President Donald Trump assailed Democrats over crime levels in blue jurisdictions as he sought to boost one of the Republican Party's most vulnerable lawmakers during a campaign stop in New York.
"The streets are dirty. The crime is out of control," Trump said at an event in Suffern, a suburb of New York City represented by Mike Lawler, who faces an uphill climb to win reelection to the House in November's midterm election.
Trump said Democratic policies on crime and taxes were leading to an exodus of businesses and taxpayers from the nation's financial capital, as he touted tax cuts including in his sweeping budget package last year.
"Companies are leaving, rich people are leaving, people that pay a lot of money," Trump said. "New York can never be the same if it's losing its tax base, and the people that pay 85% of the taxes are leaving."
In a speech that Lawler had billed as focusing on tax policy and immigration, Trump meandered into topics including voter identification requirements, transgender people playing women's sports and the Democratic National Committee's autopsy report on the 2024 presidential election.
He repeated unfounded claims about widespread voter fraud and declared that New York Giants quarterback Jaxson Dart, who introduced him on stage, has "legs like tree trunks." His speech was interrupted multiple times by protesters.
Midterm elections are normally challenging for the party in power and this year is no different for Republicans who confront strong headwinds. Polls show voters have soured on Trump's handling of the economy and the war in Iran as high costs of living strain household budgets, a problem worsened by skyrocketing gas prices brought on by the Middle East conflict.
Lawler is fighting to hold a seat in a district that Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris carried in her failed 2024 White House bid.
Trump on Friday praised the Republican lawmaker for his role in helping raise the cap for state and local tax, or SALT, deductions to $40,000 from $10,000 for five years. The president's One Big Beautiful Bill Act included the provision.
"I call him Mr. SALT," Trump said. "He didn't stop, he wouldn't stop. He was driving us crazy: 'We have to get SALT, we have to get SALT back,' and he got it back, and he's a terrific guy, and you're lucky to have him."
In brief remarks, Lawler praised Trump for helping expand the SALT benefit, saying, "Over 90% of my constituents were able to fully deduct state and local taxes, and I thank you for fulfilling that commitment."
The SALT cap deduction, a write-off most Americans do not claim, has particular resonance in Lawler's district, where higher state and local taxes and lofty property values make it a boon for taxpayers. Lawler was a key negotiator in talks over the tax law, part of a small group of Republicans representing voters in high-tax states such as New York, New Jersey and California who pushed to expand the deduction.
Trump's focus in recent weeks has been on punishing dissenters within the GOP's own ranks, an effort that saw his chosen candidates win key primaries in Kentucky, Louisiana and Georgia. Friday's event, though, appeared aimed at addressing what many Republicans see as a more pressing issue: convincing voters beyond their base that the president's policies are putting more money in their pocketbooks and that the GOP should stay in power.
Asked earlier this week about the president coming to campaign in his district, Lawler indicated it was Trump's decision to visit.
"First of all, he's the president of the United States, and if the president wants to travel to your district, you welcome him," Lawler said Tuesday in an interview with Bloomberg reporters and editors.
