By Jake Angelo
By Jake Angelo
By Jake Angelo
Not Everyone at Trump's Uniondale Rally Came to Party
Alex Foster
Caravans were covered with supporting placards. An impersonator greeted arrivals. Stalls and trolleys peddled Trump hats and badges and flags. And a gargantuan line snaked round a stadium to watch former President Donald Trump speak. As County Executive Bruce Blakeman put it to the roaring crowd of 16,000 inside Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum: “Welcome to Woodstock, Nassau County style. We love peace and Donald Trump!”
Over Trump’s three campaigns for president, this is just his second ever rally in New York State. One might see clips of him in media markets in cities in swing states, like Philadelphia or Charlotte, but when Trump holds a rally for the first time in Uniondale, Long Island? That’s the kind of “you have to be there” event that 60,000 New Yorkers turned up to experience on Sept. 18. And they came to support – and protest – the former president.
The stadium has a capacity for 16,000, but more than 60,000 New Yorkers regsitered to see the president. Booking a ticket online did not guarantee a seat in the venue. Some supporters said they arrived in Uniondale, which is about 30 miles from midtown Manhattan , before dawn, more than eight hours before doors opened. Abandoned deckchairs, e-cigarettes and beer cans littered the metal barriers that guided crowds inside.
New York is, for some, a surprising state for Trump to campaign in. Having voted Democratic in the last nine presidential elections – in six of those by a 20% margin, including Pres. Joe Biden’s victory in 2020 – polls are not predicting that the state will suddenly see a red wave. An aggregate of current state polling finds Harris with a lead of nearly 14 percent against Trump.
"New York is solidly blue, so I think it's a fantasy they're going to change the electoral vote," said Jay Jacobs, chairman of the New York State Democratic Party.
But Trump isn’t aiming for the electoral college.
In 2022 Republicans flipped control of the House of Representatives. And their path to doing so ran through New York. They won control of all four seats on Long Island, but lost one to Democrat Tom Suozzi (NY-03) after George Santos was unceremoniously booted. Trump’s rally, then, is aimed at shoring up control of these all-important House districts – and with it maintaining Republican control of Congress.
“That’s my man in the building. That’s my man! I love Donald Trump,” said Susan Daly while waiting in the line with a friend. Daly sees the huge line outside the stadium as proof that Trump is far more popular in New York than data suggest he is. “Trump knows he’s gonna get everybody’s vote here. For the media to disguise it as anything other than that, it’s disgusting,” Daly said.
She flatly rejected the idea that presidential candidate Vice President Kamala Harris was boosting enthusiasm for the Democratic ticket. “She ruined it with her debate, going on the air and debating Donald Trump with all false lies,” Daly said, adding, “I hope the public sees what she’s done and what she’s gonna create if elected. We will go into World War Three.”
Outside the venue’s car parking lot, the atmosphere was very different, where a solemn crowd of around 50 Haitian Americans gathered to protest Trump’s claim that Haitian immigrants are eating pets in Ohio.
“I refuse to allow the Haitian community to be used as a political football,” said Carrié Solages, a Haitian legislator in Nassau County. “How dare [Trump] use my beautiful culture for political purposes.”
For Solanges, Trump’s outlandish claims had real-world impact. “My son is going to be bothered and bullied at school,” he said. “People are going to accuse him of eating Garfield. People are going to accuse him of eating Snoopy.”
Haitians were not the only protestors. Standing in solidarity with them were four lone but vocal Democrats. Kerry Miller, a resident of nearby Levittown, drove to Uniondale to protest Trump’s rhetoric.
“The hatred he spews towards everybody; we can’t live like that again,” she said. Holding up a sign that read “Vote for the prosecutor, not the felon,” Miller said she was shocked that a candidate with 34 felony convictions was still commanding support from the American public and locked in a toss-up battle with Harris.
“If we don’t vote Democrat, this country is gone. It’s not gonna be someplace I want to live,” Miller said. She said already felt alienated as the lone supporter of the Democrats on her road in Levittown. “I’m not putting a sign up because I’d definitely be targeted,” she continued, adding that in 2020 she had a family member who said if I hung my Biden sign outside, he’d burn it down.”
Daly said the same about Harris supporters. “I’m afraid to put a Trump sticker on the back of my car,” she said. “I’s a disgrace, they’re out of control.”
Inside the stadium, too, the theme was fear. Trump echoed the fear that supporters like Daly felt.
“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,” he said. To crowds screaming “USA! USA! USA!” he added, “What the hell do you have to lose?”
One road away from the stadium, though, and there were no roaring crowds and zero Trump or Harris signs.
Kenny Pierre could hear the hubbub of the rally from his garden. He wanted no part of it. “I’m glad I’m here and not there, let’s just say that,” he said.
As media helicopters buzzed overhead, eager to capture the line of Republican New Yorkers that wrapped around part of the stadium, he whispered what he wanted to happen. “I’m hoping they keep them inside the stadium and don’t let them out,” Pierre said.
And as the sun set and rally goers left the stadium, a young supporter waved a flag of Trump. He can’t vote yet. But Trump’s hope in coming to Uniondale is that, in the future, these supporters will grow up, register to vote, and might – and after 40 years of deep blue New York - vote for the Republican Party.