Bronx cheers: Donald Trump promises to make New York great again with spending

Bronx cheers: Donald Trump promises to make New York great again with spending

 NEW YORK — Upon exiting the closest subway station to former President Donald Trump's campaign rally in the Bronx Thursday evening, the only signs of anything unusual were the NYPD officers at the turnstile with bomb-sniffing dogs and a helicopter buzzing overhead. There wasn't a single piece of Trump paraphernalia on the New Yorkers filing out of the station.

But upon arriving at Crotona Park, a sprawling green expanse in the impoverished borough, red "Make America Great Again" hats and all manner of Trump-emblazoned apparel covered the bodies of thousands — even "Team Trump" cowboy hats. And in his address to the mostly non-white audience, Trump showed that he will readily depart rhetorically from Republican orthodoxy to find common ground.

Across the street, vendors hawked shirts with slogans such as "Women for Trump," "Latinos for Trump," "God, Guns & Trump," and a few that insulted prominent Democrats.

Outside the park, a small band of protesters sporting Palestinian and Puerto Rican flags chanted "All the people from the Bronx say, 'F--- Trump!'" But their signs also proclaimed "F--- Biden!"

They refused to answer who, if anyone, they were supporting.

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The snaking line to enter the area cordoned off for the rally by police barricades was filled with enthusiastic Trump supporters, who cheered and gaped when they spotted his motorcade. Once he took the stage, the crowd went up on their tippy toes, arms upright with cellphone cameras aloft, hoping to catch just a glimpse of him.

"Hello to all the strong, hard-working American patriots right here in the Bronx," Trump said, after bragging about the long lines to get in. "Who would think?"