Analysis by Summer Lane | Photo: Alamy
It was a cold, early morning in New York City when President Donald Trump arrived at the corner of East 48th Street and Park Avenue, greeted by a bursting crowd of union workers chanting, “WE LOVE TRUMP” and “USA!”
The scene in the heart of the Empire State – the place where Donald Trump worked, lived, and shaped the skyline over many decades – was a poignant one for Trump supporters and a telling one for his opponents. Even in the bowels of blue-state New York, the president is drumming up never-before-seen levels of support and enthusiasm for his 2024 campaign, and that’s saying something.
Trump performed exceptionally well as a presidential candidate in 2016 and 2020, but there is something unmistakably different about 2024. Trump himself has called it “spirit,” alluding to the monumental energy that has sprung up in the wake of 2020.
“There’s never been spirit like this,” he said recently in Green Bay, Wisconsin, at a sprawling rally.
The spirit of 2024 is paying off in spades, too. Trump has become a champion for the everyday working man, and he has hammered home his common-sense America First agenda to such an effective degree that union workers, in particular, can’t help but see the difference between Trump and Biden’s current flailing administration.
In fact, Bob Bartels, a “lifelong Democrat” told Fox News this week that he saw a “wave” on the horizon for Trump, referring to the president’s historic support among union members in the United States.
He explained, “I see a wave coming, as a matter of fact, and… nobody that I speak to likes what’s going on in America right now.”
Union workers likely see the economic writing on the wall if Biden continues to blindly lead the country, especially amid the ongoing illegal immigration crisis. “Unions are going to suffer,” Trump stated in early March, highlighting the sobering fact that illegal migrants are taking jobs from Black and Hispanic Americans. The trend will only continue under Biden’s administration.
Perhaps union workers’ feelings about President Trump and Joe Biden are best summed up by a simple, 12-second clip that circulated online shortly after the 45th president departed his meet and greet in New York on Thursday.
“What’s it like seeing so many Republicans in Manhattan, so many Trump supporters in Manhattan – does that surprise you?” a reporter from Newsmax asked an unidentified worker wearing a vest and a hard hat.
“No, not at all,” he replied. “It’s turning now. It’s Trump’s turn again.”
“What’s your message to Joe Biden?” the reporter pressed.
Without missing a beat, the New Yorker answered, “F*** you.”
