NEW YORK — Donald Trump complained during his Manhattan hush  plutocrat trial that being stuck in New York averted him from campaigning in swing  countries. But on Wednesday, he’s  concluding to  abstain  those battlefields to rally  rather in the blue state he has  nearly no chance of winning. 

 The GOP  designee for  chairman is headed to Long Island, a Democratic  fort that has helped make the state more competitive for his party. And indeed if the cities east of New York City do n’t pave the path to the White House, they're  pivotal to determining who controls the House coming time.

Trump will rally  sympathizers in the  quarter held by Rep. Anthony D’Esposito, one of five  beginner Republicans in New York facing tough reelection fights.

“ While New York  maybe is n't a battlefield state, Long Island is a battlefield  islet, ” D’Esposito said in an interview. “ It does  profit him, because as  chairman, he’s going to need a  maturity in the House, and those seats that we’re defending on Long Island and around New York are  crucial to that  maturity. ”

Trump can anticipate a warm  hello from Nassau County Republicans who say his visit has been six months in the  timber. The original GOP takes credit for a red  surge that has swept Republicans into original, state and civil office on the  islet and for helping the state come a little more  grandiloquent.

Before he dropped out of the race for  chairman, Joe Biden’s lead in historically blue New York had narrowed to just 8 chance points over Trump, according to a Siena College bean. More  lately, with Kamala Harris now beating the ticket, the Democratic Party has opened its lead to 14 points.

"It's not just rallying in a place that's so important to him personally, where his roots go back his whole life, but he's clearly in a much better position, electorally, than in 2020 in New York. I am," former Rep. Le Zeldin said in an interview.

Private polling shows Trump leading in Long Island congressional districts.

D’Esposito’s Popular rival, Laura Gillen, appears to understand Trump’s fashionability and has been reticent about  censuring him, limiting her  brickbats to the issues.

Gillen, who declined to be canvassed  by POLITICO, posted on X ahead of Trump’s visit that violence has no place in politics — a reference to two attempts on the former  chairman’s life and expressed confidence in Nassau County police’s capability to keep  residers safe.

Popular State Sen. Kevin Thomas, who represents the area, said D’Esposito’s seat is “ easiest to flip. ”   “ Laura Gillen is a great  seeker for that seat, ” he said in an interview.

“ We just have to do the work on the ground. We’ve got to knock on doors and be out there in the community. ”

The rally on Long Island was originally scheduled to coincide with the date of Trump's criminal sentencing in Manhattan, and the campaign kept it even after the sentencing was postponed, according to a person familiar with the planning who spoke independently. was granted anonymity to speak.

"I would love to have him here, because whenever he's in Nassau County, he's not in Pennsylvania, he's not in Wisconsin and Michigan, he's not in Arizona, Nevada, Georgia, North Carolina," New York State. And Nassau County Democratic Chair Jay Jacobs said in an interview. "So he can stay here. I think that's a real use of his time.

But Republican surrogates said Trump didn't need to be in a swing state to have an impact.

"They've got a message for all of their suburbs about American values, and Nassau County is America's first suburb," Nassau County Executive Bruce Blackman said in an interview. "And it's a perfect place to talk about the suburbs of Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Milwaukee, Detroit, Phoenix and Atlanta, just to name a few."

On Tuesday, the day before the rally, Trump tried to draw attention to Long Islanders and other residents of high-tax states by posting on social media about what is colloquially known as SALT. of

The former president wrote on Truth Social that he would "get SALT back," indicating that he would lift the $10,000 limit on deductions for state and local taxes that he included in his 2017 tax package. was signed into law as part of.

When D'Esposito posted that Trump is now the only presidential candidate who has promised to put the ax on the cap, Gallen responded that Trump is the one who ended the deduction in the first place.

The Democratic National Committee, meanwhile, is countering the rally with a digital ad campaign and mobile billboards threatening Trump, J.D. Vance and their GOP allies with access to in vitro fertilization.