Anger and vitriol took center stage at New York’s Madison Square Garden on Sunday night. Donald Trump and a cabal of campaign surrogates held a rally featuring racist remarks, crude insults and dangerous threats against immigrants.
Nine days after the election, President Trump used a rally in New York to repeat his claim that he was fighting an “enemy within” and, amid an incoherent discussion about ending the phone call, to say, “It’s the worst in American history.” He reiterated his promise to launch the largest deportation program yet. He was with “some very important people” so he could watch Elon Musk’s rocket land.
The event at Madison Square Garden in the heart of Manhattan drew comparisons to the infamous Nazi rally held at the same arena in 1939. Kamala Harris’ running mate, Tim Walz, said there were “direct parallels” between the two events. And on Sunday, the Democratic National Committee projected an image outside the building repeating claims by Trump’s former chief of staff that Trump “praised Hitler.”
The hours-long rally had an admittedly dark tone, with one speaker describing Puerto Rico, home to 3.2 million Americans, as a “garbage island.” Tucker Carlson mocked Harris’ racial identity. A radio host described Hillary Clinton as a “terrible bastard.” And a crucifix-wielding childhood friend of President Trump declared Harris the “Antichrist.”
Puerto Rican comments by Tony Hinchliffe, a podcaster with a history of racist comments, were quickly criticized by the Harris-Waltz camp. Ricky Martin, a Puerto Rican pop star with more than 18 million followers on Instagram, wrote in a post: Please vote for @KamalaHarris. ”
“This joke does not reflect the views of President Trump or his campaign,” Trump campaign spokesman Daniel Alvarez said in a statement.
But that could be an issue in Pennsylvania, where the majority of the battleground state’s 580,000 eligible Latino voters are of Puerto Rican descent. Both campaigns are trying to appeal to Latino voters in the final weeks of the campaign, with Harris visiting a Puerto Rican restaurant in Philadelphia early Sunday where she outlined plans to introduce an Economic Opportunity Task Force for Puerto Rico. .
Trump’s combative tone remained as he began his speech, and he quickly reiterated his promise to “initiate the largest deportation program in American history.”
President Trump has continued his frequent rants about immigration, claiming that “violent Venezuelan prison gangs” have “taken over Times Square,” which will surprise anyone who has recently visited the New York landmark. The former president also incorrectly stated that the Biden administration did not have the funds to respond to the recent hurricanes in North Carolina because it “spent all of its resources to bring in illegal immigrants and send them in in beautiful jets.”
Trump’s usual dystopian threats came as the 78-year-old expanded on his claims about the “enemy within” – a group of political opponents he has said he would deploy the military to if elected president.
“We’re not running against Kamala. I think a lot of the politicians here tonight know this. She doesn’t mean anything, she’s purely a vessel. That’s what she’s all about,” President Trump said.
“We are fighting something much bigger than Joe and Kamala and much more powerful than them: the huge, vicious radical left organizations that run today’s Democratic Party. They are just vessels. .”
Trump to Madison Square Garden, home of the New York Knicks and Rangers and venue for countless legendary acts, including Elvis Presley, Michael Jackson, and John Lennon’s final concert appearances before their murders. The president’s appearance marks the culmination of his unique love-hate affair with President Trump. City of birth. This is his third rally here this year, despite the fact that he has no chance of winning in New York (FiveThirtyEight tracking poll shows Harris with a 15-point lead).
In May, he made a bold attempt to woo black and Latino voters in the South Bronx, just a few miles from his childhood home in Queens. Then, in September, we went camping on Long Island, a suburb of New York City.
It’s unclear what President Trump intends to do with this seemingly pointless campaign trilogy. He uses his rambling speech to take a nostalgic stroll, recalling the golden days of his life as a New York real estate mogul.
But he has also painted New York City in its darkest dystopian terms, as a rat-infested haven where drug addicts, gangsters and “illegal aliens” live in luxury apartments while veterans tremble on the sidewalks. . His harmful language is probably a reflection of his resentment towards the city where he was born and raised. The city convicted him of 34 felonies in a separate court, found his company, the Trump Organization, guilty of criminal tax evasion and found him personally responsible for sexual abuse.
On Sunday, President Trump again criticized his hometown, claiming the Biden administration has forced “hundreds of thousands of very rough people” into the city, even though police say crime is down. However, he told the New Yorker: Everything is on the roof. ”
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A belligerent atmosphere was set in the early afternoon, with some of the opening speakers making obscene and hateful remarks.
Hinchcliffe’s comments about Puerto Rico (he also made lewd sexual innuendos about Latina women) drew loud laughter from the crowd. Radio personality Sid Rosenberg’s comment that Hillary Clinton is a “terrible bastard” was similarly well-received, as was Rosenberg’s claim that “fucking illegals get everything they want.” It was.
Republican politician David Rehm, who the Trump campaign describes as a childhood friend of the former president, drew loud cheers when he called Harris the “devil” and “antichrist.” Lem then takes a cross from his pocket and announces that he is running for mayor of New York.
As soon as President Trump announced his intention to hold a rally at Madison Square Garden days before the election, critics were quick to point out historical similarities to one of the most infamous events in New York history. I jumped on it. On February 20, 1939, just seven months before Germany invaded Poland, the pro-Hitler German American League held a large Nazi rally at Madison Square Garden.
Organizers chose George Washington’s birthday as the day to parade their vision of an Aryan Christian nation dedicated to white supremacy and American patriotism. They erected a huge portrait of Washington, flanked by swastika flags alongside American flags.
More than 20,000 American Nazi sympathizers attended, many wearing Stormtrooper uniforms and giving the Sieg Heil salute. Federalist “Führer” Fritz Kuhn told the audience that America would be “returned to its founders” and denounced the “Jewish-controlled press.”
Hillary Clinton drew parallels between the two events in an interview with CNN last week, and Walz was happy to continue the comparison at a rally in Nevada early Sunday.
“Donald Trump made this huge rally happen at Madison Square Garden,” Walz said.
“It’s a lot like the big gatherings that happened at Madison Square Garden in the mid-1930s. And don’t think for a second he doesn’t know exactly what they’re doing there. .”
The Trump campaign was outraged by the accusations, calling Clinton’s comments “disgusting.” Hulk Hogan, one of the few people to mention the 1939 rally Sunday, appeared to wrestling music and, after struggling to take off his shirt for several seconds, said, “There are no stinking Nazis here.” I can’t find it,” he claimed.
After a night of fire and fury, it’s up to American voters to decide.
This article was amended on October 28, 2024. That’s because an earlier version stated that Donald Trump’s rally was held at the exact same venue as the 1939 pro-Hitler German-American Nazi rally. Although the venues for the two meetings have the same name, the 1939 meeting was held at a different location. The current arena opened in 1968 and is the fourth arena named Madison Square Garden, replacing the third arena that opened in 1925.
