Former President Donald Trump has big campaign plans if he ends up with the 2024 Republican nomination for president.
The GOP frontrunner detailed how he will focus on expanding the collection of battleground states, traditionally seen as states like Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Michigan, Nevada, Arizona, and Georgia. The former president spoke with Breitbart News about his strategy to win big in other locations with rallies and targeted attention.
“One of the other things I’m going to do — and I may be foolish in doing it — is I’m going to make a heavy play for New York, heavy play for New Jersey, heavy play for Virginia, heavy play for New Mexico, and a heavy play for a state that hasn’t been won in years, Minnesota,” Trump said in a more than two-hour-long interview published Tuesday.
“I’m going to do rallies, I’m going to do speeches, I’m going to work them,” he said, elaborating on his plan as he spoke from his Palm Beach home, Mar-a-Lago.
“That doesn’t mean I’m going to work them as hard as I work Pennsylvania, where I’m doing very well,” he clarified, before taking a jab at President Joe Biden as “Mr. Scranton,” referring to Biden’s many boasts about his childhood home.
Trump called out the feeble 81-year-old commander-in-chief as “such a fake,” adding that “there’s just no way” he will win in Pennsylvania.
“But we’re going to do these other states too, and it will be a heavy move,” Trump said.
“I may rent Madison Square Garden and that’s the belly of the beast, right?” he added, referring to the indoor arena in Democrat-run New York City with a seating capacity near 20,000.
The former president, who was born in Queens, N.Y. and developed his successful real estate empire while living there, was recently at the Garden venue for a UFC fight.
The crowd gave him an enthusiastic welcome as he arrived with his son Donald Trump Jr., and UFC’s Dana White along with rocker Kid Rock and former Fox News host Tucker Carlson.
Tonight at UFC fights at Madison Square Garden pic.twitter.com/Jj3Ga5oSgo
— Tucker Carlson (@TuckerCarlson) November 12, 2023
“We have some very good people there,” Trump said of political choices in his former home state.
“So, I believe we have a chance to win New York. I believe we have a chance to win New Jersey. If you look at Lee, he lost by a pretty close race,” he said, referring to former Rep. Lee Zeldin who made an unsuccessful bid for governor in 2022 against incumbent Democrat Gov. Kathy Hochul.
“But it’s 100 times worse now than it was two years ago. Now, you have people—you have migrants living on Madison Avenue. You can’t get into a hospital. You can’t get into a school. You go to a public school and half the kids are sitting there and have no idea what the teacher is saying. You can’t get into these schools. I think it’s really bad and I think the people in New York and New Jersey and a lot of these states are—it would have been semi-unthinkable but I think these are states that can be won,” Trump told Breitbart.
“It’s a different place from when I left,” the former president said.
“I left New York 8 years ago,” he added later.
“We had already suffered from de Blasio a little bit. But it hadn’t been long enough. He was a horrible mayor. He was the worst mayor in the history of New York. We were suffering from de Blasio a little bit but it was eight years ago when I left, and when I left it was the hottest thing. Now, you look at it and what they’ve done to that beautiful place is just horrible,” Trump said. “So, I think I have a chance there. I will spend time that I would normally not be working on New York and New Jersey and other places.”
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Originally from New York, Powers graduated from New York University and eventually made her way to sunny South Florida. Powers also contributes to BizPac Review.
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