Trump returns to ‘the epicenter of everything’ for the rally at Madison Square Garden

Donald Trump kicks off the last full week of the presidential race on Sunday with a rally at Madison Square Gardenbanking on his own showmanship as he attempts to fill the iconic venue and create a spectacle that will reach television and phone screens in all seven theaters.

The former president returns to his hometown of New York City — a deep blue terrain that virtually no Republicans expect to win, but where signs of discontent and infighting between state and local Democratic leadership could help threatened establishment Republicans win seats in the House of Representatives. preserve the surrounding suburbs.

It is the latest in a series of Trump visits to blue states, which also included a meeting Coachella Valley in California this month, one on Long Island in the summer and a recent stop for an economic forum in Chicago.

At each stop, Trump, in dehumanizing terms, lays the blame for crime and the growing number of migrants at the feet of his Democratic rival, Vice President Kamala Harris.

“I will save every city in all of America that has been invaded and conquered,” he said Thursday in Las Vegas.

The Madison Square Garden event follows a precedent set by previous campaigns. The location, including the earlier locations, has an extensive political history. It has hosted presidents such as Grover Cleveland, Herbert Hoover and Franklin D. Roosevelt, and welcomed both Republican and Democratic national conventions – most recently the GOP conference in 2004. It was also the famous site of John F. Kennedy’s birthday in 1962 , when Marilyn Monroe performed her iconic serenade for the president.

Yet the history of Madison Square Garden is not without controversy. It played host to many more divisive events, including the infamous ‘Pro-American Rally’ of 1939, a pro-Nazi rally organized by the German-American Bund and attended by thousands in the lead-up to World War II. Days later, a Communist Party rally filled the arena. In 1968, George Wallace, the former segregationist governor of Alabama, advanced a message of “law and order” in a speech at the Garden Days before the presidential election, where he won nearly ten million votes and ran in five states as a third-party candidate . .

For Trump, Sunday’s event means more than just a campaign stop. It is also an important moment for him personally. The former president has long expressed a desire to take the stage at the Midtown Manhattan monument. His name will most likely appear on the same kind of marquee that has so often welcomed guests like Billy Joel, Elton John and other legendary entertainers.

New York remains a safely blue state, even though Trump has said privately and publicly that he thinks he can win it, an idea that those in his campaign recognize as far from reality.

“We think there’s a chance to win New York for the first time in, well, a long time, many, many decades. And we think there’s a real opportunity with what’s going on, with the migrants taking over the city, the entire state, quite frankly,” he said on Fox News Radio. Ronald Reagan was the last Republican presidential candidate to hold the Empire State in 1984.

It has also been more than two decades since a Republican in New York won statewide elections — the most recent being former Gov. George Pataki when he won a third term in 2002.

However, Republicans have expressed some hope that the event could help strengthen vulnerable New York Republican lawmakers fighting to hold on to their seats in the House of Representatives in November. Some of them joined Trump on Saturday at a tele-rally organized by New York Rep. Elise Stefanik — the House Republican No. 4 — to promote early voting. Some also appeared at Trump’s September event at the Nassau Coliseum on Long Island.

However, none of them are on the list of speakers released by the Trump campaign for the rally at Madison Square Garden.

Sunday’s rally will also serve as one of Trump’s largest fundraisers to date, according to multiple sources familiar with the logistics. Backers have been offered a range of packages, including VIP suites, tickets to an exclusive ‘pre-event’ at the venue, backstage passes and photo opportunities.

“The Trump campaign is going to make an insane amount of money from this event,” a source familiar with the guest list told CNN.

Dozens of Republican lawmakers, allies, donors and celebrities are expected to attend. The Trump campaign said speakers at the rally included the former president’s running mate, Ohio Sen. JD Vance, technology mogul Elon Musk, former independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr., House Speaker Mike Johnson, Stefanik and former New York Mayor Rudy will be in attendance. Giuliani and former Fox News host Tucker Carlson.

A number of popular internet celebrities and rappers have endorsed the former president over the course of the campaign, many of whom are likely to attend on Sunday, a source close to Trump told CNN.

A source close to Trump said there are systems in place to prevent Trump critics from signing up for tickets without the intention of showing up, something some allies expressed concern about.

Although Trump will not be in any of the seven states — Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin — that both campaigns expect will determine the outcome of the Nov. 5 election, the former’s aides said president that they expect the elections on Sunday. rally to attract extensive media attention.

“It’s New York City. It is the largest media market in the world,” a campaign adviser told CNN. “It’s the epicenter of everything.”

CNN’s Danya Gainor contributed to this report.

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