When The South Shore Press last spoke to Bob Belonzi, of Shirley, in July, he flaunted a vast sign garden that proudly tested positive for MAGA. His William Floyd Parkway stomping grounds most notably sported a handmade sign reading: “Honk for Trump,’ at the sight of which many drivers by most definitely would.
He also predicted a landslide victory for former President Donald J. Trump in the 2024 General Election.
Nearly three months later, naysayers stand face to face with men like Belonzi saying: “I told you so.”
“I knew it would happen,” Belonzi said over the phone interview while vacationing with partner, Stephanie Barone, in Florida—cracking wise that he made time to speak with The South Shore Press between a busy itinerary as a personal guest of The Donald at Mar-a-lago.
“You could see it; we were in Florida about a month and a half ago after the second assassination attempt. We passed Mar-a-Lago and asked Trump’s security: ‘Is it always like this? And they said, ‘It’s always like this.’ We could see down here, even, that it was over.”
Belonzi and Barone believe Harris stood no chance because she tried to buy the election. “Now everybody is crying: how could this happen? But where’s Chuckie Schumer been for the last 6 months?” Belonzi asks. “He was hiding because he’s supposed to be the biggest Jewish Senator in the Senate, and where is he? He doesn’t even speak up for Israel anymore.”
Back in Shirley, the garden remains as is—with more up-to-date banners soon on their way to serenade Trump’s successful comeback bid to reclaim the presidency he lost to Biden four years ago. The couple’s outer decor will also be accompanied by Christmastime decorations.
Overall, they consider their home a welcomed sight for most of their neighbors—save for one, Barone reveals.
According to Barone, they recently received a letter in the mail that read: “Trump is nothing but a criminal, he’ll never win… give it up… the only place he’s going is jail.”
“They actually mailed it,” Barone clarifies, “with no return address. So we’re thinking about blowing it up poster-size and putting it on the front lawn so they [the mailer] can see it every time they drive by now.”
Though Barone is not crazy about Trump’s name-calling, believing it takes away from the President-elect’s “intelligence and credibility,” she lauds the fact that he directs such at Joe Biden, Nancy Pelosi, and Kamala Harris, “whereas the democrats on the left—their hatred is directed at the American People.”
“‘They’re garbage, they’re un-American if they vote for him… they’re anti-woman and misogynistic,’” Barone recalls liberal leaders would perpetuate. “All these things about the American people? That was their mistake. Anyone who had the gall to not see their point of view, or agree with it… they aimed at the American people, and not necessarily Trump. And that is why they lost.”
When asked about a tweet from Huntington Chamber of Commerce member Jon Cooper—a former Suffolk County Legislature figure who was also the Long Island Campaign Chair for President Obama—declaring he “can’t be friends with ANYONE that voted Trump this time. No exceptions,” Belonzi simply replied: “...what an a—hole.”
“For somebody from Long Island to say, more or less, if he was my friend that he would disown me?
He’s not my friend, what do I care? But you know what? That’s how low they get,” said Belonzi. “ They’re so mad—it’s ridiculous.”
Belonzi notes that after Biden defeated Trump in 2020, he continued to have pro-Biden liberal friends of his over the house for parties. “I asked people when I’d see them before the vote happened: ‘Are you voting?’ ‘Yes.’ I don’t care who you vote for—but you got to vote. If you’re gonna b—tch, you got to vote.”
Though it’s quite clear what will populate Belonzi’s sign garden for the foreseeable future, he looks forward to the day when they may ask passersby to presidentially “Honk for Zeldin.”
“Lee Zeldin is going to be the next Donald Trump,” Belonzi said of the William Floyd High School alum, former NY-01 congressman and fellow Shirley resident who Trump has since announced he would appoint as his Environmental Protection Agency head.