Former President Donald Trump delivered his standard lines on topics ranging from immigration to the economy at a packed rally at Madison Square Garden on Sunday. the map he wanted to campaign for years.
But Trump’s remarks, which lasted more than an hour in his hometown of New York City, were overshadowed by comments made by warm-up speakers about five hours before his prime-time address. Among them was a comedian racist jokes It was condemned by speakers who used increasingly inflammatory language about Latino and Black Americans and many Republican members of Congress, as well as Vice President Kamala Harris.
In the World’s Most Famous Arena and before one of the largest rally crowds of the era, Trump lashed out at opponents he sees as the “enemy within,” describing the media as “the enemy of the people,” Harris’ “low IQ,” and describing him as a “vessel” for the aforementioned opponents. did, and said the US would “kick their ass” in a potential war with China.
“It’s just this amorphous group of people, but they’re smart and they’re cruel and we’ve got to defeat them,” Trump said, explaining that he was using the term “enemy within.”
“And when I say enemy from within, the other party goes crazy. … They have done very bad things to this country. They are truly the enemy from within. But we are fighting it,” he continued.
Before Trump took the stage, it was lesser-known speakers who made big waves outside the arena.
Grant Cardone, a conservative influencer and investor, said Harris and “his pimps are going to destroy our country,” and raised his middle finger to the camera to show what message a Trump victory would send to the “elites.”
“It has to be a slide,” he said. “We have to kill these other people. We must bring 100 million votes to Donald Trump.”
David Rem, who announced his candidacy for mayor of New York on stage, echoed a rally attendee who called Harris “the devil” and added that he was the “Antichrist.” Conservative media personality Tucker Carlson joked that Harris, who is black and Indian, would be “the first Samoan-Malaysian low-IQ ex-California prosecutor to be elected president.”
But no comment got more attention than an opening routine from comedian Tony Hinchcliffewho speaks early in the afternoon. His jokes included saying that Latinos “like to make babies” because “there’s no pulling out. They don’t do that. They enter our country as they did.”
He then took aim at Puerto Rico, describing it as “an island of garbage floating in the middle of the ocean right now.” He then joked about how he and his black friend “carved watermelons” together. In the arena, his punch lines were met with discomfort.
Hours after his speech, many pro-Trump GOP members of Congress condemned him.
Rep. María Elvira Salazar, R-Fla., he said he was “disgusted” by his “racist comment calling Puerto Rico a ‘floating garbage island'” and said the “rhetoric does not reflect GOP values.” Sen. Rick Scott, R-Fla., he said the joke “bombed for a reason”, “not funny” and “not true”. And Rep. Carlos Gimenez, R-Fla., He said Hinchcliffe had comments “Totally classless and in bad taste.”
“I’m proud to be Puerto Rican,” said Anthony D’Esposito, R-N.Y., in a competitive House race. Posted in X. “My mother was born and raised in Puerto Rico. It is a beautiful island with a rich culture and an integral part of the United States. The only thing that was “rubbish” was the bad comedy set. Stay on message.”
The Trump campaign tried to distance itself from Hinchcliffe’s routine. “This joke does not reflect the views of President Trump or the campaign,” senior adviser Danielle Alvarez said in a statement.
Trump’s campaign hyped the event as it was Trump’s last address to voters in the final days of the election. And he offered some new policy positions from the stage, including that he would “support a tax credit for family caregivers who care for a parent or loved one,” which comes as Harris is heavily promoting his proposal to expand Medicare. to cover long-term home care.
Touching on the key area of immigration, Trump also said he wants “any migrant who kills someone in the United States” to face the death penalty. And he explained his thoughts on how former independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who backed Trump’s candidacy, would fit into the incoming administration.
Kennedy “is going to lose his health,” Trump said. “I’ll let him be wild about food. I’ll let him run wild on drugs.”
Trump visited the Manhattan arena in a stretch that also saw him in California and Colorado, two additional states that are not among frontline presidential battlegrounds and are virtually certain to go to Harris this fall. Trump planned a rally for Virginia on one of the final days of the campaign, visiting another state that Harris had a chance to win. His campaign told such events are the “high-impact settings” his notes will take on major battlefields.
But Trump and his supporters made it clear from the stage that they actually think they can win New York.
“I had a friend, a smart guy, he’s a billionaire, who texted me this morning and said, ‘Why the hell are you wasting your time in New York instead of going to a swing state?'” said businessman Vivek Ramaswamy, who is seeking the GOP nomination this year. he said in his speech. “I wonder what I told him?” I said, ‘Welcome to 2024. New York is a swing state’”.
Joe Biden New York won by 23 points in 2020. He hasn’t voted for a Republican at the presidential level since he went for Ronald Reagan 40 years ago. But Democratic Gov. Kathy Hochul won in 2022 by a much smaller margin than Biden did two years ago.
In his speech, Trump, who spent much of his life as a prominent New York real estate mogul, said it would be “such an honor” to win the state, noting that a Republican had not won in decades.
“Everybody says, ‘Sir, you’re wasting your money,'” he said. “I don’t think so.”
Democrats we’ve been comparing for weeks Madison Square Garden event to a pro-Nazi rally This happened in 1939 in the previous iteration of the famous arena. Trump’s former chief of staff John Kelly said. recently Trump fits definition fascist and spoke positively About Adolf Hitler. Trump he denied He spoke favorably of Hitler, but Harris promoted Kelly’s account, and he did called the bill “deeply disturbing and incredibly dangerous.”
“I don’t see any stinkin’ Nazis here,” said wrestling star Hulk Hogan in his speech. “I don’t see any stinking domestic terrorists here. All I see here is a bunch of hardworking men and women who are real Americans, bro.
Meanwhile, Trump thanked the recently indicted mayor of New York, Eric Adams. Because Trump cannot be called a fascist.
“That’s great,” Trump said, adding that Adams, a Democrat, “was treated very badly.”
“Very nice,” he said.
Trump has expressed his desire to shape policy in New York if he wins this fall, promising to work with Adams and Hochul. It was like her texting Bronx rally this summer.
But the rally wasn’t just at the venue known as The Garden, a prime New York venue and one where Trump has long wanted to campaign. On Sunday, his wish came true.
“It’s incredible. I watched the Knicks and the Rangers here,” he said, referring to New York’s two professional basketball and hockey teams. “There’s no place like Madison Square Garden.”