President Donald Trump on May 22 put in an appearance at Rockland Community College (RCC) in Suffern for what the White House cast as an address concentrating on issues affecting the American people but which actually contained a rehash of material previously used in addresses by the president and was a platform for political endorsements.
Trump spoke at the Eugene Levy Fieldhouse on the RCC campus, which has a listed capacity of 5,000 people. Republican Congressman Mike Lawler, who Trump has endorsed for re-election in November, played a role in getting the word out about Trump’s appearance. Lawler distributed a form the White House had issued allowing people to apply to receive up to two tickets to the event. Trump was introduced by New York Giants quarterback Jaxson Dart who Trump said was “going to be a future hall of famer in my book.”
Some members of the pro-Trump crowd attending the event were sporting red caps that had been imprinted with the slogan “Trump 2028.” During his speech, Trump made reference to his belief that this actually is his third term in office and repeated his claim that he actually won the 2020 election that put Joe Biden in the White House. There were a couple of minor interruptions by hecklers as Trump was speaking.
Trump made it clear from the outset that he favors Lawler in the November race for New York’s 17th Congressional District seat and also introduced and endorsed Bruce Blakeman who is the Republican nominee running against incumbent Kathy Hochul for governor of New York. Blakeman is the county executive in Nassau Country.
Trump said that he really does love New York and made mention of his New York roots, but “we’ve gotta straighten this place out.”
Trump said that New York from its beginning had been a symbol of American excellence.
“New Yorkers built Wall Street into the world’s financial capital, turned Broadway into the heart of American culture and entertainment, who dug the Erie Canal … and launched a thousand innovations that built really the middle class, the middle class of our county really built the country,” Trump said. “Unfortunately in recent years the state’s been held back by bad policies, bad politicians and foolish radical left idiocy. It’s crazy what’s going on. But under the Trump administration we’re doing everything we can to bring New York back in bigger, better stronger than ever before.”
Trump credited Lawler with pushing hard to raise the limit on the deductibility of state and local taxes from federal income tax returns, known as the SALT cap, without mentioning that SALT was imposed by Republicans and has had the greatest cost for taxpayers in Democrat-controlled states.
“I call him Mr. SALT. He wouldn’t stop. He wouldn’t stop. He was driving us crazy. ‘SALT, we’ve got to get SALT back,’ and he got it back and he’s a terrific guy, and you’re lucky to have him, he loves this place,” Trump said while trying to explain that Lawler had been among those pushing hardest for the limit on SALT deductions to be raised from $10,000 to $40,000.
Trump claimed that the wealthy and large companies are leaving New York without presenting any statistics to back up the claim and added that illegal immigrants are flooding in and taking tax money while the streets are dirty and crime is out of control and nobody is doing anything about it, again without presenting facts to back up his claims.
Trump took credit for inventing a new word to described Democrats: “dumocrats,” and added that Democratic House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries is one of them.
Trump’s speech contained repeats of subjects that create enthusiastic responses from members of his Make America Great Again (MAGA) political base such as banning men from competing in women sports, rolling back voting rights and the use of mail-in ballots, lowering prices, bringing down interest rates and moving away from the use of electric vehicles. During the appearance, which lasted about 90 minutes, Trump frequently ad-libbed remarks rather than sticking with what had been scripted on the teleprompters.
There were some anti-Trump demonstrators outside of the event but no incidents were reported. Trump returned to the White House after the appearance in Suffern.
