Northeast
Massive Trump beach rally in deep-blue NJ draws stark contrast to Biden's beach weekend: 'Biden could never'
Critics of President Biden are lambasting his beach vacation in Delaware while contrasting the Mother’s Day weekend getaway to former President Trump’s massive rally in the historically blue state of New Jersey on Saturday.
“Supporters camped out overnight at the beach for a Trump rally that starts at 5PM today in Wildwood. Joe Biden can’t fill up a broom closet without staff, media, and angry protesters (sic),” one X user under the name “Bad Hombre” posted Saturday.
Trump held a beachside rally in Wildwood, New Jersey, on Saturday evening as at least 80,000, and up to 100,000 supporters, joined the 45th president in the historically deep-blue state. Simultaneously, 24 miles across Deleware Bay, Biden arrived at his home in Rehoboth Beach for Mother’s Day.
Biden’s trip followed a fundraising event in Seattle, where he was greeted by local leaders such as Democrat Gov. Jay Inslee and Rep. Pramila Jayapal, D-Wash., as well as a group of left-wing anti-Israel protesters holding signs that read “Traitor Genocide Joe Free Palestine” and “Genocide Joe Must Go,” the Seattle Times reported.
TRUMP SUPPORTERS FLOCK TO MASSIVE NEW JERSEY CAMPAIGN RALLY TO HEAR FORMER PRESIDENT SPEAK AMID ONGOING TRIALS
Crowds gather on the beach in Wildwood, New Jersey, for former President Trump’s rally on May 11, 2024. (The Image Direct for Fox News Digital)
As of last fall, Biden was on course to spend about 40% of his presidency on vacation, compared to Trump reportedly spending 26% of his time outside Washington, D.C., when he was in office and President Obama’s reported 11% of vacation time, the New York Post previously reported.
Social media commenters jumped at comparing Trump’s massive rally on the Jersey Shore to Biden spending the weekend at his Delaware beach house.
“Crooked Joe Biden will soon head to his beach house for a weekend of rest. SAD!” RNC Research posted on X in response to a video showing the massive crowds at the South Jersey beach.
NORTH DAKOTA GOV, FORMER PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE DOUG BURGUM FRONT AND CENTER AT TRUMP NEW JERSEY RALLY
Former President Trump’s rally drew tens of thousands to Wildwood, New Jersey, on May 11, 2024. (The Image Direct for Fox News Digital)
“The crowd in Wildwood, NJ keeps growing. People have been camped out and even slept on the beach. Trump is not set to speak until 5pm est today. No one would camp out to meet Biden,” X account The Political Pom posted.
TRUMP DENIES REPORT CLAIMING NIKKI HALEY IS ‘UNDER CONSIDERATION’ FOR VP ROLE: ‘I WISH HER WELL!’
President Biden and first lady Jill Biden relax at Rehoboth Beach, Delaware, on Aug. 2, 2023. (Jim Watson/AFP via Getty Images/File)
“Meanwhile Biden goes on vacation to the beach in Delaware and not a single person is there to rally for him,” another X account posted alongside video of crowds lining the streets in anticipation of Trump.
“CROOKED JOE BIDEN COULD NEVER,” the Trump War Room posted alongside beach footage showing the massive crowd.
TRUMP SUPPORTERS FLOCK TO MASSIVE NEW JERSEY CAMPAIGN RALLY TO HEAR FORMER PRESIDENT SPEAK AMID ONGOING TRIALS
“The crowd in Wildwood, NJ keeps growing,” X account The Political Pom posted. (The Image Direct for Fox News Digital)
“Biden ignores questions as he wraps up a day of fundraising – and heads to the beach for a weekend of rest,” RNC Research posted.
Another X account posed a question for a poll that asked, “80,000 people attended a Trump rally in Wildwood, New Jersey. Could Biden ever get this many people to a rally?”
50 CENT RIPS BIDEN FOR DELAWARE BEACH TRIP AMID ISRAEL-HAMAS WAR: ‘WE GOT SOME REAL S— GOING ON’
On Saturday, Fox News Digital spoke to Trump rally attendees who described happily waiting on the beach for the former president and foreseeing big Trump wins in November.
