NASSAU COUNTY, NY — President Donald Trump is set to visit Nassau County this week to attend a law enforcement event alongside Nassau County Executive and New York gubernatorial candidate Bruce Blakeman.
In a statement Tuesday, Blakeman said he was "grateful" for the president's visit, which comes almost three months after the president joined 17th-district representative Mike Lawler on stage in Rockland County.
The president has been both a longtime supporter and something of a blueprint for political success for Blakeman, who has won back-to-back elections for County Executive.
Trump endorsed the Nassau County Executive in his race for governor in December, the day after Elise Stefanik dropped out of the race.
"Bruce Blakeman is a FANTASTIC guy, will win the big November Election and, without hesitation, has my Complete and Total Endorsement for Governor of the ONCE GREAT STATE OF NEW YORK (IT CAN BE GREAT AGAIN!)," Trump wrote in a Dec. 20 Truth Social post.
On the policy front, Blakeman and Trump have aligned on several issues including transgender athletic participation and local law enforcement's ability to work alongside ICE.
Trans Athletes: Blakeman Signs First-Of-Its-Kind Order, Trump Signs Orders Of His Own
In February of 2024, Blakeman signed an executive order banning trans athletes from competing in women's sports events held at Nassau County facilities and signing that ban into law five months later.
At the time, Blakeman said on X that the ban was protecting women and girls' "right to compete in sporting events in female leagues WITHOUT biological males bullying their way onto those teams," while Attorney General Letitia James called the policy "transphobic and deeply dangerous."
Six months later, a judge ruled that the county's ban on trans athletes in women's sports could stand while LGBT advocates called the decision a "travesty of justice."
In January and February of 2025, Trump signed a pair of executive orders on trans issues, beginning with executive order 14168, which said it would be "policy of the United States to recognize two sexes, male and female. These sexes are not changeable and are grounded in fundamental and incontrovertible reality."
Two weeks later, the president signed a second executive order saying it would be federal government policy to, "rescind all funds from educational programs that deprive women and girls of fair athletic opportunities, which results in the endangerment, humiliation, and silencing of women and girls and deprives them of privacy."
In January of this year, PIX11 reported that the Department of Justice had opened investigations into a dozen New York City school districts and the Bellmore-Merrick School District over the participation of trans athletes in girls' sports.
ICE
In Nassau County, Trump's repeated pledges to remove undocumented migrants from the country have played out on a local level.
In February of 2025, Blakeman announced that Nassau County police would be cross-designated and embedded with the immigration agency, with 10 NCPD detectives immediately joining the federal program.
Democratic legislators in have accused ICE of racial profiling in Nassau County as far back as last year, while multiple lawsuits have been launched in hopes of having the county's relationship with ICE deemed unlawful. The results of those lawsuits have been mixed, with separate judges finding that the agreement is both lawful and unlawful at different times.
In September of 2025, the federal agency's activity in Nassau County took a tragic turn: 42-year-old Santos Banegas Reyes passed away while in ICE custody.
Where Things Stand Now
In the latest polls, Blakeman trails Gov. Kathy Hochul statewide and among independent voters. Tuesday, The Economist published polls which showed Trump's net approval rating in New York at minus-34. Aug. 3 data from U.S. News & World Report showed that 29 percent of New Yorkers approved of the president's performance while 67 percent disapproved.
Regardless of where current polls say the race stands — or what they say about the president's approval ratings — both Blakeman and Hochul have just under three months to make their case to New York's voters before a Nov. 3 election day.
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