Trump’s MSG event contains vulgar and racial slurs

Policy

The marquee event reflected the former president’s tone during his third White House campaign.

JILL COLVIN and MICHELLE L. PRICE, Associated Press

updated October 27, 2024

NEW YORK (AP) – Donald Trump hosted a rally that featured crude and racist insults at New York’s Madison Square Garden on Sunday, turning things around his campaign he called the event during which he would deliver his final message, which would be an illustration of what repels his critics.

Just over a week before Election Day, speakers called Puerto Rico a “floating garbage island.” Vice President Kamala Harris “the devil” and said that the woman running to become the first woman and black woman to become president began her career as a prostitute.

“I don’t know if you know this, but right now there is literally a floating island of garbage in the middle of the ocean. I think it’s called Puerto Rico,” said Tony Hinchcliffe, a stand-up comedian whose set also included lewd and racist comments about Latinos, Jews and blacks, all key constituencies in the election just nine days away.

His joke was immediately criticized by the Harris campaign, which is competing with Trump to win over Puerto Rican communities in Pennsylvania and other swing states. Puerto Rican music superstar Bad Bunny endorsed Harris shortly after Hinchcliffe’s appearance.

The usually feisty Trump campaign took the rare step of distancing itself from Hinchcliffe. “This joke does not reflect the views of President Trump or the campaign,” senior adviser Danielle Alvarez said in a statement.

But other speakers also made inflammatory remarks. Trump’s childhood friend David Rem called Harris the “Antichrist” and “the devil.” Businessman Grant Cardone told the crowd that Harris “and her pimps will destroy our country.”

The marquee event reflected the former president’s tone during his third White House campaign. Though Trump refrained from doing so on Sunday, he himself has frequently lashed out at Harris in offensive and personal ways, in recent weeks questioning her mental stability and intelligence and calling her “lazy,” a long-standing racist slur used against Black people.

The event was a surreal spectacle attended by former wrestler Hulk Hogan, television psychologist Dr. Phil McGraw, former Fox News host Tucker Carlson, politicians including House Speaker Mike Johnson and lawmakers Byron Donalds and Elise Stefanik, as well as the artist who painted an image of Trump hugging the Empire State Building.

And all this before Trump was about to take the stage, more than two hours late.

After his wife Melania Trump introduced him in a rare public appearance, the former president began by asking himself the same questions he has asked himself at the beginning of every recent rally: “Are you doing better now than you were four years ago?” The crowd responded with a loud “No!”

“This election is a choice between whether we will face another four years of gross incompetence and failure, or whether we will enter the greatest years in the history of our country,” he said.

Trump announced a new tax break for caregivers

On Sunday, Trump added a new proposal to his list of tax cuts aimed at wooing older people and blue-collar workers, which already includes a vow to eliminate taxes on Social Security benefits, tips and overtime wages: a tax credit for family caregivers.

This comes after Harris mentioned a “sandwich generation” of adults who are caring for aging parents while also raising children. Harris proposed federal funding to cover the cost of home care for older Americans.

Additionally, Trump repeated familiar words on foreign policy and immigration, calling for the death penalty for any migrant who kills a U.S. citizen and saying that the day he took office, “the migrant invasion of our country will end.”

As Trump’s remarks were made an hour later, some of the crowd began to leave.

Tech mogul Elon Musk, who spoke earlier and introduced Melania Trump, played a significant part of Trump’s end-of-the-campaign message. The former president called Musk a “genius” and “exceptional.”

Musk nodded to Trump’s recent plan to allow him to lead a government efficiency commission that would oversee the entire federal government. Several of Musk’s companies, including Tesla and SpaceX, have large government contracts or rely on U.S. subsidies, and Musk has faced criticism following reports that he spoke privately with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

“Your money is being wasted and the Department of Government Efficiency will fix this problem,” Musk said before taking a seat offstage next to Melania Trump.

Many speakers took the stage at the Republican National Convention on Sunday. This time, the same speakers shouted and complained more about Democrats.

Hogan, returning to the venue where he performed as a professional wrestler many years ago, appeared to reprise his character, appearing wearing a giant red, orange and yellow boa and wildly waving a large American flag while posing and dancing. During his speech, he spat on the stage, flexed his muscles repeatedly and told the audience: “Trump is the only man who can fix this country today.”

Trump’s allies attacked Democrats for organizing a pro-Nazi rally

Some Democrats, calling Trump a fascist, compared his Sunday event to a pro-Nazi rally at the Garden in February 1939. Several Sunday speakers ripped Hillary Clinton, a Democrat defeated by Trump eight years ago, for recently saying that Trump would “play ” of the events of 1939. One of them, radio host Sid Rosenberg, hurled profanities at Clinton.

“Hey, guys, now they’re arguing and trying to call us Nazis and fascists,” said Alina Habba, one of Trump’s lawyers, who hung a shiny jacket with “MAGA” written on it from the podium during her speech. “And you know what they claim, guys? It’s very scary. They claim that we will follow them and try to put them in jail. Well, isn’t that wealth?

Hogan announced in his hoarse growl, “I don’t see any stinking Nazis here.”

Trump has condemned the four criminal charges against him as politically motivated. In recent weeks, he has stepped up his condemnation of “enemies from within,” naming domestic political rivals and suggesting he would use the military to pursue them. Harris, in turn, called Trump a fascist.

The arena was packed hours before Trump was scheduled to speak. Outside the arena, the sidewalks were filled with Trump supporters wearing red “Make America Great Again” hats. There were plenty of security forces there. Streets were blocked and access to Penn Station restricted.

“It just shows that he has a larger following of any person who has ever lived,” said Philip D’Agostino, a longtime Trump supporter from Queens, the neighborhood where Trump grew up.

A New Yorker returns home

Trump has a complicated history with the place where he built his business empire, which has made him a tabloid and reality TV star. Last year, residents charged him with 34 crimes related to falsifying commercial documentation. He was found guilty in that case and found liable in a civil court for business fraud and sexual exploitation.

However, Trump has talked about wanting to hold a rally at the venue known as “The World’s Most Famous Arena” since he launched his campaign.

The rally was one of many detours Trump has taken from battleground states, including a recent rally in Coachella, California, and rallies on the Jersey Shore and the South Bronx.

While some dismissed the arrests as nothing more than vain events designed to boost Trump’s ego, the rallies gave Trump a nationwide reach that could help him reach the nation’s few remaining undecided voters, many of whom don’t get their news from traditional media.

New York hasn’t voted for a Republican for president in 40 years. But that doesn’t stop Trump from constantly insisting that he believes in victory. There are also several competitive congressional races in New York that could determine which party takes control of the House next year.

Trump routinely uses his hometown as a foil to audiences in other states, painting a dark vision of the city that bears little resemblance to reality. He rates it as crime-ridden and overrun by violent immigrant gangs that have taken over Fifth and Madison Avenues and occupied Times Square.

On Sunday, however, Trump was much more complimentary of the city. He stated that “no city more embodies the spirit” and energy of the American people and mentioned attending basketball and hockey games at the Garden.

After Trump spoke for more than an hour, opera singer Christopher Macchio took the stage to perform the song “New York, New York.”

The former president smiled and swayed slightly, and his wife stood next to him on stage.