Trump’s New York Campaign Stops Make Political Sense

The subtext throughout the Washington Post’s piece on Donald Trump’s “midterm road show” is that his campaign stops in places such as Nebraska, Texas, and Alabama are little more than self-care for the unpopular narcissist in the Oval Office. When it comes to the president’s trip to Syracuse, N.Y., where Trump rallied alongside former heavyweight champion Mike Tyson, the Post’s reporters were explicit. Trump’s trip to the Empire State was “less strategic,” its journalists wrote. After all, one regional conservative broadcaster with whom they spoke feared Trump’s presence might drag the GOP’s candidates down with him.

Perhaps. Yet, as CNN’s Harry Enten recently deduced, the nation’s most Jewish state has become redder on the margins amid the Democratic Party’s headlong lurch toward a pathologically anti-Israel posture. That has boosted Republican candidates, particularly in districts surrounding New York City, but the effect is visible statewide:

About the Author

Noah Rothman

Noah Rothman is a senior writer at National Review. His third book, Blood and Progress: A Century of Left-Wing Violence, was published by Hachette in May 2026.

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The subtext throughout the Washington Post’s piece on Donald Trump’s “midterm road show” is that his campaign stops in places such as Nebraska, Texas, and Alabama are little more than self-care for the unpopular narcissist in the Oval Office. When it comes to the president’s trip to Syracuse, N.Y., where Trump rallied alongside former heavyweight champion Mike Tyson, the Post’s reporters were explicit. Trump’s trip to the Empire State was “less strategic,” its journalists wrote. After all, one regional conservative broadcaster with whom they spoke feared Trump’s presence might drag the GOP’s candidates down with him.

Perhaps. Yet, as CNN’s Harry Enten recently deduced, the nation’s most Jewish state has become redder on the margins amid the Democratic Party’s headlong lurch toward a pathologically anti-Israel posture. That has boosted Republican candidates, particularly in districts surrounding New York City, but the effect is visible statewide:

About the Author

Noah Rothman

Noah Rothman is a senior writer at National Review. His third book, Blood and Progress: A Century of Left-Wing Violence, was published by Hachette in May 2026.