Former president Donald Trump continued to court Black and Latino voters by holding a rally in the South Bronx — one of the most Democratic counties in a city that hasn't gone to a Republican candidate since 1924.
Although Trump praised the turnout and boasted of a "big crowd" at Thursday's event, photos and footage from local news coverage told a different story, RadarOnline.com has learned.
"Trump came to the South Bronx today to speak to some supporters — and to a fair amount of empty space in Crotona Park," ABC7's Jim Dolan said in an evening news report, with an overhead shot from the scene backing up his words.
While there were plenty of supporters in attendance, one resident who spoke to ABC7 doubted that they were Bronx natives. "They're all from out of state," she claimed. "Go out there, look at all them cars that are parked and check where they came from. Tennessee, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Texas."
She added that she thinks Trump is "a crook, a liar, and a cheat. And he tries to make money off people. And that’s what he’s doing right now.”
Others also showed up just to protest Trump's appearance. "First of all, he's a big fat bigot and he just doesn’t have any love in his heart for anyone, anyone of color, anyone who’s in the LGBTQ+ community," one person said.
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"Donald Trump can now say he held a rally in the South Bronx, home to immigrants and minority communities, and that it was well attended," Dolan concluded his report. "It’s just not clear that the people who attended were from the Bronx. The campaign controlled who got in, and the campaign, of course, picked only supporters."
Democratic Congressman Ritchie Torres, whose district covers most of the South Bronx, joked, "If you did a poll about who's more popular, Donald Trump or lead paint, I suspect lead is more popular than Donald Trump in the Bronx."