Large crowds gather on the beach in Wildwood, New Jersey, as they wait for former President Trump to speak at a rally on May 11, 2024. (The Image Direct for Fox News Digital)
“I think this country needs to change, although we already know what Trump’s all about,” said one supporter who identified himself as “Carlos.” “So, that change is just going to come right back to us because that’s what we need. We need Trump because I don’t think Biden is just getting the job done right now. Some of it’s his fault. Some of it is probably the people around him. But I think we need Trump back to get this country back to where it needs to be.”
When asked about Trump’s prospects in November, Carlos pointed to the large crowd and said, “Take a look.”
Former President Trump is shown at his campaign rally in Wildwood, New Jersey, on May 11, 2024. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke)
“There’s probably about six to 7,000 people waiting in line and probably more. [The line] goes all the way back to the entrance. So, you’re looking at 35 to 40,000 people at this venue right now,” he said, noting that some people had been waiting since Thursday for the venue to open.
An attendee named “Lisa,” who traveled from Westchester County, New York, described herself as a “convert” supporter of Trump despite having come from a long line of liberals in her family.
BIDEN BLASTS HOUSE FOR 2-WEEK ‘VACATION’ DESPITE FACING CRITICISM FOR HIS FREQUENT BEACH TRIPS
“It’s just like something overnight shifted in the culture that I didn’t realize,” she said. “I was taking stuff at face value, and the minute the walls came crumbling down, I just started [going] deep into everything.”
Rally attendees describe happily waiting on the beach for the former president and foreseeing big Trump wins in November. (The Image Direct for Fox News Digital)
Trump was joined by New Jersey Republican Rep. Jeff Van Drew, who also left the Democrat Party for the GOP under the Trump administration. He described the Wildwood event as historical for the Garden State.
“This has got to be the biggest political rally in the history of New Jersey,” Rep. Van Drew told the crowd. (The Image Direct for Fox News Digital)
“This has got to be the biggest political rally in the history of New Jersey,” Van Drew told the crowd.
A common theme amid the lengthy rally, which wrapped up around 8 p.m., was the argument that Trump will win the historically deep-blue state come November.
Former President Trump’s rally drew tens of thousands to Wildwood, New Jersey, on May 11, 2024. (The Image Direct for Fox News Digital)
“We’re going to win New Jersey,” the GOP front-runner told the crowd to exuberant cheers.
MIKE HUCKABEE: THE ONLY TIME BIDEN IS WINNING IS ON THE BEACH OR IN HIS BASEMENT
The rally drew Trump supporters from New Jersey, Pennsylvania and New York as well as other states. (The Image Direct for Fox News Digital)
“As you can see today, we’re expanding the electoral map because … we’re going to win the state of New Jersey,” Trump said. “I think we’re going to win them all. All across America, millions of people, so-called blue states, are joining our movement based on love, intelligence and a thing called common sense.”
In addition to New Jerseyans, the rally also drew a large crowd from the key battleground state of Pennsylvania as well as attendees from deep-blue New York and elsewhere.
Trump focused on the economy and inflation through much of the event, highlighting that the prices of everything from hot dogs to chicken and gasoline shot up during the Biden administration.
The rally drew Trump supporters from New Jersey, Pennsylvania and New York as well as other states. (The Image Direct for Fox News Digital)
“The Biden price hikes are continuing to drain over $1,000 from the typical New Jersey family budget every single month,” Trump said.
BIDEN SAYS HE WASN’T ON VACATION WHILE VISITING HOME IN REHOBOTH BEACH, DELAWARE: ‘I CAN’T GO HOME HOME’
“The Biden price hikes are continuing to drain over $1,000 from the typical New Jersey family budget every single month,” Trump told supporters. (Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images)
“On day one, we will throw out Bidenomics, and we will reinstate MAGAnomics,” he said. “And we’re going to bring manufacturing, tourism and other industries back to New Jersey like we’ve never seen before.”
BIDEN SAYS HE HASN’T ‘BEEN ABLE TO BREAK’ FOR EAST PALESTINE VISIT, DESPITE LAKE TAHOE GETAWAY, DE TRIPS
Trump lambasted Biden as a “moron” and the “worst president that we’ve ever had” in comments to the raucous crowd.
