Former President Donald Trump said Sunday that beneath the superficial veneer of Democratic Party loyalties, a seething resentment of President Joe Biden’s policies makes all things possible in this year’s presidential election.
During an interview on Fox News’ “Sunday Morning Futures,” host Maria Bartiromo asked the former president if he really believed that even deep-blue New York could become Trump country.
With a touch of sarcasm, Bartiromo asked whether the Republican front-runner might hold a rally in the South Bronx.
“Yeah, I think I will do that,” Trump shot back. “And I think I’ll do one maybe at Madison Square Garden.”
He then explained his logic.
“Do I think we have a chance? New York has changed a lot in the last two years. We have migrants all over the street. They are living on Madison Avenue,” Trump said.
“Nobody can believe what’s happened to New York,” he said. “The people of New York are angry. People that would have never voted for me because I’m a Republican. I mean, they’re Democrats. Their parents were Democrats. They would vote for Democrats.
“I think they’re going to vote for me. So I think we’re going to give New York a heavy shot.”
The former president said New York is not the only prize ripe for the taking in an era of rising crime.
Do you like this move?
“They’re very unhappy in New York, what’s happening,” he said. “And they’re unhappy with the crime. You take a look at the crime in New York, it’s at record levels. The other thing is, and very importantly, New Jersey, I think New Jersey can be flipped. I think that Virginia can be flipped. I think that New Mexico could be flipped. And I think Minnesota could be flipped.
“And I’m not even sure that everything can’t be flipped.”
Trump’s optimism came as an NBC News poll released Sunday showed him leading Biden.
The poll, which was conducted Jan. 26-30 among 1,000 registered voters nationally, showed Trump with 47 percent support compared with 42 percent for Biden. The poll had a margin of error of 3.1 percentage points.
It found Trump with a lead of more than 20 points over Biden on handling the economy and a lead of more than 30 points on the border and immigration.
Democratic pollster Jeff Horwitt of Hart Research Associates, who teamed with Republican pollster Bill McInturff of Public Opinion Strategies to conduct the poll, said the numbers show “a presidency in peril.”
“On every measure compared to 2020, Biden has declined,” Horwitt said. “Most damning, the belief that Biden is more likely to be up to the job — the chief tenet of the Biden candidacy — has evaporated.”
McInturff said, “It is hard to imagine a more difficult set of numbers before a re-election.”
