Donald Trump finds a sympathetic crowd in New York’s Harlem neighbourhood

For Moses Hendrix, the first sign that something was afoot in his patch of Harlem was the appearance of the “big white Terminator dudes” a week ago. They were poking around the Sanaa Convenient Store at the corner of 139th Street and Broadway owned by his friend, Maad Ahmed. So he called Ahmed, who let him in on a secret: “Trump’s coming.” “I said: ‘Get the fuck out of here. Why would Trump come here?’” Hendrix recalled. But he did, on Tuesday evening, in an unexpected field trip after the second day of his criminal trial in lower Manhattan.  Sanaa, a bodega not much bigger than a closet, was a focal point of the city’s racially tinged law-and-order angst two years ago after a Latino clerk, Jose Alba, stabbed to death a Black customer who was assaulting him. The clerk was charged with murder and then, after howls of outrage, set free. For the former president, this week’s visit was an opportunity to turn his legal problems into a campaign event. As television cameras and cheering crowds looked on, a tough-talking Trump vowed to “straighten New York out”. It was also an ideal backdrop to restate his claim that Alvin...