Trump’s MSG event contains racial slurs

Authors: JILL COLVIN and MICHELLE L. PRICE

NEW YORK (AP) — Donald Trump hosted a rally at New York’s Madison Square Garden that featured vulgar and racial slurs, turning what his campaign described as an event at which he would deliver his final message into an illustration of what repels his critics.

With just over a week before Election Day, speakers at Sunday’s rally called Puerto Rico a “floating island of garbage,” as the Democratic vice president put it 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 competes with Trump win over Puerto Rican communities in Pennsylvania and other swing states. Puerto Rican music star Bad Bunny he 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 often tore into Harris offensive and personal terms herself, questioning her mental stability and intelligence in recent weeks and calling her “lazy,” which has long been a 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 meeting his wife, Melania Trumpin a rare public appearance, the former president began by asking the same questions he’s asked at the beginning of every recent rally: “Are you better off 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 regarding your list of tax cuts aimed at winning over older people and blue-collar workers, which already includes a vow to abolish taxes on Social Security benefits, tips and overtime pay: Tax relief 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.”