The media erupts over Trump’s MSG rally, but the arena’s history and first-hand accounts belie the story

Much of the media attended former President Trump’s historic Sunday evening rally at Madison Square Garden in New York City, claiming it reflected a Nazi rally at the famous location in the 1930s, despite an abundance of Jewish visitors and Israeli flags.

Thousands of Trump supporters gathered at the World’s Most Famous Arena to hear remarks from high-profile speakers, including a speech from former first lady Melania Trump, before the former president took the stage. But instead of watching a Republican candidate draw a huge crowd in the middle of a blue city just nine days before the election, liberal pundits followed Vice President Kamala Harris’ playbook in labeling Trump a fascist and a fascist. Compare him to Adolf Hitler.

An MSNBC guest said Trump’s team was cultivating “overt Nazi parallels.” The New York Times called the meeting a “carnival of grievances, misogyny and racism.” Philip Bump of the Washington Post wrote a column arguing that the meeting mirrored the 1939 pro-Hitler meeting in the Garden.

But people who attended have suggested that Nazi rallies typically lack Jewish, black or Hindu speakers or pro-Israel messages.

TRUMP, POWERHOUSE GUESTS ROCK PACKED MSG WITH HISTORICAL RALLY

Former President Trump held a historic rally at Madison Square Garden in New York City on Sunday evening. (Getty Images)

“I covered that meeting and there was no hatred in the building whatsoever. It was… For lack of a better word… Joyful,” Fox News contributor Joe Concha wrote on X.

Participant Debra Lea went viral after the meeting when she posted a video on social media defending it.

“I’m a Jewish Republican from New York and I’ve seen the mainstream media calling this a ‘Nazi rally,’ and that couldn’t be further from the truth. There were so many Jews there, just like me. There were Israeli flags and almost every single speaker spoke about their commitment to upholding the US-Israel relationship,” Lea said.

“Not to mention all the Latinos for Trump, gays for Trump and almost every other group that would never have been allowed in if this was actually a Nazi rally,” she continued. “Kamala Harris could literally bring Adolf Hitler onto her stage and the mainstream media still wouldn’t call it a Nazi rally… their lies are useless.”

Among the Jewish attendees was Holocaust survivor Jerry Wartski, an Auschwitz survivor who mentioned comparing Trump to Hitler the ‘worst thing he has heard’ after living in the United States for 75 years.

MSNBC spotlighted the site of a 1939 pro-Nazi rally, even though MSG has been rebuilt several times and the current expansion was not completed until 1969. Facts didn’t stop the liberal network from publicizing Trump’s event. was “particularly chilling” because it was held in the same arena that once housed supporters of “another fascist leader, Adolf Hitler.”

MSNBC even juxtaposed footage of the 1939 Nazi rally with Trump’s 2024 event.

Retired NYPD Inspector Paul Mauro called it “ridiculous” to equate Trump’s rally to what happened at MSG in 1939.

“Does the fact that you played in the arena somehow make you Nazi-adjacent? And let me tell you: during a Nazi rally, there were an awful lot of Israeli flags in that building,” Mauro said on “America’s Newsroom” on Monday.

TRUMP AT MADISON SQUARE GARDEN: ICONIC LOCATION HAS HELD MANY CAMPAIGN MEETINGS NEAR ELECTION DAY

MSG has long been home to the NBA’s New York Knicks and the NHL’s New York Rangers, two of the most storied franchises in their respective sports.

The Garden has hosted four Democratic National Conventions, was the site of Marilyn Monroe’s historic birthday performance for President John F. Kennedy in 1962, and hosted high-profile visits by Pope John Paul II in 1979 and Pope Francis in 2015. USO Events starring Bob Hope and Bing Crosby, the 1971 “Fight of the Century” between Muhammad Ali and Joe Frazier and numerous charity events.

Music legend Billy Joel had a longstanding residency at MSG, it was the site of the inaugural WrestleMania in 1985 and was the longtime New York home base for the Ringling Brothers and Barnum and Bailey Circus.

