The Big Apple is a bad apple — the message came again and again at the Republican National Convention, where New York City’s warped depiction as a Democrat-led dystopia served to scare.

“New Yorkers wonder, how did we get overwhelmed by crime so quickly and decline so fast? Don’t let Democrats do to America what they have done to New York!” former Mayor Rudy Giuliani said.

“The Republican Party condemns the rioting, looting, arson and violence we have seen in Democrat-run cities like Kenosha, Minneapolis, Portland, Chicago, and New York," President Trump said.

In New York, murders, burglaries, and shootings are up this year compared to last.

But overall, crime is down.

And major crime last year under Mayor de Blasio was 41 percent lower than in 2001, Giuliani’s final year as mayor.

The GOP convention spotlighted the instances of anti-police brutality protests turned violent — rather than the largely peaceful Black Lives Matter movement for racial justice.

Nuance was neglected by Trump and surrogates who used New York to warn against electing Joe Biden.

“I have been a New York City police officer for 36 years. I’ve never seen our streets go this bad so quickly," said NYPD Police Benevolent Association president Pat Lynch.

“From Seattle and Portland to Washington and New York, Democrat-run cities across this country are being overrun by violent mobs," South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem said. "The violence is rampant.”

De Blasio himself was used as a bogeyman and featured in videos like one lauding Trump’s support of NYCHA.

“I would really hate to get started on this mayor," Carmen Quinones, tenant association president of Frederick Douglass Houses, said in the video.

“Bill de Blasio and the way he has dealt with public housing residents is disgraceful," said Carmen Perez, resident council president of Washington Houses.

In an interview with the New York Times, several of the residents who appeared in the video said they were tricked. They said they were interviewed about de Blasio and NYCHA but didn’t know their interviews would be used in an RNC video. This was not unlike two immigrants naturalized by Trump at the White House during the RNC. They said they didn’t know they would be naturalized as part of the convention.

At his own party’s convention, the mayor had no speaking role and his failed bid for president wasn’t acknowledged in a montage of Biden’s primary-rivals-turned-boosters.

On Friday, de Blasio responded to Trump and Giuliani’s remarks, calling them overtly racist.

“It’s opposition to the idea of New York City as a place where people of all backgrounds can find mutual respect," he said on WNYC Radio. "It’s opposition to progressive policies that believe it’s not just about arresting people and throwing them into jail, but actually finding safety with the community. We represent everything they hate.”

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