“He’s surrendering our college campuses to anarchists, jihadist freaks and anti-American extremists who are trying to tear down our American flag. They want to tear down every single place they go,” Trump said before calling on Biden and the Democratic National Committee “to return the donations of all antisemites, American haters and financiers of chaos on our campuses.”
The Biden campaign referred Fox News Digital to a campaign email titled “‘Juggernaut’ No More – Trump’s Non-Campaign Peddles Desperate Spin” when asked about the rally and criticisms Sunday morning.
“Republicans* are begging for support from Trump’s broke campaign,” the email states. “The calls are coming from inside the GOP. We told you the campaign was broke, understaffed, driving moderate voters away, and can’t build the campaign infrastructure necessary to win 270 electoral votes in November. Republicans across battleground states are saying the same exact thing, and sounding the alarm about the prospects of the Trump campaign.”
The massive and potentially historic rally in New Jersey comes as Trump continues his trial in New York City, where he faces 34 counts of falsifying business records. The former president has denied all charges against him. Trump, who is under a gag order amid the trial, has repeatedly slammed the case as a “scam” promoted by the Biden administration ahead of the general election.
Fox News Digital’s Andrew Mark Miller and Bradford Betz contributed to this report.
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Mayor Zohran Mamdani is floating a plan to delay payments into New York City’s municipal pension funds — his latest effort to stave off service cuts and a property tax increase as he grapples with a multibillion-dollar budget gap.
The plan, which the mayor’s team has presented to the administration of Gov. Kathy Hochul, could save the city at least $1 billion in the upcoming fiscal year, according to a person familiar with the discussions, and would be unlikely to affect pension payments for current retirees.
Mr. Mamdani’s team said it has yet to iron out the details. Any cost-cutting plan would most likely involve extending the deadline for the city to meet its long-term pension obligations beyond 2032, when it is scheduled to be up-to-date on its payments.
“While our administration has not yet put forward a specific proposal, we are actively assessing options for pension amortization,” Mr. Mamdani’s spokesman, Joe Calvello, said.
Similar proposals have drawn opposition from unions and fiscal watchdogs, with one leading budget expert warning they merely delay the city’s fiscal responsibility to avoid meaningful reductions in spending.
“The city is on a path to correct past fiscal mistakes and properly fund its pension obligations,” said Andrew Rein, president of the Citizens Budget Commission, a watchdog group. “It shouldn’t reverse course and stretch this out and make our children pay even more of our bills.”
One iteration of this proposal, presented this month by Julie Menin, speaker of the City Council, projected more than $1.2 billion in savings annually. An effort pushed unsuccessfully by former Mayor Eric Adams last year would have reduced costs by an estimated $1.3 billion in its first year.
Any delay to pension payments would need the approval of Ms. Hochul, who declined to comment.
Pension payments present a continuing liability for the city, which has a large unionized work force that has historically negotiated attractive retirement packages. The city’s total obligation to the five municipal pension systems for existing benefits, through 2032, amounts to $38.9 billion, according to data from the Citizens Budget Commission.
In 2013, under then-Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg and Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo, the city reformed its mandated pension payments following a drop in the assumed rate of return to 7 percent from 8 percent. That reduction meant the city had to pay more money upfront, creating a roughly $60 billion unfunded mandate. To address that, city and state leaders agreed to stretch out payments for future bills through 2032, at which point the added obligation was expected to be paid off.
The costs related to that change account for more than half of the city’s $10.5 billion pension expense this year, according to Ms. Menin’s office — a liability that is likely to grow.
Further delaying pension payments would significantly help Mr. Mamdani as he grapples with a $5.4 billion deficit through June 2027, which he has sought to reverse with risky and unpopular proposals, like raiding the city’s reserves and raising property taxes. He is also pushing Ms. Hochul to increase income taxes on wealthy residents, a proposal that is popular among Democratic state lawmakers but unlikely to get her backing. And he is asking her for more state aid to plug the hole as he navigates his first budget as mayor.
He is expecting to cut $1.3 billion from the current deficit by not expanding a housing voucher program and delaying, with Ms. Hochul’s blessing, a requirement to reduce school class sizes.