Michael Jackson, Kiss, Led Zeppelin, Phish, Jay Z, Elvis Presley, John Lennon, the Rolling Stones, Bob Dylan, Madonna, Elton John, Stevie Wonder, The Who, U2, Bruce Springsteen, Katy Perry, The Grateful Dead, The Who, Taylor Swift and Luke Bryan have all played there too.

“These amateur historians ignore every concert, Knicks game and Democratic convention so they can just smear Trump and the Republicans with a Nazi brush,” NewsBusters Editor-in-Chief Tim Graham told Fox News Digital. “They imagine that venerating America’s founding and talking about putting America first is racist, supporting mass deportation is racist, and being tough on crime is racist. Almost anything conservatives favor is considered fair game for accusations of racism.”

“These same people have a beef when Trump calls Kamala Harris a ‘Marxist’ or a ‘communist,’” Graham continued. “The ‘independent fact-checkers’ stand up for the Democrats, but have no problem using the F-word (fascist) on the Republicans.”

LAURA INGRAHAM: TRUMP’S MSG RALLY echoes FDR’s populism, REAGAN

Former US president and Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump speaks during a campaign rally at Madison Square Garden in New York, October 27, 2024. (Photo by ANGELA WEISS/AFP) (Photo by ANGELA WEISS/AFP via Getty Images) (Getty Images)

Stop Antisemitism founder and executive director Liora Rez also denounced the Hitler comparisons.

“Equating the presidential candidate – or their supporters – with the Nazi regime is a dangerous trivialization of the real horrors committed by Hitler. It dishonors the millions who were murdered and the brave who fought to end his tyranny,” Rez told Fox News Digital.

“Save the condemnation for real Nazis,” Rez continued. “Associating a modern-day gathering at Madison Square Garden with a Nazi event from nearly a century ago is a reckless distortion of history.”

Conservative columnist Dustin Grage mocked the suggestion by sharing footage of historic MSG events.

Other notable speakers at Trump’s rally included House Speaker Mike Johnson, pro-wrestling legend Hulk Hogan, tech billionaire Elon Musk, former presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Trump’s running mate Senator J.D. Vance and TV personality Dr. Phil McGraw.

Trump’s speech focused on the economy and rising inflation and “bring back the American dream,” including promising the public that he will cut their energy costs in half by January 2026 if he is re-elected. He also promised that if he wins the election next week, he will cut costs for consumers and end taxes on tips, overtime and Social Security benefits.

Trump added that under his leadership the Republican Party has become the “party of inclusion.”

“Jews and Muslims and Catholics and evangelicals and Mormons, and they are all joining our cause in great numbers, greater than anyone has ever seen in this country, greater than they have ever seen in any country,” he said. he.

Madison Square Garden has long been home to the New York Knicks and New York Rangers, two of the most storied franchises in their respective sports. (Getty Images)

New York City Council Minority Whip Inna Vernikov attended the meeting and said it was “so contrary to the crap MSNBC is trying to sell you.”

“Our families were slaughtered like sheep during the Holocaust. The meeting I went to was NOT A NAZI MEETING. It was an event filled with love for all Americans,” Vernikov wrote.

“The spirit of unity in the room was so palpable, and people of all races, religions and walks of life came together in happy anticipation of a better future. Black or Hispanic, Jew, Muslim or Christian, it didn’t matter,” Vernikov continued. “We all had a place there because we all have a common goal: We all want to make this country a better place to live in, and bring back prosperity and American pride.”

Former White House press secretary Ari Fleischer, whose relatives died in the Holocaust, said Monday he doesn’t need to be told what the Nazis are really about.

“Most of my family died in the Holocaust. I have very few relatives left. They are the Nazis,” said Fleischer, a first-generation American whose mother fled the Nazis in 1939. “I don’t need Democrats to remind me, by making these things up, by making up our American politics, that the people who could defeat them, the people they don’t like because of domestic political issues, are fascists.” Nazis.”

He said Democrats making Nazi comparisons their closing argument in the election is the “dumbest” thing they can do politically.

“Morally, it is reprehensible for someone to invoke Adolf Hitler in American political life against someone like Donald Trump, who is the essence of democracy. He won a controversial primary. He could win a controversial presidential election. This is a despicable thing that the Democrats and I am here to tell you personally that I reject it. It’s morally wrong. It is wrong in every sense of the word.

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