\u201cI\u2019m thrilled to be back in the state I love, and I do love it. So proud of it, but it\u2019s going in a bad direction,\u201d Trump said, knocking Hochul without naming her. \u201cWe\u2019re going to change it around. \u201cWe get Bruce in there, we\u2019ll change it around.\u201d<\/p>\n
The crowd bellowed \u201cBruuuuuuuce\u201d in unison, garnering a presidential chuckle.<\/p>\n
The GOP campaigner in chief said Blakeman\u2019s record on crime was a feather in his gubernatorial campaign cap.<\/p>\n
\u201cUnder Bruce, think of this: Nassau County has been rated the No. 1 safest county in the United States of America \u2014 that\u2019s not bad,\u201d Trump said to applause from the uniformed law enforcement personnel seated behind him, many wearing white ceremonial gloves for an occasion that was billed as an official White House event but that mirrored his campaign rallies.<\/p>\n
Hochul, though, contended<\/a> Friday that crime rates were down across the state.\u00a0Crime data<\/a> from the state\u2019s Division of Criminal Justice Services showed a 3 percent drop in crimes in New York City between 2024 and 2025 and a 14 percent drop in crimes outside the Big Apple. The crime numbers for both jurisdictions had also declined from 2023.<\/p>\n Blakeman is seen as a decided underdog against Hochul in deep-blue New York, which hasn\u2019t elected a Republican governor since 2002. The same Siena poll found Hochul leading Blakeman by 10 points. Forty percent of likely voters didn\u2019t know or didn\u2019t have an opinion of the Republican nominee, while 33 percent viewed him favorably and 26 percent unfavorably. <\/p>\n Blakeman appeared onstage for a minute Friday and, like other GOP candidates at Trump events, he praised the headliner: \u201cThank you, Mr. President, for sealing our borders. \u2026 There are less and less \u2026 moms and dads that are burying their children from fentanyl, the illegal drugs that came through our porous borders during Biden-Harris. \u2026 Keep going.\u201d<\/p>\n In his campaign appearances, Blakeman has reportedly largely refrained from mentioning Trump. But New York Democrats say there is no political daylight between the president and his old friend.<\/p>\n \u201cBruce Blakeman is Trump\u2019s 100 percent MAGA puppet, mimicking everything from his election denialism, to his healthcare cuts, to his price-hiking agenda,\u201d state Democratic Party spokesperson Addison Dick said in a statement.<\/p>\n New York-based GOP strategist Fay Chapin said Friday that Democrats are attempting to tie all Republicans to the president \u201cbecause they have nothing else to run on.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cTrump remains an effective turnout tool for Republicans in the suburbs, especially on Long Island. If the attacks are coming anyway, [Blakeman] might as well get the benefits of having the president of the United States come to our neck of the woods,\u201d Chapin said. \u201cI don\u2019t see it backfiring and will only fire up the Republican base in New York, which Blakeman needs in order to win in November.\u201d<\/p>\n Trump\u2019s Empire State campaign stop was his second in three months, following a May 22 event across the Long Island Sound to boost<\/a> embattled GOP Rep. Mike Lawler in the blue-leaning 17th District. Notably, at that event, Trump mentioned Blakeman<\/a> and his race more than he did Lawler.\u00a0<\/p>\n But Trump\u2019s electoral trend line in Nassau County offers more encouragement for Republicans. After losing the county to Hillary Clinton in 2016 and Joe Biden in 2020, Trump carried it in 2024 over Kamala Harris, becoming the first Republican presidential nominee to win Nassau County since George H.W. Bush in 1988.<\/p>\n \u2018Hellhole\u2019<\/p>\n More recently, some Empire State voters have been in a different mood, with two establishment-aligned House Democrats from New York City losing to primary challengers backed by New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani.<\/p>\n In total, Mamdani, a self-described democratic socialist who ran on an avowedly progressive platform last year, successfully<\/a> backed three candidates pushing similar policy ideas during their primary campaigns.<\/p>\n Former New York City Comptroller Brad Lander easily defeated<\/a> Rep. Dan Goldman in the 10th District Democratic primary. Rep. Adriano Espaillat, chair of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, lost his primary in the 13th District to community organizer Darializa Avila Chevalier. And a third Mamdani-backed candidate, state Rep. Claire Valdez, defeated Brooklyn Borough President Antonio Reynoso in the primary for the 7th District seat being vacated by the retiring Democratic Rep. Nydia M. Vel\u00e1zquez.<\/p>\n Trump has used those victories \u2014 and ones by other ultraliberal candidates across the country \u2014 to try to paint the entire Democratic Party as being run by communists<\/a>. Other Republicans have echoed that rhetoric, both in in Washington and on the campaign trail.