As hundreds of police officers and family members stood outside a Long Island funeral home, former President Donald J. Trump attended Thursday in the wake of a New York City police officer killed in the line of duty just days earlier.
Afterward, Mr. Trump, who faces four criminal cases, including one in Manhattan due to go to trial in less than three weeks, stood before more than a dozen police officers and proclaimed the need for the country to “return to law and order. “
Mr Trump’s visit with the family of police officer Jonathan Diller, who was fatally shot in a car crash on Monday, was not a campaign event, although he took the opportunity to emphasize his message on crime. He was greeted by the New York police commissioner and then spent about 30 minutes inside the funeral home with Officer Diller’s family, including his widow and 1-year-old son.
Afterwards, as rain poured down outside, Mr. Trump said the officer’s death was a horrible tragedy and, as he often does on the campaign trail, called broadly for cracking down on violent crime without citing specific policies. “All we can say is that maybe something is going to be learned,” Mr Trump said. “We have to tough it out. We have to strengthen it.”
But the former president’s presence in the aftermath reflects a balancing act that has come to define his campaign. Even as Mr. Trump faces 88 felony charges, he has continued to prosecute police officers and cast himself as a tough-on-crime candidate in stark contrast to Democrats whose policies he says encourage violence.
While a somber Mr. Trump did not use the finger-pointing characteristic of his appearances on the trail, his top campaign aides and allies pointed to the contrast between his visit to New York and another made Thursday by President Biden for a fundraiser campaign -Raising event with former presidents Bill Clinton and Barack Obama.
“President Trump will honor Officer Diller’s legacy,” campaign spokesman Stephen Chung said on social media. He added, “Meanwhile, the Big Three — Biden, Obama, and Clinton — will be at a glitzy fundraiser in town with their elitist, unknown celebrity benefactors.”
New York City Mayor Eric Adams, who attended the wake after Mr. Trump, told reporters earlier Thursday that Biden had called him to offer his condolences, which Mr. Adams said he would pass on to the family. The White House told reporters that Mr. Biden also offered his support to the city and its police department.
Since his first election campaign, Mr Trump has portrayed himself as a “law and order” candidate, stoking fears of violent crime and then promoting his unwavering support for the police and their efforts to deal with it.
Even as he faces his criminal charges, he has made unscrupulous support for officials a centerpiece of his bid to regain the White House.
Before Mr. Trump spoke to reporters, a line of police officers, some in uniform and some in plainclothes, deliberately stood behind him. The former president is often photographed with police escorting his motorcade on the campaign trail, and his aides regularly share videos of the interactions on social media to highlight support for the officer.
At the same time, Mr. Trump regularly criticizes liberal prosecutors and Democratic mayors for being ineffective in tackling violent crime, portraying their cities as lawless and dangerous. Such attacks have been politically successful on Long Island, where they have helped Republicans make gains in the 2022 midterm elections.
Mr Trump has focused his ire on the New York district attorney who is prosecuting the former president on charges he falsified business records to cover up hush money payments to a porn star during the 2016 presidential campaign. jury duty in the case is scheduled to begin on April 15.
Across the street from the funeral home, many onlookers trying to catch a glimpse of Mr. Trump expressed anger over progressive policies they said they believed had led to an increase in crime in the country, even as data show crime is falling in the United States.
They pointed to the man accused of killing Officer Diller, Guy Rivera, 34, who was arrested on gun charges last year and has at least 21 prior arrests. Mr. Rivera was charged Thursday with first-degree murder in the shooting.
Deborah Geis, a retired police officer from Massapequa, New York, said Officer Diller was “senselessly murdered by a man who should be in prison.”
Mr. Trump did not specify the specific policies he would implement to prevent deaths like Officer Diller’s. He had previously pushed back on calls for police reform, arguing it would prevent officers from properly fighting crime. On the campaign trail last year, he said shoplifters should be shot.
As part of his speech, Mr. Trump also pledged to help police officers act more freely by indemnifying them from the financial consequences of misconduct lawsuits, legal protections they largely already have.
But even as Mr. Trump professes his faith in police officers, he recently voiced his support for those jailed for their roles during the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on Capitol Hill when a mob of his supporters, spurred on by the lies about the 2020 elections, stormed the police barricades.
Some of these supporters were convicted of brutally attacking local residents and Capitol Police officers.
Corey Kilgannon and Dana Rubinstein contributed to the report.
