President Donald Trump leaves the OnCenter stage. Credit: Mike Greenlar | Central Current

As President Donald Trump began his speech in Syracuse, he singled out a woman in the crowd. He first traversed a well-worn schtick, now a feature of his campaign rallies. 

He said he could not call her beautiful because it would kill his political career before doing just that. She wore a black shirt that read “GOLDEN AGE OF AMERICA” with matching gold leggings. The phrase became the refrain of his 90-minute speech. He repeatedly proclaimed he had and would lead the “golden age of our country.” 

“Less than two years ago, the radical left Democrats handed us the dark age of our country,” Trump said, “but now we’ve quickly turned the dark age into the golden age of America. Despite all the obstruction from the radical left, our nation is doing better now than it ever has before.” 

President Donald Trump supporters react to the music in the OnCenter on Friday, October 9, 2026. People from all over the country came to hear the president speak in Syracuse. The visit was Trump’s first to Central New York in 10 years. Trump’s visit was meant to support the campaign of gubernatorial candidate Bruce Blakeman, who is hoping to upset Gov. Kathy Hochul in November.

At 25 points throughout the speech, Trump claimed America was living through historical records. Among other things, he claimed: the poverty rate had reached its lowest level in history; the employment rate was the highest in history; he had inherited the worst border in history but now it was the best in history; he had support like no other president had ever seen. 

That became Trump’s pitch for himself to his fans but also for New York gubernatorial candidate Bruce Blakeman, the Nassau County executive who is running against Gov. Kathy Hochul. Blakeman was ostensibly the reason Trump was in Syracuse, but many of the speakers and audience members were much more focused on Trump than Blakeman.Trump used his own name six times more often than he used Blakeman’s in the speech. 

The OnCenter was transformed on Friday night as MAGA fans packed in to see Donald Trump take center stage in Syracuse. The conference center was draped in American flag bunting. A 30-by-60-foot American flag stretched to the ceiling, tall enough that most heads reached only to its third stripe.

No one could answer how many folding chairs were set up, but one OnCenter employee said the number was rumored to be around 6,700. The seats closest to Trump were assigned. Signs to hold were laid out on the chairs with slogans like “no tax on tips” and “no tax on social security.” 

This was Trump’s third rally with Blakeman in New York State this year. It also marked Trump’s second time at the OnCenter — he held a rally here during his first campaign in 2016. 

By 11 a.m., four hours before doors to the event opened, around a hundred people were waiting in line outside the conference center. Many were dressed in MAGA gear, many with hats signed by prominent politicians or musicians associated with the movement. 

Stands selling Trump merch were set up just outside of the security barricades. A large sign told people to vote on Nov. 3 and showed QR codes linking to people for MAGA majority force and to protect the vote. 

People moved in and out of line to look at merchandise and talk to their friends. They called the names of friends and people they knew from following Trump around to other rallies.

“I’ve done so many rallies. We all do it,” said Slim LaVelle, a Pennsylvania native who told Central Current he’d left home at 2 a.m. to see Trump for the 40th time in 10 years. “It’s kind of like a family.” 

LaVelle was hoping to hear Trump say the country was on the right path. He wanted the president to address the doubts that had crept into the movement — even as he responded to his own doubts by rationalizing Trump’s positions. 

LaVelle was not certain about the Iran war, but he trusted it had to happen, he said. He said he was proud of the MAGA base for being patient. 

He said he was bothered sometimes when Trump said he was not concerned by how people were affected by rising prices due to the war. (Trump denounced his own responsibility for the country’s affordability crisis. “Democrats suddenly want to talk about affordability,” Trump said during the rally. “They’re the ones that caused the affordability crisis.”)

LaVelle said he saw why Trump said that: he was laser-focused on finishing the Iran War. Fixing the prices would come later. 

“I hope that he just says it in a more reassuring, loving way. I love when President Trump is compassionate and loving,” said LaVelle. “When he shows that side, he doesn’t have to bully or fight back. He shows the compassion inside him. That’s the Trump that we love.” 

His sentiment was echoed by other people in the crowd. Four people told Central Current that while gas prices were hurting, they knew to be patient — they’d come down as soon as the war ended. Many of them told Central Current that they liked that Trump always did what he said he was going to do: cracking down on immigration, keeping Iran from getting a nuclear weapon and cutting taxes on tips. 

In his speech, Trump did not talk much about gas prices. He mentioned the subject briefly, telling the gathered crowd that gas prices should already be coming down. He claimed he had taken Venezuela back; he had full control of the Strait of Hormuz; more oil was moving through the strait than ever had before; and Russia had promised to send millions of barrels of diesel, he said.

Instead of talking about prices at the pump, he focused on New York State energy bills, pointing out that NYSEG bills had risen dramatically in the last year. He blamed the rise on Kathy Hochul’s environmental policies. 

Bringing his “drill, baby, drill” message to Syracuse, Trump compared New York State to Ohio and Pennsylvania, imagining that they were cars. One was a cadillac, one was an escalade, and one was a fifty-year old Chevy. 

“One has some beautiful drilling plants, and one has no drilling plant,” Trump said. “It’s got no money. It’s got poverty. What they’ve done to this state is unbelievable.” 

He returned again and again to the subject of New York’s natural gas. If they could just drill the Marcellus Shale, he said, energy prices would go down immediately. He promised that if Blakeman were elected, energy prices would go down by 70 to 90 percent. 

Trump told the crowd that New York had the highest tax rate in the country. (It has the third-highest.) He emphasized that he had already cut taxes on Americans and given New Yorkers tax relief. Blakeman would cut taxes further, he said.

Trump called both the state and the city “filthy, dirty places” and said that they were chasing out their taxpayers. 

“This is not the state I remember 10 years ago when I went to Washington D.C. to be your president,” Trump said.

He told his fans that companies were leaving the New York stock exchange to go to Texas. At another point, he told them that companies were leaving Texas and “O Canada” to come to New York. He highlighted Micron. 

Trump’s most extensive comment on the Iran war was in the context of the Nobel Peace Prize, which was awarded earlier that day to Navi Pillay, a human rights lawyer who spent much of her career at the United Nations. For ten minutes, he complained that he had not received the what he called the “forever discredited” prize.

Trump proclaimed that he had stopped eight wars around the world: naming Armenia-Azerbaijan, India-Pakistan and the war in Gaza as examples. He said he’d soon add two more: the war in Ukraine and the war in Iran. 

“Iran will be settled very quickly,” Trump said. “Either they give us everything or they won’t exist anymore.” 

He also said that he had built a soon-to-be prosperous Arctic. “By the way, I got Greenland,” he added. (He has not gotten Greenland.) 

At least four protesters were escorted out by police during the talk. As one was forced out, Trump asked if they were a friend or an enemy.

When Trump was done talking, after he’d asked God to bless America, danced to YMCA, and promised to make America powerful again, wealthy again, healthy again, strong again, proud again, safe again, and great again, he left the stage. The crowd filed out almost immediately. 

Filling up the parking lot, they cheered, “USA! USA!” and proclaimed that they could take any protestors. As they walked away, Born in the USA played quietly from the OnCenter. 

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Laura Robertson is a staff reporter covering Onondaga County. Prior to joining Central Current, she lived on the edge of the Bering Strait in Nome, Alaska, where she worked as a reporter for a year. She...