Trump rallies Syracuse for Blakeman, rails against Hochul and the Nobel snub

President Donald Trump returned to his home state on Friday night, filling an arena in Syracuse with supporters and turning a midterm rally into a full throated attack on New York's Democratic leadership and, at length, the Nobel Committee that passed him over for the Peace Prize.

The rally, held at the Nicholas J. Pirro Convention Center in downtown Syracuse, was nominally for Bruce Blakeman, the Nassau County executive running as the Republican nominee for governor against Gov. Kathy Hochul in the November 3 election. Trump brought Blakeman onstage and pledged that a Blakeman win would bring direct help from Washington. "I'll be there within 24 hours," Trump said, promising to help "straighten out" the state's crime, illegal immigration, and energy prices.

Trump laid out a dark picture of the state under Hochul, rattling off figures on migrant criminals he said had been arrested in New York and set loose. He praised federal immigration agents involved in Thursday's shooting of a suspected migrant gang member, Oscar Belgal, in the Bronx. Belgal was wanted for possible murder, Trump said, calling him "a very dangerous man," and he accused New York politicians of having set him loose.

The president then veered into the day's other headline: the Nobel Peace Prize, awarded Friday to South African jurist Navanethem "Navi" Pillay for her work on justice and accountability. Trump, who has long said he deserved the prize, told the crowd he "should have received the Nobel Peace Prize, but didn't," calling the award "an indelible stain on the country of Norway." He repeated his claim to have ended eight wars, a record the Associated Press noted is disputed, with several of the cited conflicts amounting to tensions rather than wars.

Trump also mocked Albany Democrats for legislation replacing "mother" and "father" with "gestating" and "non gestating" parent in some surrogacy laws, joking that New Yorkers could no longer say "hi mom." Hochul's office pushed back, with a spokesperson saying the governor believes "mothers are mothers and fathers are fathers, and no legislation changes that."

The rally drew thousands, including former heavyweight champion Mike Tyson. Trump pointed to Micron's planned 100 billion dollar semiconductor complex in central New York, expected to generate 50,000 jobs statewide, as proof of his economic agenda.

The polls remain steep for Blakeman: a Marist poll released Wednesday had him trailing Hochul by 11 points, though a Siena survey last month had the race within single digits. A Syracuse.com survey found only four of sixteen local Republican officials planned to attend, a sign of how the president's embrace can cut both ways in the state.