(New York Post) Former President Donald Trump basked in the adulation of thousands of supporters on Long Island Wednesday night — insisting that recent attempts to kill him had “hardened my resolve” and predicting he would be the first Republican candidate to win New York state in 40 years.
“These encounters with death have not broken my will,” the Republican presidential nominee, 78, told roughly 16,000 fans at the Nassau Coliseum three days after a gunman was found hiding in the bushes of Trump’s namesake Florida golf course as he played a round.
“They have really given me a much bigger and stronger mission. They’ve only hardened my resolve to use my time on Earth to make America great again for all Americans, to put America first,” added Trump, whose ear was grazed by a would-be assassin’s bullet at a July 13 rally in western Pennsylvania.
“The reason I’m here,” Trump told the roaring crowd, was because “we are going to win New York.”
“That’s the first time in many, many years that a Republican can honestly say it, and we’re going to do it,” Trump added.
“We have to do it. We do it, and the election nationwide is over. We take over the White House and we fix up our country,” the ex-president said to New Yorkers and residents of nearby states.
At least two women got a little too caught up in the moment, flashing their bare breasts at Trump in apparent expressions of affection — with one having to be led away by police after R-rated dancing in the stands.
“We’re gonna have the greatest win in history when we pull this one off. It will be legendary,” the former president contemplated.
“I say to the people of New York: With crime at record levels, with terrorists and criminals pouring in and with inflation eating your hearts out, vote for Donald Trump! What the hell do you have to lose?” he said, repeating questions he has asked of black voters and other traditionally Democrat-leaning demographics on the campaign trail.
Trump made similar claims about being on the cusp of winning New York in 2020 before losing to then-Democratic nominee Joe Biden by more than 23 percentage points.
“We are going to rescue our Democrat-run states. We are going to start by saving the great state of New York,” Trump said.
Of illegal immigrants in the Empire State, he said, “You got to get rid of these people. Give me a shot, you will have a safe New York within three months … for every New Yorker being terrorized by this wave of migrant crime, Nov. 5 will be your liberation day because you are living like hell.”
In a moment of apparent goodwill, Trump vowed not to hold a grudge against New York for its officials prosecuting him in civil and criminal cases so that they could work together to improve the quality of life in the state and city of his birth.
“Despite all of the persecution I’ve endured from the corrupt judicial system in New York,” added Trump, who was convicted May 30 of falsifying business records to conceal hush money payments, “I love the people of this state and I want to give back.”
“I’m going to reduce your taxes, reduce your crime and reduce your levels of stress,” he went on — repeating his platform of eliminating federal taxes on tips, overtime pay and Social Security benefits.
