SYRACUSE, N.Y. — President Donald Trump headlined a midterm campaign rally in Syracuse on Friday night, stumping for Republican gubernatorial nominee Bruce Blakeman in his challenge to Gov. Kathy Hochul and using the stage to vent about the Nobel Peace Prize, immigration and New York’s Democratic leadership.
Speaking to a packed crowd at the Oncenter convention center, Trump railed against Norway for awarding the 2026 Nobel Peace Prize to South African judge Navi Pillay, calling her a “mystery person” he had “never heard of” and claiming he deserved “eight” medals for wars he says he settled. “Norway should be ashamed,” he said, according to the New York Post.
Trump pledged that if Blakeman is elected governor in November, he would personally help “straighten out” New York — citing crime, illegal immigration and energy prices. “I’ll be there within 24 hours,” the president promised, vowing to ban sanctuary cities and sanctuary states. He claimed Blakeman could cut New Yorkers’ energy bills by “70%, 80% and 90%” — figures Trump offered without evidence and reporters could not verify.
The visit was pure campaign theater. Trump traveled to Syracuse aboard Air Force One with boxing legend Mike Tyson and Yankees president Randy Levine. Protesters were removed from the crowd during the rally, and Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand criticized the trip ahead of time, accusing the president of using the visit to divide New Yorkers.
The rally came as the Nov. 3 midterms loom over a tight national political landscape, with control of Congress at stake. New York’s governor’s race has drawn national attention, and Trump’s Friday appearance was his most direct intervention in it yet.
