Blakeman doubles down on his Trump act
Less than three months to Election Day, Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman's parroting of President Donald Trump's style is still revving up. Credit: Newsday / J. Conrad Williams Jr.
Bruce Blakeman became a kind of Donald Trump “Mini-Me” well before the Nassau County executive was anointed this year’s GOP nominee to challenge Gov. Kathy Hochul.
Blakeman doesn’t resemble the Republican Party’s national ruler in voice, physical appearance or social habits. But he adapts the president’s script — the abrasive hyperbole against critics and Democrats, the framing of contentious cultural issues, and self-promoting governing style.
Two years ago, Blakeman threw shade at a Republican Long Island judge who voided the executive’s order barring transgender females from girls’ and women’s sports events at county facilities. State Supreme Court Justice Francis Ricigliano, a Republican, had simply ruled that Blakeman “acted beyond the scope of his authority” without getting approval from the county legislature.
As if channeling Trump, Blakeman baselessly blasted a “lack of courage from a judge who did not want to decide the case on its merits.” Blakeman said he’d appeal — “without much faith in the Appellate Division applying the law without far-left doctrine being used to undermine women’s sports.”
The rant was hollow because weeks later a compliant GOP-run county legislature approved the measure.
Less than three months to Election Day, Blakeman’s parroting of the Trump style is still revving up. This week his lawyers even claimed in court that to have him deposed before November in a lawsuit over his armed deputy program was a bid to aid Hochul.
And last week, Blakeman refused to say if he’d accept the results of the November election, and declared through news media: “Kathy Hochul, if you try to cheat, people are going to jail.”
Stirring suspicion about balloting is as reflexive for MAGA extremists as saying “bless you” after a sneeze. Like Trump, Blakeman absurdly expressed these destabilizing doubts shortly after winning an election.
“What Would Donald Do” could be the title of a campaign guide.
Blakeman uses artificial intelligence campaign ads that could mislead the gullible about Hochul’s positions. He isn’t posing as a god so far, though one video did portray him as Superman. In the above instance, Hochul’s camp shot back with a bit of Trump-like name play by calling him “Bruce Fakeman.”
In the past Blakeman might have been considered unlikely to point fingers at people on public assistance. In June, however, he slammed the notion of paying for daycare for “lazy ass” unemployed parents who “watch ‘The View’ or cartoons.”
“That ain’t happening with me as governor,” he vowed in a Buffalo TV interview. For perspective: That odd imagery doesn’t compete with Trump’s bizarre undocumented claim in a 2024 presidential debate that migrants in Springfield, Ohio, were eating residents’ pets.
All the abrasive talk might be acceptable to stalwart Republicans. The obvious strategic question is whether Blakeman’s campaign can win over any of the millions of New York voters — Democrats and independents — who have been averse to joining the decade-old Trump parade.
Recent polls suggest fewer than 1 in 3 New York State voters approve nowadays of Trump’s performance. Blakeman is trailing in his race. It’s probably too late for him to distance himself from Trump anyway.
Some insiders doubt that Blakeman will resume his day job in Mineola full time if he comes up short for governor. If he loses, maybe he’d be invited to join the administration.
Blakeman has said of the president, “I will always have his back.” Is the commitment mutual?
Columnist Dan Janison’s opinions are his own.
Dan Janison is a member of the Newsday editorial board.
