Trump’s MSG event contains crude and racist insults

Politics

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

By JILL COLVIN and MICHELLE L. PRICE, Associated Press

October 27, 2024

NEW YORK (AP) — Donald Trump hosted a rally with crude and racist insults at Madison Square Garden in New York on Sunday. his campaign had mentioned as the event where he would deliver his final message to illustrate what turns off his critics.

Just over a week before Election Day, speakers labeled Puerto Rico a “floating island of trash,” calling it Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris “the devil,” and said the woman vying to become the first black and female president had started her career as a prostitute.

‘I don’t know if you know this, but there is literally a floating waste island in the middle of the ocean right now. 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 black people, all key constituencies in the election just nine days away.

His joke was immediately criticized by Harris’ campaign as it competed 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 a statement.

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 crowd that Harris “and her pimp handlers will destroy our country.”

The big event reflected the former president’s tone during his third campaign in the White House. Although he did not do so on Sunday, Trump himself often attacks Harris in offensive and personal terms, questioning her mental stability and intelligence in recent weeks and calling her “lazy,” long a racist trope used against Black people .

The event was a surreal spectacle that included former professional wrestler Hulk Hogan, TV psychologist Dr. Phil McGraw, someone who painted a picture of Trump hugging the Empire State Building, and politicians including House Speaker Mike Johnson. At times it felt like an amplified version of the Republican National Convention in July, which convened two days after Trump was nearly assassinated at a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, that featured many of the same personalities — this time giving speeches to many more people. volume.

And that was all before Trump was scheduled to take the stage, delayed by more than two hours.

After being introduced by his wife, Melania Trump, in a rare public appearance, the former president began by asking the same questions he asked at the start of every recent rally: “Are you better off now than you were four years ago?” The audience responded with a resounding “No!”

“These elections are a choice between whether we will have four more years of gross incompetence and failure, or whether we will enter the best years in the history of our country,” he said.

Trump announced a new tax break for health care providers

Trump on Sunday added a new proposal to his list of tax cuts aimed at wooing older adults and workers, which already includes vows to end taxes on Social Security benefits, tips and overtime: a tax credit for caregivers.

This comes after Harris spoke about the ‘sandwich generation’ of adults caring for elderly parents while raising their children. Harris has proposed federal funding to cover the cost of home care for older Americans.

Trump repeated otherwise familiar lines 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 takes office “the invasion of migrants into our country will end.”

An hour into Trump’s comments, some of the crowd began to trickle out.

Tech mogul Elon Musk, who spoke earlier and introduced Melania Trump, was a prominent part of Trump’s closing campaign message. The former president called Musk “a genius” and “special.”

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

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

The rally was an amplified version of the RNC

Many of the speakers appeared on stage at the Republican National Convention on Sunday. This time the same speakers shouted and rants even more at the Democrats.

Hogan, who returned to the venue where he performed as a professional wrestler years ago, appeared to reprise his character, emerging wearing a giant red, orange and yellow boa and violently waving a large American flag as he posed and danced. He spat on stage during his speech, flexed his muscles repeatedly and told the audience, “Trump is the only man who can fix this country today.”

Some Democrats, who claim Trump is a “fascist,” have likened his event on Sunday to a pro-Nazi rally at the Garden in February 1939. Several speakers on Sunday criticized Hillary Clinton, the Democrat who was defeated by Trump eight years ago. defeated, torn because she recently said Trump would “reenact” the 1939 event.

“Hey guys, they’re scrambling now and trying to call us Nazis and fascists,” said Alina Habba, one of Trump’s lawyers, who draped a sparkly “MAGA” jacket over the lectern as she spoke. ‘And do you know what they say, boys? It’s very scary. They claim we are going after them and trying to put them in jail. Well, isn’t that rich?’

Hogan declared in his trademark raspy growl, “I don’t see any stinkin’ Nazis here.”

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

The arena was packed for hours before Trump was scheduled to speak. Outside the arena, the sidewalks were packed with Trump supporters wearing red “Make America Great Again” hats. There was a heavy security presence. Streets were closed and access to Penn Station was restricted.

In the crowd was Philip D’Agostino, a longtime Trump supporter from Queens, the neighborhood where Trump grew up. The 64-year-old said it was appropriate for Trump to speak at a venue that bills itself as “the most famous arena in the world.”

“It just goes to show you that he has a bigger following than any man who ever lived,” D’Agostino said.

A New Yorker returns home

New York hasn’t voted for a Republican as president in forty years. But that hasn’t stopped Trump from insisting he believes he can win.

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

Trump has a complicated history with the place where he built his business empire that made him a tabloid and reality TV star. Residents charged him last year with 34 counts of falsifying company records. He was found guilty in that case and also held liable in civil court for corporate fraud and sexual abuse.

On Sunday, however, Trump was much more complimentary about the city. He said that “no city better embodies the spirit” and energy of the American people.

And as he concluded his speech after more than an hour, opera singer Christopher Macchio came on stage to sing the song “New York, New York.”

The former president smiled and waved slightly as his wife stood next to him on stage.