The plan backed by Mr. Adams, which Ms. Hochul tried to advance last year, ran into opposition from unions. Officials representing the pension fund for the United Federation of Teachers specifically raised flags about the Adams administration’s ability to carry out the plan, given concerns about the competency of the mayor, who was then under indictment, according to someone familiar with the matter.
Mr. Calvello said that the options being discussed were “distinct from the approach previously advanced by the Adams administration.”
Presidents of the city’s largest public-sector unions, Henry Garrido of District Council 37 and Michael Mulgrew of the teachers’ union, declined to comment on this development.
Mr. Rein urged city officials to consider other approaches to addressing the budget crisis.
“The city’s fiscal problem is a self-inflicted spending affordability crisis,” he said. “The best way to deal with that is to increase spending that works but eliminate spending that doesn’t improve New Yorkers’ life.”
A spokesman for Ms. Menin said she would review the mayor’s proposal when it reaches her desk. She is responsible for negotiating the city’s $127 billion budget with the mayor before it takes effect on July 1.
Mark Levine, the city’s comptroller, called Mr. Mamdani’s nascent proposal “a prudent step.”
“But the once-in-a-generation short-term savings this generates must be used wisely,” Mr. Levine added, “both to support the civil servants who pay into the system and to strengthen the city’s resilience against future fiscal and economic shocks, not as a way to avoid addressing our structural budget challenges.”
Brockton’s Moyzilla food truck offers up Asian comfort food on the go
Moyzilla is a jewel of MA food trucks. Founded by Jon Moy — son of Brockton culinary royalty — it offers Asian comfort food from Brockton to Boston.
Looking for a new marketplace to shop at this spring? You’re in luck – Boston is home to one of the best public markets in the country, according to USA TODAY 10BEST Readers’ Choice Awards.
The annual 10BEST awards highlight the best in travel, food and lifestyle, and winners are chosen by a public voting poll after being nominated by industry experts. In the 2026 food awards, highlighting the top food tours, food cruises, farmers markets and more from across the country, Boston Public Market ranked third in the best public market category.
Here’s what to know before you go to Boston’s top-ranked public market.
Why Boston Public Market ranked third
A year-round indoor marketplace in Downtown Boston, Boston Public Market celebrates the bounty New England has to offer with fresh groceries, prepared meals, crafts and specialty items from over 30 local artisans and food producers, with a focus on seasonal items.
Along with browsing through groceries and goods, guests are invited to join the public market for a variety of special events, including trivia, live music, magic shows and face painting.
Boston Public Market is located at 100 Hanover St. on the Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy Greenway, directly above the Haymarket MBTA station. Hours are 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Sunday, 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday and Tuesday or 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. Wednesday through Saturday.
What other markets made the list?
Here is USA TODAY’s full ranking of the top 10 public markets in the country:
- Reading Terminal Market – Philadelphia, PA
- Milwaukee Public Market – Milwaukee, WI
- Boston Public Market – Boston, MA
- Eastern Market – Detroit, MI
- West Side Market – Cleveland, OH
- Essex Market – New York City, NY
- Lancaster Central Market – Lancaster, PA
- Midtown Global Market – Minneapolis, MN
- Grand Central Market – Los Angeles, CA
- North Market Downtown – Columbus, OH
Pittsburg, PA
50 Leaders Give Their Rx for Pittsburgh Mayor Corey O’Connor, Pt. VII – Pittsburgh Quarterly
Mark Opitz, Managing Partner, Morgan, Lewis & Bockius Pittsburgh
Pittsburgh stands at a promising moment of civic reinvention, with an opportunity to build on its leadership in AI, robotics, and advanced innovation to create a more vibrant urban future. A key priority for the mayor could be strengthening confidence in Downtown by continuing its evolution from a 9-to-5 employment center into a mixed-use neighborhood that attracts workers, residents, students, and visitors throughout the entire week.
To advance that vision, the mayor should give consideration to public safety, cleanliness, and mobility, along with creative reuse of underutilized office space for housing, emerging companies, and cultural activity. Equally important is sending a clear, consistent signal that Pittsburgh welcomes investment and partnership. Regulatory predictability, efficient approvals, and strong collaboration among the city, employers, institutions, and neighboring communities can help align development with market realities. By pairing economic ambition with quality of life, the city’s leadership can position Downtown — and the city — as confident, innovative, and open for growth.
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