Trump visits NYC construction site. Why he's making a play for New York voters.
NEW YORK -- Former President Donald Trump visited a construction site in Midtown early Thursday morning for a campaign rally, before returning to court for his alleged "hush money" trial in New York City.
The former president met with a group of workers at the corner of East 48th Street and Park Avenue, near the JP Morgan Chase Building in Midtown, Manhattan.
Trump showed up around 6:30 a.m. Thursday, and the campaign stop lasted about 15 minutes. He shook hands, posed for photos and signed autographs for people who went through a security screening to enter a penned-off area.
Some supporters said they woke up early for the chance to catch a glimpse of him.
"I'm going to make a play for New Yorkers. They said, I just heard, there was a very good poll that came out. Normally, a Democrat will win New York. Biden is the worst president in history, we have some very bad people here, but we have the greatest people and they're right behind me. They all want us to run, and we're going to run very hard in New York," Trump said to reporters. "They've taken my constitutional right away with a gag order. That's all it is, it's election interference, this whole thing is election interference."
Trump's campaign team also handed out a three-page document, titled, "Union Workers Paying the Price for Biden's Failed Economic Policies." Among the bullet points, Trump says, if re-elected, he will ban Chinese and foreign ownership of critical U.S. infrastructure and cancel Biden's electric vehicle mandate.
Earlier this month, the former president visited a bodega in Upper Manhattan, where he spoke about crime in the city and criticized Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg.
Trump cases in court
Trump's appearance kicks off a busy day for his legal battles. He will be inside a Manhattan courtroom as the "hush money" trial continues, while the Supreme Court hears arguments in his immunity case about 200 miles away in Washington, D.C. Both could have major legal and political implications, as he makes another bid for the White House.
- A reporter's notebook: Behind the scenes at Donald Trump's "hush money" trial
On top of that, a grand jury in Arizona has indicted more than a dozen Trump allies, including former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani, for allegedly having false electors declare that he won the 2020 election.