A week after former President Donald Trump hosted a campaign rally in Crotona Park, Bronxites are now weighing in on the Republican hopeful’s 34-count felony conviction in Manhattan Criminal Court on May 30.
Trump — who has unofficially secured Republican presidential nomination and is running against current President Joe Biden in a déjà vu election this November — was found guilty of falsifying business records in what’s become known as his hush money case. He was accused of ordering his former personal attorney Michael Cohen to pay off adult film star Stormy Daniels in exchange for keeping a sexual encounter between Daniels and Trump quiet — and disguising re-payments to Cohen as corporate legal expenses.
With the May 30 verdict, Trump became the first former or current U.S. president to become a convicted felon.
Bronx Assembly Member Amanda Septimo — whose office was one of the main organizers of the “Trump isn’t welcome in the Bronx” counter demonstration in Crotona Park during the former president’s rally last week — said in a statement that the verdict to her means justice has been served.
“Donald Trump’s conviction today confirms what we already knew: he is a liar who thinks money and power will buy him immunity,” Septimo told the Bronx Times. “Today, justice was served when New Yorkers reminded Trump that our laws apply to him too.”
Republican Council Member Kristy Marmorato — who represents the Bronx’s 13th Council District — declined to comment on the guilty verdict on May 31. Her brother, Bronx GOP chair Mike Rendino, hadn’t responded to requests for comment.
‘If he goes to jail, he’ll still win the presidency’
Even though the majority of the Bronx leans left, he does have supporters interspersed in the borough.
The trial “was a farce,” said Jim Pangallo, who lives on Long Island but works in a print shop next to Marmorato’s district office.
Pangallo told the Bronx Times that he is a Republican but votes according to whom he feels is best for the job. He felt the entire trial, from the jury to the judge, was unjust — while also explaining that he doesn’t necessarily love Trump.
“I consider it a privilege and honor to vote,” Pangallo said — and with only two viable options, “Trump was the least worst one” and seems to care about the country more than Biden does, he said.
He added that in a heavily Democratic city, it was practically impossible for Trump to get a fair trial.
“A lot of stuff [the prosecution] did was unconstitutional and no one seems to care about it,” he said. “If he goes to jail, he’ll still win the presidency.”
During Trump’s rally in Crotona Park last week, swaths of his supporters gathered both inside the barricades of his campaign event and outside of the barriers to listen to the former president’s remarks.
Jimmy Gucciano of Staten Island told the Bronx Times during the rally last week that was attending the event “to support my guy, my uncle Donnie” and believes Trump has potential to win the state.
Lawrence Gannon, 62, who lives across the street from Crotona Park, was among the locals pleased to see the former president in his own backyard. Ahead of the rally, Gannon sat on his stoop next to his dog, Dottie, with a sign reading “Vote Trump = Stimulus.”
But even still, because there are far less registered Republican voters in the Boogie Down than Democrats, Trump’s choice to rally in the South Bronx last week raised interest citywide.
In the presidential primary race in April, more than 50,000 people voted on the Democratic line compared to 10,459 on the Republican side. The majority of Bronx local and state races favor Democrats on any given Election Day, so it’s consistent that more than 83% of all the people who voted on April 2 voted in Biden’s primary — however Trump did pick up twice as many votes in 2020 compared to 2016 in three South Bronx Assembly districts. And while overall turnout in 2020 was higher than in 2016, the gains marked a better-than-expected — but still relatively small — showing among predominantly Latinx voters in the South Bronx.
‘No one is or should be above the law’
City Council Member Rafael Salamanca Jr., who represents parts of the South Bronx in Council District 17, echoed Septimo’s sentiment — saying Trump’s guilty verdict is emblematic of a functioning judicial system.
“The rule of law and the right to a fair trial are sacred principles that our country abides by,” he said. “I’m proud to live in a state that follows these precedents and provides all defendants, regardless of their status, a fair trial amongst their peers. The recent indictment of the former president — while historic — is yet another example of the power of our judicial system performing its duties.”
Bronx state Sen. Gustavo Rivera told the Bronx Times in a statement on the day of the verdict that he hopes the guilty conviction will be “an eye-opener for many of my fellow Americans ahead of a consequential election in November.”
“First, I want to congratulate Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg for successfully mounting a solid legal case against Mr. Trump,” Rivera said. “This historic verdict confirms what some of us have known for a long time — no one is or should be above the law. This trial has tested our democracy, and the verdict proves that the rule of law applies equally to every single American.”
The Bronx Times also spoke to some students at Pelham Lab High School on May 31, who were grappling with what the historic verdict means for the country and their future — even though they are not old enough to vote yet.
Fatoumata Diallo, 16, who sat with friends on an outdoor bench near the Westchester-East Tremont train station, said her history teacher spent time discussing the verdict and showed Trump’s live press conference from outside Trump Tower in class.
Diallo said she has one classmate who supports Trump — and that his opinion didn’t change after the verdict. But in her view, “[Trump] shouldn’t be qualified to even run for president at this point.”
“I was against him since the beginning,” Diallo said, mainly due to his rhetoric on immigration, and she said her view has become stronger since the verdict.
Diallo said she was very concerned when Trump made comments about sending African people back to Africa “because I’m one of them,” she said.
“I understand that he wants to help [American-born] people,” she said, “but he should try to help both sides.”
To Diallo, Trump almost redeemed himself by helping people economically during the COVID-19 pandemic — but she said he mishandled nearly every other aspect of the crisis.
A friend listening nearby, 17-year-old Izayah S., jumped in and said that Trump has “done horribly.”
Izayah said he actually had more support for Trump before the verdict but now feels he cannot support the candidate.
“If Trump was elected, he could still commit these crimes or even worse,” he said.
What’s next for Trump
The former president’s verdict on May 30 is just one of four criminal cases he’s been charged with, and the only one he’s gone to trial for so far. The three other cases are as follows:
- The classified documents case that accuses Trump of taking national security documents when he left the White House after his first term in 2021;
- The Georgia election interference case that accuses Trump in 2020 of urging state officials to reverse Biden’s win during the election and “find” 11,000 some-odd other votes to overcome Biden’s victory in Georgia;
- And the federal election interference case that charges Trump for attempting to derail the peaceful transfer of power on Jan. 6, 2021, when a mob of his supporters stormed the Capitol in Washington, D.C.
Officials speculate, however, that these cases likely won’t conclude before this year’s presidential election.
Trump is scheduled for sentencing on July 11, just days before the start of the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, on July 15. Trump is still allowed to make his run for the White House, but some experts are saying that the guilty verdict may be significant for truly undecided voters — which are few and far between — at the margins.
The general election in which the county will vote for president is on Nov. 5. New York state voter registration applications must be received by Oct. 26 for a voter to be eligible to cast their ballots in the general election.
To check voter registration, request a ballot or find a poll site, visit elections.ny.gov/ways-vote.
This story was updated at 4:39 p.m. on May 31.
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