Trump reflects on childhood in Queens during rambling press briefing
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President Donald Trump reminisced on some boyhood memories in Queens during a press conference on Tuesday. AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson
By Ryan Schwach
President Donald Trump reminisced about his childhood in Queens during a nearly two-hour press briefing he gave on Tuesday.
Trump, who was born and raised in the borough, talked about his memory of the Creedmoor Psychiatric Center as a kid, while also bragging about his alleged skills on the baseball diamond.
“I used to play Little League Baseball there, a place called Cunningham Park,” said Trump, who may have been actually referring to Alley Pond Park, which is closer to Creedmoor. “I was quite the baseball player. You wouldn't believe it.”
He added that his mother told him he could have gone pro.
“I said, ‘Thanks, Mom,’” Trump said.
The tangent about his baseball career in Queens came after he mentioned his efforts to eliminate cash bail laws. He then began to discuss sanctuary city laws and mental health institutions like Creedmoor.
“Cashless bail is where it all started,” he said. “It's a disaster. I don't know if it started in New York. I remember it starting in New York.”
He said that he also signed an executive order to “bring back mental institutions and insane asylums,” like the one he remembers from his youth.
“In my area, in Queens, I grew up in Queens, we had a place called Creedmoor,” he said.
The president said he asked his mom why there were bars on the windows of the facility.
“Big building, big, powerful building,” he remembered. “It loomed over the park.”
He said his Mom told him that people were “very sick” in the building.
After reflecting on his hometown, he threatened to deprive it and the rest of New York City of federal funds as a result of its sanctuary city laws.
“I hope our people know that we're not going to pay sanctuary cities,” he said. “We're not going to pay them anymore. They are sanctuary for criminals. They hold criminals, we're not going to pay, they can sue us, and maybe they'll win, but we're not giving money to sanctuary cities anymore.”
Creedmoor Psychiatric Center, while smaller than it was when Trump was growing up in Queens, still stands.
The area around it however is slated for a massive redevelopment, which Governor Kathy Hochul approved last year.
The plan includes the construction of what would amount to an entirely new community in the generally quiet Eastern Queens neighborhood. It would include 2,022 new homes and over 10 acres of open space, new community facilities, retail space, a public school, a childcare center and a senior center.
