Bodegas, crime and Chick-fil-A: the bad taste of Trump’s culinary campaign trail ends

When former President Donald Trump stopped by last week to visit Sanaa Handig Store, a small bodega in Harlem, he told the crowd that gathered to “have a good time.” As some cheered and broke out chants of “USA, USA, USA,” he described how he was “way ahead in the polls against Biden” and vowed that as Election Day approaches he will hold similar rallies “everywhere.” .”

With that bodega stop, Trump followed in a long line of politicians who tried to use food during their campaigns as a way to bond with their voters, by sampling local delicacies or visiting neighborhood establishments. It’s a trick of relativity that’s both genius in its simplicity (food really is a natural connection between people) and dangerous in the way it tends to expose fraud, as when Gerald Ford choked on a tamale peel while in San Antonio campaigned for re-election against Jimmy. Carter, a Texas-sized misstep that several political pundits believe ultimately cost him the 1976 presidency.

However, this was not part of a multi-borough bodega tour that Trump embarked on to reassert his New Yorkerness in a city that often resents its association with him (a move that would bring to mind Andrew Yang’s “authenticity blitz,” in which he visited a bodega and posted about it on Twitter as part of his failed mayoral bid for New York City). Instead, he specifically chose the Sanaa Convenient Store because, as reported by the Associated Press, a violent attack on an employee had occurred here, a case that resulted in public criticism of the prosecutor who now prosecuted him.

Moreover, the presumptive Republican Party nominee had come straight from the Manhattan courthouse where he faces four criminal charges and a civil lawsuit for organizing this event.

This isn’t Trump’s first food stop on the campaign trail, nor is he the only candidate making these familiar plays (last week the Biden campaign sent out a very serious email about sandwiches), but it really crystallizes the absurd dichotomy between the ubiquitous reminders that Trump is the first ex-president to face trial and the “business as usual” approach adopted by him and other politicians on both sides of the aisle. And while the age-old strategy of breaking bread with potential voters during an election year has always been just that — a strategy — perhaps that’s why it now feels more hollow than ever.

According to the Associated Press, Trump used his stop at Sanaa Convenient Store as an opportunity to compare his prosecution to crime in the city. “They want peace and order?” Trump said about New York businesses. “They get robbed every week.”

He continued, “Do you know where the crime lies? It’s in the bodegas.’

In July 2022, Jose Alba, a clerk at the bodega Trump visited, was attacked by 35-year-old Austin Simon. Alba in turn fatally stabbed Simon and was arrested and charged with murder. The altercation was captured on surveillance footage, and the Manhattan district attorney’s office dropped the charges within weeks because they couldn’t prove that Alba hadn’t acted in self-defense — but not before Alba spent several weeks in jail at Rikers Island.

It was a controversial case, especially because Alba is an immigrant from the Dominican Republic and was under the supervision of Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, who oversees the office that now prosecutes Trump. In a statement released Tuesday, Bragg’s office wrote that Simon’s death and Alba’s case were “resolved nearly two years ago and the charges were dismissed after a thorough investigation.”

“DA Bragg’s top priority remains combating violent crime and the office has worked closely with the NYPD to reduce overall crime in Manhattan,” the statement continued.

Regardless, journalists attending the event at the bodega were given material criticizing Bragg. That’s the problem with these Trump campaign visits: There’s always a more insidious line lurking beneath the surface. Earlier this month, for example, the former president planned a photo opp at a Chick-fil-A in Atlanta, where he bought chicken sandwiches and milkshakes for the largely black crowd.

A specific video from the event, in which a black woman embraced Trump, was widely shared by his supporters, who speculated that the mainstream media had downplayed the amount of support Trump has from the black community. For all intents and purposes, it appeared that the woman, Michaelah Montgomery, was a random customer, until it was later revealed that she was a conservative activist who had previously worked for Blexit, a movement founded by Candace Owens to recruit black voters to vote for Trump. vote and join. the Republican Party.

Again, Trump isn’t the only candidate trying to appear accessible to his voters through food. On April 19, the Biden campaign sent an email with the subject line: “From Sheetz to Wawa: President Biden rallies with voters across Pennsylvania in three-day blitz.”

“This week, President Biden presented his economic vision to voters during a three-day tour of Pennsylvania,” the email said. “From his hometown of Scranton, where his worldview was forged as the city of brotherly love, the president was welcomed with open arms by Sheetz and Wawa loyalists alike.”

When Biden stopped at a Sheetz in Pittsburgh on Wednesday, he bought sandwiches for construction workers. When he stopped at Wawa the next day, his order included “an Italian hoagie (with American cheese and pickles) and a black and white milkshake,” the email dutifully stated.

As the email indicated, Trump’s campaign options will be limited in the coming weeks as he “needs to deal with a personal matter and catch a few z’s,” so it’s unclear where his next food-focused stop will be. Maybe somewhere with an early bird special on Wednesday evening, the only weekday when the court would not be in session.