to write in Trump’s former 2024 primary rival Nikki Haley.
“Trump is a spoiled brat and he lost the election,” Calderon went on. “You’re an idiot to vote for him.”
A local Biden supporter, who did not want to be identified, said they would “never” consider Trump.
“All I have to say is Central Park Five,” the person said. “That’s all you need to know. He’s a terrible human being. I don’t care about his policies. I’ll never vote for him.”
Meanwhile, Belmont resident and Bronx native Mecca Goan, 50, was ecstatic about the prospect of Trump coming to her home borough.
“Hell yeah, I’m voting for him,” said Goan, who is black and voted for Barack Obama and Trump twice each, adding she plans to attend the rally with her family.
“I don’t f— with Biden,” the home health attendant told The Post. “You worried about people [from] out of town and your New York City people are struggling out here. That’s not right.”
Antoinette Coppola, 58, owner of Marie’s Coffee and Gifts, said crime has forced customers to stay home and as a result her business on Arthur Avenue has suffered.
She said she is trying to attend Thursday’s rally, but her obligations to her store might prevent her from doing so.
“I like the way he handles things,” said Coppola, who immigrated to the Bronx from Naples, Italy, 30 years ago. “He’s a tough man who does the right thing.”
Scott Sandic, a 56-year-old Army veteran and nurse, told The Post “my wife and daughter hate [Trump] but I don’t care.”
He plans to attend the rally and said: “We need to bring him back into the office. He’ll close up the border, but bring everything back to America. Make America Beautiful Again.”
“It’s going to sell out, it’s going to be packed,” Sandic gushed of the rally, whose attendance is capped at 3,500 people.
Steven Sarcan, an avid Trump supporter, said his frustrations with Biden’s immigration policy have left him with no choice.
“The border is a debacle,” he said, adding that the current president “isn’t cognizant and has dementia.”
