As hundreds of police officers and family members stood outside a Long Island funeral home, former President Donald J. Trump attended on Thursday the wake of a New York City police officer who was killed in the line of duty days earlier.
Then, Mr. Trump, who is facing four criminal cases, including one in Manhattan that is going to trial in less than three weeks, stood in front of more than a dozen police officers and proclaimed the need for the country to “get back to law and order.”
Mr. Trump’s visit with the family of Police Officer Jonathan Diller, who was fatally shot during a traffic stop on Monday, was not a campaign event, though he did take the opportunity to emphasize his message on crime. He was greeted by New York City’s police commissioner, and then spent about 30 minutes inside the funeral home with Officer Diller’s family, including his widow and 1-year-old son.
Afterward, as rain poured down outside, Mr. Trump said the officer’s death was a horrible tragedy and, as he often does on the campaign trail, broadly called for a crackdown on violent crime without mentioning specific policies. “The only thing we can say is maybe something is going to be learned,” Mr. Trump said. “We’ve got to toughen it up. We’ve got to strengthen it up.”
But the former president’s attendance at the wake was reflective of a balancing act that has come to define his campaign. Even as Mr. Trump faces 88 felony charges, he has continued to court police officers and style himself as a tough-on-crime candidate in stark contrast to Democrats whose policies he says encourage violence.
While a somber Mr. Trump did not engage in the finger-pointing typical of his appearances on the trail, his top campaign aides and allies emphasized a contrast between his visit to New York with another being made on Thursday by President Biden for a campaign fund-raising event with former Presidents Bill Clinton and Barack Obama.
