By DONALD WITTKOWSKI and MADDY VITALE
Former President Donald Trump slammed President Joe Biden with a litany of insults Saturday evening while addressing an overflow crowd of his MAGA supporters on a Wildwood beach during what was touted as the largest political rally ever held in New Jersey.
Taking the stage at about 6:20 p.m., Trump confidently predicted he would win the traditionally Democratic-leaning New Jersey in a rematch with Biden. He went on to say that New Jersey would be among a number of blue states that he will be able to flip to the Republican side in his bid to retake the White House.
“I’m more popular now than I’ve been before,” Trump told a cheering crowd in the tens of thousands clad in red “Make America Great Again” caps, sweatshirts and other regalia.
Trump claimed that the crowd number was more than 100,000. No official crowd estimate was immediately available Saturday. Wildwood Mayor Ernie Troiano Jr. said during the week leading up to the event that the beachfront area serving as the rally’s venue could hold up to 40,000 people.
“Welcome to the largest political rally in the history of the state of New Jersey. We’re here, and we ain’t going away,” Republican South Jersey Congressman Jeff Van Drew, one of Trump’s highest-profile supporters, said in opening remarks.
In an interview, Van Drew also predicted that Trump will take New Jersey in the November election.
“People are worn out. They want a change,” Van Drew said of voter sentiment. “They’re tired of open borders. They’re tired about having to worry about their own safety.”
Cape May County, New Jersey’s southernmost county, is one of the state’s Republican strongholds. However, the state itself usually votes for the Democrats in the presidential elections.
In the 2020 election, Trump won Cape May County with nearly 58 percent of the vote. He carried the county in the 2016 election with about the same percentage of votes.
Yet Trump lost New Jersey in statewide voting by about 16 percent in the 2020 election against Biden. Democrats have won New Jersey in the last seven presidential elections
Trump told the rally that the country should be prepared to see a dramatic turnaround in the November election.
“We’re going to win the state of New Jersey,” he said, prompting cheers.
Two jumbo-sized video screens framing the stage flashed the words, “New Jersey is Trump Country.” A plane circled low overhead during the rally towing a banner that said, “God Bless D. Trump.”
Wildwood has been a friendly venue for Trump. He held a rally at the Wildwoods Convention Center in 2020 during a campaign stop while he was still president.
“We love the shore,” he said. “You have to vote if you want to keep it going. You have to vote for a gentleman named Donald J. Trump.”
He later mentioned Ocean City, Sea Isle City and other New Jersey towns while summarizing the state’s contributions to tourism and key moments in U.S. history.
Among the criticism and vitriol he directed at Biden, Trump blamed Biden for driving up taxes, the cost of mortgages and inflation for New Jersey families as well as for people in the rest of the country. He said the “Biden price hike” will increase the cost of living for families in New Jersey by $1,000 per month.
“Your taxes are going up four times if this lunatic is re-elected,” Trump said.
Trump maintained that Biden’s economic policies have failed miserably and threaten to push the country closer and closer toward financial peril.
“On Day 1, I will throw out Biden-nomics and reinstate MAGA-nomics,” he said.
Speaking for about an hour and a half, Trump repeatedly mocked Biden as “Sleepy Joe” throughout his remarks and also branded him as “corrupt.” At one point, he called Biden “a moron.”
“He’s by far the worst president in the history of our country,” he said of Biden.
Trump accused Biden of not protecting the southern border, exposing the United States to what he said are scores of “illegal immigrants” pouring into the country.
He also said Biden deserved blame for Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and the ongoing war. He criticized Biden for not doing enough to support Israel in its war with the Hamas Palestinian Islamist group.
Trump also mocked Biden’s energy policies, including blaming Biden for what he said was the United States’ dangerous dependence on foreign oil.
He also said the Biden administration threatened the Jersey’s Shore environment by supporting a number of proposed offshore wind energy farms. Cape May County mounted a legal battle to oppose two proposed offshore wind farms in South Jersey that have since been withdrawn by their developer, the Danish energy firm Orsted.
“They ruined the environment. They killed the birds. They killed the whales,” Trump said, referring to a spate of dead whales washing up on New Jersey’s beaches in 2023 that wind farm opponents blamed on preliminary work for the projects.
Trump’s campaign rally followed a week of explosive testimony in his New York criminal case accusing him of falsifying business records to try to cover up hush-money payments to porn star Stormy Daniels for an alleged affair they once had. Trump has denied that the affair ever existed.
Referring to other criminal cases he is facing, Trump joked that he has been indicted more times than the ruthless Prohibition-era Chicago mob leader Al Capone.
“Al Capone was so mean that if you went to dinner with him and he didn’t like you, you would be dead the next morning. And I got indicted more than him.”
Trump has repeatedly called his indictments “political witch hunts” orchestrated by Democratic prosecutors out to get him. He mentioned New York District Attorney Alvin Bragg in Manhattan as one of his enemies, labeling him as “a corrupt guy.”
Trump supporters at the rally seemed unfazed by the former president’s legal difficulties. They maintained that Trump is the leader most capable of pulling the country out of political and social turmoil.
“I love Donald Trump. We are so excited because things have to change. The world has to change. I have six granddaughters and I’m worried about them,” said Luanne Frambes, a Pitman, N.J., resident who attended the rally with her husband, Mark.
Richard Sanchez and his friend, Tracey O’Riordan, both Maryland residents, were attending their first ever Trump rally. Sanchez wore a blue Trump banner draped around his shoulders.
“I want to prove to the naysayers that Trump supporters aren’t racists, or homophobes or xenophobes. It’s nothing at all like that,” Sanchez said.
O’Riordan said she was anxious to attend the rally to show Trump critics that Trump is certainly capable of drawing large crowds of supporters.
“I wanted to make sure that these people come out to the rallies – and they certainly do. I heard that over 20,000 tickets were sold,” O’Riordan said.
Mark and Shirley Mongeau, and their daughter, Jessica, left their home in Massachusetts on Saturday morning at 4 a.m. to attend the rally.
“Everyone thinks Trump supporters are mean people. We aren’t mean,” Mark Mongeau said, as he and his family waited in line to enter the event.
“We came because he makes us feel safe,” Jessica Mongeau noted. “We felt safe when he was president. We work hard for our money and we want everyone to do the same.”
