Former President Donald Trump has been unable to engage in a robust campaign for another term in the White House recently due to an ongoing criminal trial in New York City he has been required to attend four days a week.
Nevertheless, the presumptive GOP nominee has made a number of local appearances and, despite the Big Apple’s notoriously left-wing demographic, has received a warm welcome from many voters who have come out to greet him.
Trump’s getting “four more years” chants at a Harlem bodega 🔥 pic.twitter.com/IS4rgjhQf6
— johnny maga (@_johnnymaga) April 16, 2024
As he arrived at the courthouse on Thursday morning, a group of construction workers on the scene expressed their support with chants of “USA” and “We want Trump.”
Although the former president did not deliver prepared remarks during the brief exchange, he did address some of the legal challenges he is facing.
“I did nothing wrong,” Trump said in reference to the charges brought by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg. “It’s a political witch hunt. It’s election interference, that’s all it is.”
The trial hinges on claims that payments Trump allegedly made to an adult film actress during the 2016 campaign served to influence the election, though his defense team and other legal scholars have questioned the validity of those allegations.
“The DA has never explained what law would make the hush money payments to Stormy Daniels illegal,” said Syracuse University law professor Greg Germain. “The DA has repeatedly suggested, but never spelled out, that hush money … payments made to ‘influence an election’ would be illegal.”
Trump also used the opportunity on Thursday to discuss a U.S. Supreme Court case that will determine whether he should be protected from prosecution related to actions he took while in office.
“We have a big case today,” he explained. “The president has to have immunity. If you don’t have immunity, you just have a ceremonial president.”
New York is not the only Democrat-dominated jurisdiction in which Trump has attracted an enthusiastic reception.
Michaelah Montgomery, who was seen hugging Trump during a visit to a Chick-fil-A in Atlanta, Georgia, earlier this month, subsequently argued that the former president has far more support within the Black community than many Americans would assume.
“The general consensus or social media would have you thinking that if President Trump were to show up to the [historically Black college and university] campuses … that like, some angry mob would form or a riot would ensue and that he would not be welcome,” she said. “And clearly the sentiment in that room the other day was the complete opposite. He was very welcome. People were excited to see him. People showed up in support of him and people, of course, were from all four institutions within the [Atlanta University Center], the local HBCU community in Atlanta, and they all showed up in support of him.”
