Former President Donald Trump is modifying his schedule and message to strengthen his bid to return to the White House, even though he remains confined to a courtroom on most weekdays for his New York hush money trial, which begins on Monday.
On Tuesday evening, at the conclusion of the second day of jury selection in his trial, Trump went to a bodega in Harlem, the site of a fatal stabbing two years ago, to condemn Democratic failures in public safety.
Trump singled out the Manhattan district attorney, reiterating his earlier claims that Democrats are lenient on crime and that partisanship is behind the charges against him, a claim the prosecutors refute, insisting they are upholding the law. Trump denies any wrongdoing.
“It’s Alvin Bragg’s fault,” he stated in the bodega. “He does nothing.” He goes after people like Trump who have done nothing wrong. They are aware that there are hundreds of murders around the city.
He used his post-court appearance not only to criticize Bragg and his criminal trial, one of four he is facing, but also to reiterate his rhetoric about “crime-ridden” cities largely run by Democrats, such as New York, where he built his national profile before moving to Florida.
He’s made similar assertions about violence in Atlanta and railed about Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis, who is prosecuting him in Georgia for his efforts to overturn his 2020 election loss in the state.
The business that Trump visited in Harlem on Tuesday at the request of the Bodega Association, he said, was the site of a homicide in 2022 when the shop’s then-clerk Jose Alba fatally killed someone who Alba later claimed was attacking him and he was acting in self-defense.
Surveillance footage from inside the bodega captured the second man, Austin Simon, confronting Alba behind the cash register and shoving him before the two got into a brawl.
Alba was initially charged with murder. The case was contentious, and Bragg’s office later abandoned it against Alba, claiming they lacked sufficient evidence to prosecute.
Despite Trump’s bluster about crime, figures from New York City police show that violent crime in the city is decreasing.
Homicides were down 19% from the same period in 2023 through March 17, according to the data, despite the fact that homicides had previously increased 30% in 2020, at the start of the COVID-19 epidemic.
On the campaign trail, Trump emphasizes crime and public safety, as well as criticizing President Joe Biden for high inflation and immigration.
With the first of his criminal cases started, the former president has grumbled about how his legal commitments are interfering with his campaign schedule, and he has stated that he intends to campaign “all over” on weekends, with rallies “all over the place.”
The Biden team has not explicitly commented on the trial, but they have offered thinly veiled comments via press releases, seeking to contrast by having the president actively campaign in battleground states such as Pennsylvania this week while Trump is in court.
At his own campaign appearance on Tuesday, Biden criticized Trump for previously backing tax cuts for the affluent, saying he “embodies” the “failure” of so-called trickle-down economics.
Biden’s campaign has also stated that it has been more active in swing states, even before Trump’s trial began.
“This is a trial that should never have been held. “I should be campaigning right now in Pennsylvania, Florida, and many other states—North Carolina, Georgia,” Trump told reporters as he returned to court on Tuesday, capitalizing on the widespread media coverage outside.
Later on Tuesday, Trump spoke with the reporters at the Harlem bodega, repeating his frequent, unsubstantiated claim that it is “election interference” to keep him off the route.
He faces 34 counts of first-degree falsifying business documents in New York, which pertain to money he paid to adult film actress Stormy Daniels during his 2016 presidential campaign to keep her from disclosing what she claims was a sexual encounter with him, a claim he denies. He’s pleaded not guilty.
As jury selection continues, Trump stated at the bodega that “anybody that’s fair” is his ideal juror.
When asked how he felt about the seven jurors selected so far, he said, “I’ll let you know in about two months.”
He dodged a question about whether he believes the jurors seated are fair, instead stating that there should be no jury in the first place.
Judge Juan Merchan, who is hearing the case, set a restricted gag order, which Trump claimed he did not breach after the prosecution argued on Monday that he did by making social media attacks on Daniels and his former attorney Michael Cohen, who are potential crucial witnesses.
“There shouldn’t be a gag order,” Trump remarked, calling it “unconstitutional.”
At his first stop, two Republican hardliners questioned him about recent efforts to remove House Speaker Mike Johnson due to Johnson’s support for voting on foreign aid.
“We’ll see what happens with that,” Trump remarked. “I think he’s a very good person.”
