TRUMP’S BODEGA BOOST
Visits thug-slay store
Donald Trump made a post-court visit Tuesday to the Manhattan bodega where clerk Jose Alba stabbed an ex-con to death in self-defense two years ago — a case that drew widespread outrage after he was initially charged with murder — and Big Apple native Trump vowed to “straighten New York out.”
The likely GOP presidential nominee stopped by the Sanaa Convenient Store, formerly known as the Blue Moon Convenient Store, in Hamilton Heights to meet with co-owner Maad Ahmed and small-business advocate Francisco Marte.
Guns for workers
“You should be allowed to have a gun. If you had a gun, you’d never get robbed, you’d never get robbed, that would be the end of it,” Trump told bodega workers.
Ahmed agreed that criminals “would respect the store” if he kept a firearm on hand, and indicated that he would apply for one at Trump’s suggestion.
Alba attorney Rich Cardinale warned Trump, however, that using the weapon could land the workers in the same situation that his client faced in the 2022 incident: “If you use a gun and you’re defending yourself lawfully, you will go to jail.”
While the murder charges against Alba were later dropped — following public pressure — the worker was so traumatized, he returned to the Dominican Republic where he remained on Tuesday, sources said.
When asked by The Post how he would make bodegas safer, Trump said it would boil down to allowing the NYPD to “do their jobs.”
“You have to stop crime and we’re going to let the police do their job. They have to be given back their authority. We’re making a big play New York. I love this city and it’s gotten so bad in the last three years, four years, and we’re going to straighten New York out.”
Trump also skirted questions about his own criminal trial, saying the real crime was happening in bodegas — which he blamed on Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg, who is trying him on hush-money charges.
“Alvin Bragg does nothing, he goes after guys like Trump who did nothing wrong,” Trump said. “Violent killers and murderers . . . there are hundreds of murderers all over the city, they know who they are, and they don’t pick them up. They go after Trump.”