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NEW YORK (AP) — Donald Trump staged a rally at New York's Madison Square Garden on Sunday crammed with crude and racist slurs, turning what his campaign had billed as an event where he would deliver his final message into an example of which scares off his critics.
With just over every week to go before Election Day, speakers called Puerto Rico a “floating island of garbage,” called Vice President Kamala Harris “the devil” and said the girl vying to change into the primary woman and Black president had her profession as President began a prostitute.
“I don't know when you know this, but immediately there's literally a floating island of trash in the midst of the ocean. I feel it's called Puerto Rico,” said Tony Hinchcliffe, a slapstick comedian whose set also included lewd and racist comments about Latinos, Jews and blacks, all key constituencies within the election just nine days away.
His joke was immediately criticized by Harris' campaign as he competes with Trump to win over Puerto Rican communities in Pennsylvania and other swing states. Puerto Rican music superstar Bad Bunny supported Harris shortly after Hinchcliffe's performance.
The normally combative 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 an announcement.
But other speakers also made inflammatory comments. Trump's childhood friend David Rem called Harris “the antichrist” and “the devil.” Businessman Grant Cardone told the gang that Harris “and her pimps are going to destroy our country.”
The marquee event reflected the previous president's tone during his third White House campaign. Although he shunned doing so on Sunday, Trump himself has often made insulting and private attacks on Harris, questioning her mental stability and intelligence in recent weeks and calling her “lazy,” a long-standing racist term used against black people becomes.
The event was a surreal spectacle that included former skilled wrestler Hulk Hogan, television psychologist Dr. Phil McGraw, former Fox News host Tucker Carlson, politicians including House Speaker Mike Johnson and Reps. Byron Donalds and Elise Stefanik, in addition to an artist who painted an image of Trump hugging the Empire State Building.
And all this before Trump took the stage, greater than two hours late.
After being introduced by his wife Melania Trump in a rare public appearance, the previous president began by asking the identical questions he had recently asked in the beginning of each rally: “Are you feeling better now than you were four years ago?” The crowd responded with one clear “No!”
“In this election we must decide whether we will endure four more years of gross incompetence and failure or whether we will enter the greatest years in our country’s history,” he said.
Trump announced a brand new tax credit for caregivers
Trump on Sunday added a brand new proposal to his list of tax cuts aimed toward attracting older adults and employees that already includes guarantees to eliminate taxes on Social Security advantages, suggestions and extra time pay: a tax credit for family caregivers.
This comes after Harris spoke of the “sandwich generation” of adults caring for aging parents while raising their children. Harris has proposed federal funding to cover home care costs for older Americans.
Trump repeated otherwise familiar phrases about foreign policy and immigration, calling for the death penalty for any migrant who kills a U.S. citizen and saying that on the day he takes office, “the migrant invasion of our country will end.”
As Trump's remarks got here across the hour mark, a few of the crowd began to file out.
Tech mogul Elon Musk, who spoke earlier and introduced Melania Trump, was a key a part of Trump's closing message on the campaign trail. The former president called Musk “a genius” and “special.”
Musk gave a nod to Trump's recent plan to permit him to guide a government efficiency commission that will audit your entire federal government. Several of Musk's firms, including Tesla and SpaceX, have large government contracts or have relied on U.S. subsidies, and Musk has faced criticism after reports that he spoke privately with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
“Your money is being wasted and the Department of Government Efficiency is going to fix it,” Musk said before taking a seat backstage next to Melania Trump.
Many of the speakers appeared on stage on the Republican National Convention on Sunday. This time, the identical speakers shouted and railed more heavily against the Democrats.
When Hogan returned to the venue where he performed as knowledgeable wrestler years ago, he seemed to be back in character. He wore a large red, orange and yellow boa and vigorously waved a big American flag as he posed and danced. During his speech, he spat on the stage, repeatedly flexed his muscles and told the audience: “Trump is the only man who can fix this country today.”
Trump's allies lashed out at Democrats for staging a pro-Nazi rally
Some Democrats who call Trump a fascist have compared his Sunday rally to a pro-Nazi rally on the Garden in February 1939. Several speakers on Sunday criticized Hillary Clinton, the Democrat defeated by Trump eight years ago, for recently saying that Trump can be a “re-enactment” of the 1939 event. One of them, radio host Sid Rosenberg, directed an obscenity at Clinton.
“Hey guys, now they're arguing and trying to call us Nazis and fascists,” said Alina Habba, considered one of Trump's lawyers, who draped a glittery “MAGA” jacket over the lectern during her speech. “And you know what they say, people? It's very scary. They claim we are persecuting them and trying to put them in prison. Well, isn’t that rich?”
Hogan declared in a hoarse growl, “I don’t see any damn Nazis here.”
Trump has described the 4 criminal charges against him as politically motivated. In recent weeks he has stepped up his denunciations of “enemies from within,” naming domestic rivals and suggesting he would use the military to crack down on them. Harris, in turn, called Trump a fascist.
The arena was full hours before Trump's scheduled speech. Outside the world, the sidewalks were crammed with Trump supporters wearing red “Make America Great Again” hats. There was a heavy security presence. Roads were closed and access to Penn Station was restricted.
“It just shows that he has a larger following than any man who ever lived,” said Philip D'Agostino, a longtime Trump supporter from Queens, the borough where Trump grew up.
A New Yorker returns home
Trump has a sophisticated history with the place where he built his business empire, and it has made him a tabloid and reality TV star. His residents charged him last 12 months with 34 felony counts of falsifying business records. He was found guilty in that case and likewise held liable in civil court for business fraud and sexual abuse.
But Trump has spoken for the reason that start of his campaign about wanting to carry a rally on the venue, described as “the most famous arena in the world.”
The rally was considered one of several detours Trump has made out of battleground states, including a recent rally in Coachella, California, in addition to rallies on the Jersey Shore and the South Bronx.
While some dismiss the stops as nothing greater than vanity acts aimed toward boosting Trump's ego, the rallies guaranteed Trump national coverage that might help him reach the country's few remaining undecided voters, a lot of whom don't get their news through traditional channels Receive media.
New York hasn't elected a Republican president in 40 years. But that hasn't stopped Trump from continuing to insist he can win. New York can also be hosting some competitive congressional elections that might resolve which party controls the House of Representatives next 12 months.
Trump routinely uses his hometown as a foil to audiences in other states, painting a bleak vision of the town that bears little resemblance to reality. He describes it as crime-ridden and overrun by violent immigrant gangs which have taken over Fifth Avenue and Madison Avenue and occupied Times Square.
On Sunday, nevertheless, Trump praised the town far more. He said “no city embodies the spirit” and energy of the American people more and spoke about attending basketball and hockey games on the Garden.
After Trump finished his speech after greater than an hour, opera singer Christopher Macchio got here on stage to perform the song “New York, New York.”
The former president smiled and swayed barely, his wife standing next to him on the stage.
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