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cThey continue their war on police and their destruction of the rule of law. The communists want to turn America into a third-world country, into a hellhole of crime and filth,\u201d Trump claimed Friday. \u201cThat\u2019s why we have to get Bruce into office. \u2026 The radical left Gov. Kathy Hochul has been very, very bad on crime.\u201d<\/p>\n The GOP messenger in chief is banking that those kinds of arguments will help Republican nominees Mike LiPetri and Jeanine Driscoll in their bids to unseat Democratic Reps. Tom Suozzi in the 3rd District and Laura Gillen in the 4th District respectively. Both districts include sizable portions of Nassau County. Democrats are currently favored in both races, according to Inside Elections with Nathan Gonzales<\/a>, with the 3rd District rated Lean Democratic and the 4th Tilt Democratic.<\/p>\n LiPetri and Driscoll briefly appeared onstage Friday to deliver a few words to the gathered crowd. Joining them were Republican members of the New York delegation, including Reps. Nicole Malliotakis, Nick LaLota and Andrew Garbarino, who also represents a part of Nassau County. Two other House hopefuls from upstate New York spoke briefly Friday as well: Anthony Constantino, who is running to succeed retiring GOP Rep. Elise Stefanik, and Kailee Buller, who is challenging Democrat John W. Mannion and won an endorsement<\/a> from Trump on Thursday.<\/p>\n Trump seemed eager to sway voters by playing up his personal relationship with the GOP gubernatorial nominee \u2014 as well as his ability to defy critics. Trump dubbed Blakeman \u201ca great person\u201d and \u201ca friend of mine\u201d and \u201ca great political leader.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWhen Bruce\u2019s name came up, I said, \u2018Yeah. If they give that guy just a little bit of a chance, just a little bit of fair treatment from the fake news and everyone else, he\u2019s going to win,\u201d Trump said. <\/p>\n But the president also ribbed Blakeman as he pondered being forced to choose between sending his old friend to Albany or New York\u2019s Republican congressional delegation back to Washington.<\/p>\n \u201cI don\u2019t know, Bruce, I think I\u2019m going to have to give you up,\u201d the president quipped. \u201cI want I might have to take the congresspeople.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"President Donald Trump took his midterm campaign tour to New York\u2019s Long Island on Friday, seeking to boost…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":1001232,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5122],"tags":[108048,5229,163547,22807,9642,400888,7033,77,69,8988,90,22808,25982,341515,1142,17819,82,5371,2936,6084,7834,405,403,5226,5225,5228,400889,400890,400891,285190,5227,35035,1269,153,87645,5373,5620,277,67,586,132,5230,68,2969,2058,5223],"class_list":["post-1001231","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york","tag-108048","tag-america","tag-brand-safety","tag-bruce-blakeman","tag-campaigns","tag-coattails","tag-democrats","tag-donald-j-trump","tag-donald-trump","tag-election","tag-elections","tag-elise-stefanik","tag-executive-branch","tag-governors-race","tag-healthcare","tag-house","tag-joe-biden","tag-kathy-hochul","tag-law-enforcement","tag-long-island","tag-nassau-county","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-newyork","tag-newyorkcity","tag-ny","tag-ny-03","tag-ny-17","tag-ny-04","tag-ny-10","tag-nyc","tag-oped","tag-opinion","tag-policy","tag-polling","tag-primaries","tag-republicans","tag-trump","tag-united-states","tag-united-states-of-america","tag-unitedstates","tag-unitedstatesofamerica","tag-us","tag-usa","tag-washington","tag-white-house"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":"Validation failed: Text character limit of 500 exceeded"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1001231","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1001231"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1001231\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1001232"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1001231"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1001231"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1001231"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/GettyImages-2290498631.jpg\")
Trump greets members of law enforcement as he arrives to deliver remarks Friday in Garden City, N.Y. (Samuel Corum\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/GettyImages-2290511445.jpg\")
From left, Anthony Constantino, Rep. Andrew Garbarino, Jeanine Driscoll and Trump listen as Mike LiPetri, the GOP nominee for New York\u2019s 3rd District, speaks at Friday\u2019s event in Garden City. (Samuel Corum\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n