The MAGA energy was palpable—in the Bronx. As emerging crowds recognized other like-minded people on the street, the chants began immediately. “Let’s Go Brandon!” someone shouted. Another group smiled mischievously and echoed the chant, a small cacophony hinting at what was to come.

This was the Bronx like I had never seen it, and that was by design—the Trump campaign had explicitly set up his rally here in the press as aimed at Black and Hispanic voters, some of whom polls suggest are slowly warming to the former president in key states.

Not everyone in the crowd was quite a convert. Marena, a Dominican and a Bronx native, had come to Crotona Park out of curiosity. She’d heard that this was where Trump was scheduled to give a speech, the first of its kind here since President Reagan visited and was heckled in 1980. She and her friend Nicole sat on a small stone cobblestone bridge crossing a section of Indian Lake in the park, just within view of a hill where a Secret Service sniper was positioned. “We’re trying to get that glimpse!” she said.

They didn’t mind that Trump had come to their backyard. “We live right down the block,” she said, impressed by the enthusiasm of the crowd. “It’s a lot of people. We’ve never seen this many people in this park before.”

As we chatted, a group of three white men, who stood out in a borough that is under 10 percent white, walked past. “Where did you people come from?” Marena called out to them. “San Diego,” they answered, smiling, saying they had booked a flight to New York just to see Trump speak in the Bronx. “See? San Diego! Y’all are great supporters. They have amazing fucking energy. Like, they just came from Cali, ” she said.

Still, Marena couldn’t think of anyone she knew in the Bronx who supported Trump. She told me that she is a Democrat, though she qualified that by saying she finds it difficult to be enthusiastic about Biden. “Neither one of them has my support right now,” she said.

Closer to the rally, I spotted Mike sitting alone on a bench. He is a Black Brooklyn native who came to the park from work, still dressed in his hi-vis vest and construction hard hat. He said he was waiting for the rest of his labor union, Local 78, to show up so they could enter the rally together.

“Hopefully we get that boy Trump back in office. When he was in office the economy was good. I was working straight through the economy. Things were a lot easier financially,” he said. He said that ever since Biden took office, he’s struggled financially because while his wages are the same, everything from the grocery store to rent and other expenses has all become less affordable. “Once the economy goes back to flourishing, if that starts to work,........

© Slate