Rallying in his birth state of New York, a Democratic stronghold that has not picked a Republican for president in 40 years, former President Donald Trump boasted that he will "save" the Empire State if elected again — and despite the long odds, boasted that he will carry the state in November's election.

"What do you have to lose?" Trump asked a roaring crowd gathered in Nassau Coliseum on Long Island.

Despite the state's reliably blue leanings, Long Island -- the country's largest and most densely populated island, home to an estimated 8 million -- has shifted toward Republicans in recent years, with all four of its congressional districts flipping red in the 2022 midterms, helping Republicans carry the House of Representatives. One seat, initially won by George Santos, has already flipped back blue after his ouster from Congress, and Democrats have their sights set on clawing back some of their losses on the island.

But for Republicans' gains in some parts of the state, they weren't able to unseat Democratic Gov. Kathy Hochul in 2022, nor has the state picked a Republican for president since Ronald Reagan in 1984.

Those historical trends don't appear to be deterring Trump, however, who said he came to town because "we are going to win New York."

"That’s the first time in many, many years that a Republican can honestly say it, and we’re going to do it," he said. "We have to do it. We do it, and the election nationwide is over. We take over the White House and we fix up our country."

Trump leaned heavily on an alarmist message on immigration as he held a rally in Uniondale, focusing the bulk of his remarks on the subject.

"We're just destroying the fabric of life in our country. And we're not going to take it any longer. And you got to get rid of these people. Give me a shot," Trump said.

The former president drew a large, roaring crowd, giving him a chance to show deep support even in a blue state.

He ripped into Democratic leadership in New York City and state, blaming them for homeless people living in what he called "horrible, disgusting, dangerous, filthy encampments," and even the conditions on the New York City subway, which he called "squalid and unsafe" and promised to renovate.

"What the hell do you have to lose?" he said in asking for their votes.

Before heading out to the suburbs, Trump stopped at a Bitcoin cafe in New York City. Trump has recently embraced cryptocurrency and on Monday night helped launch his family's new cryptocurrency venture.

Trump has focused on immigration as a top campaign issue and made it a key focus of his remarks Wednesday.

"Look at what's happening," he told his crowd in New York. "Businesses that are fleeing, money draining out of your state and hundreds of thousands of illegal migrants sucking your public resources dry."

Trump also sought to make a point with his economic pledges on Thursday. During a stretch of promises — including his continued championing of tariffs as a mechanism for urging factories to build in America and repetition of promises to end taxes on tipped income and Social Security benefits — Trump added a new one: promising a temporary cap on credit card interest rates "while working Americans catch up."

"We're going to cap it at around 10% — we can't let them make 25% and 30%," Trump said, though he provided no further information.

The former president also pledged to make the Ground Zero site at the World Trade Center "a national monument, protected and maintained by the United States government, so that hallowed ground and the memory of those who perished there will be preserved for all time, preserved forever."

Trump said he plans in the next two weeks to visit Springfield, Ohio, which has been the center of false accusations from the former president and his running mate JD Vance that members of the city's Haitian community are abducting and eating cats and dogs. Trump also said he plans to visit Aurora, Colorado, where he says a Venezuelan street gang with a small presence in the city has taken over a rundown apartment complex. Aurora police say that's not the case.

He has an advantage over Harris in opinion polling on whom voters trust to better handle the issue.

Meanwhile, the Teamsters labor union declined to endorse either Harris or Trump, saying neither had sufficient support from its 1.3 million members.

Harris had met Monday with a panel of Teamsters, having long courted organized labor and made support for the middle class her central policy goal. Trump met earlier in the year with a panel of Teamsters, and its president, Sean O'Brien, spoke at his invitation at the Republican National Convention.

Trump's rally Wednesday night was in Uniondale, an area that could be key to Republicans maintaining control of the House. His party is trying to protect 18 Republicans in Democratic-heavy congressional districts that Joe Biden carried in 2020, particularly in coastal New York and California, and going on offense to challenge Democrats elsewhere.

Long Island in particular features one of the most closely watched races, between first-term Republican Rep. Anthony D'Esposito and Democrat Laura Gillen. D'Esposito is a former New York Police detective who won in 2022 in a district that Biden won by about 15 percentage points in 2020.

Trump posted Tuesday on his Truth Social platform that the GOP has "a real chance of winning" New York "for the first time in many decades." In that same post, Trump also pledged that he would "get SALT back," suggesting he would eliminate a cap on state and local tax deductions that were part of tax cut legislation he signed into law in 2017.

The so-called SALT cap has led to bigger tax bills for many residents of New York, New Jersey, California and other high-cost, high-tax states, and is an important campaign issue in those states, particularly among those New York Republicans serving in districts Biden won.

Trump is attempting to return to his campaign cadence after Sunday's apparent assassination attempt as he golfed in Florida. On Tuesday, he traveled to Flint, Michigan, and has not appeared to alter plans for upcoming trips to the nation's capital and North Carolina later in the week.

His running mate, Ohio Sen. JD Vance, held an event in Raleigh, North Carolina, on Wednesday.