NEW YORK — Republican Rep. Mike Lawler on Friday rallied alongside President Donald Trump in suburban Rockland County amid the president’s plunging approval ratings over the shaky economy and bipartisan opposition to his plans for a $1.8 billion fund that could benefit convicted Jan. 6 attackers and $1 billion for a glitzy White House ballroom.

“You’re lucky to have him in this community, I can tell you,” said Trump, lauding Lawler to a cheering crowd in Suffern. “My motto was promises made, promises kept.”

Lawler, who is one of just three GOP congressmen elected in districts that Trump lost in 2024, says he wants to spotlight Republican success in expanding the deduction for state and local taxes, or SALT, which is a major issue in the affluent Westchester County-based NY-17 district.

The self-proclaimed Republican moderate hopes to keep the backing of the right-wing MAGA base that is sticking by Trump despite the gloomy polls among the wider electorate and especially in swing districts like Lawler’s turf.

“The people who hate the president, and that’s their sole basis for their vote, are likely never voting for me,” Lawler said. “And obviously, you need to turn out your base, and you need people energized.”

Democrats have mocked Lawler’s bear hug for Trump, saying it’s a huge mistake in the purple district that is home to many highly educated voters and working-class people who are struggling with rising prices and a shaky economy as the summer vacation season looms.

“The things Donald Trump is pushing New Yorkers hate,” Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-New York, said. “All he can talk about is his stupid ballroom costing taxpayers a billion dollars and his slush fund costing nearly $2 billion that he’d give away to his corrupt friends.”

Lawler, a two-term lawmaker, won reelection to Congress in 2024 by a 6% margin while Trump lost to Kamala Harris by less than 1% in the district, which stretches from White Plains into the lower Hudson Valley.

The other two Republicans in districts Harris won have sought to spotlight their criticism of Trump. Rep. Mike Fitzpatrick, R-Pennsylvania, has attracted Trump’s ire by frequently breaking with the White House as a way of highlighting his independent streak in his suburban district near Philadelphia.

But Lawler has chosen to embrace Trump even as the polarizing president’s approval ratings drop to historically low levels.

Trump and Lawler plan to boast about tax breaks, but voters give Republicans poor marks on the economy. Gasoline prices and grocery prices have surged this year due to the war in Iran.

“If Lawler wants to tie himself even more tightly to Trump’s corruption, extremism, and economic failures, Democrats are happy to make November’s race a referendum on exactly that,” said Shannon Powell, a co-founder of the progressive Westchester Indivisible group.

Trump established a $10,000 cap on SALT deduction in his signature 2017 tax cut. Last year’s Big Beautiful Bill law expanded the SALT deduction to $40,000 after arduous negotiations with Republicans, including Lawler, whose district has high local taxes.

Lawler faces no serious opposition in the June 23 GOP primary.

Five Democrats are vying for the party’s nomination to compete against Lawler in what is sure to be a marquee race in the midterms as Democrats seek to retake the House and put the brakes on Trump’s agenda.

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