Trump fans unfurl 'Never Surrender' banner with his mug shot during 'God Bless America' at Yankee Stadium

Fans of former President Donald Trump unfurled a "Never Surrender" banner with his famous mug shot on it during the singing of "God Bless America" Wednesday at Yankee Stadium in the Bronx; Trump is scheduled to hold a rally Thursday evening in the New York City borough.

The "Never Surrender" banner appears to have been inspired by Trump's post on X from last August, which features his mug shot taken after he surrendered at a Georgia jail on charges he tried to overturn the 2020 presidential election.

'I'm going to make a play for New Yorkers.'

Trump's message underneath his mug shot reads, "ELECTION INTERFERENCE" and "NEVER SURRENDER!" along with his web address. It was Trump's first X post since the social media platform, then known as Twitter, banned him on Jan. 6, 2021, in the wake of the Capitol riots.

An X video shows the banner unfurling from an upper level — and those holding the banner quickly pulled it up when security arrived. The text on the post from the America First Warehouse reads, "Another successful drop @dioncini."

Dion Cini is a Trump supporter and self-proclaimed "professional provocateur" who has attracted controversy in the past while visually supporting Trump. Walt Disney World banned Cini from the park in 2018 for flying pro-Trump signs. A few months later in 2019, a New York City bartender was caught on video kicking out Cini for wearing a red visor displaying the phrase "Make America Great Again" — and the bartender earned a two-week suspension over his "political" actions. Later in 2019 a transgender actor was caught on video fighting Cini over a Trump sign he was holding in New York City.

'Legal version of an ankle bracelet'

Trump’s campaign said Thursday’s rally will take place at 6 p.m. in Crotona Park, which Fox News said is just blocks from the boundary line of far-left Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s district.

Ocasio-Cortez said Trump's rally is happening because of his “legal version of an ankle bracelet," The Hill noted, a reference to the headline-grabbing Stormy Daniels' trial in Manhattan he's required to attend.

“Donald Trump is broke. He needs money. He’s hosting a rally to try to con people and try to fleece them out of every dollar that they have to fund his own legal fees,” Ocasio-Cortez added, according to the outlet. “And by the way, he’s doing it in the South Bronx, not to make a point, but because he’s got court, and the man practically has the legal version of an ankle bracelet around him, and he can’t leave the five boroughs because he always has to be in court. And so it is truly an embarrassment to him.”

WABC-TV reported that labor and civil rights groups are planning to hold a counterrally in the park at the same time; a poster for that events reads, "Trump isn't welcome in the Bronx."

Some residents of the borough beg to differ, telling Fox News they're squarely behind the former president.

'They all want us to run, and we're going to run very hard in New York.'

"Senior citizens cannot walk down the street. Our children are being killed. When you go to a grocery store, you can't even buy anything anymore," Rev. Ruben Diaz Sr., president of New York's Hispanic Clergy Association, told the cable news network. "I’m a Democrat. All my life I've been a Democrat, but Democrats have used us and abused us; they think that they own us. Donald Trump is giving us an opportunity."

Last month, Trump visited the Harlem deli where a worker fatally stabbed an attacker in self-defense in 2022 — and the crowd that greeted Trump turned in a pretty loud "four more years!" A week after that, Trump shook hands and posed for photos with construction workers outside the JP Morgan Chase Building at East 48th Street and Park Avenue, WCBS reported.

"I'm going to make a play for New Yorkers. They said, I just heard, there was a very good poll that came out. Normally, a Democrat will win New York," Trump said at the time, according to the station. "Biden is the worst president in history, we have some very bad people here, but we have the greatest people and they're right behind me. They all want us to run, and we're going to run very hard in New York."

Trump on May 11 held a massive campaign rally on a Wildwood, New Jersey, beach that drew an estimated 80,000 to 100,000 people.

This story has been updated with a correction: The Trump banner was unfurled during the singing of "God Bless America," not during the national anthem.

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