1 of 11 | Republican Nominee and former President of the United States Donald J. Trump speaks at a rally at Madison Square Garden in New York City on Sunday, October 27, 2024. Photo by John Angelillo/UPI |
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Oct. 27 (UPI) -- Donald Trump on Sunday capped off a marathon campaign rally in New York City by repeating lies and personal attacks about his opponent in an event that featured racist remarks, vulgar insults and profanity-laden tirades from warm-up speakers.
The crowd, which cheered loudly at the beginning of Trump's remarks at Madison Square Garden, began to trickle out as the GOP presidential nominee sounded off on familiar themes, lobbed insults at his opponent, Kamala Harris, and claimed the vice president would start World War III if re-elected.
Trump has taken claims that rally crowds dwindle the longer he speaks personally. He also often makes claims that no one leaves his rallies early while exaggerating the size of the gatherings.
During his roughly hour-and-20-minute-long speech, Trump framed the election as a choice between four more years of "gross incompetence and failure" and the start of "the four greatest years in the history of our country."
"This will be America's new golden age," he said. "It's gonna happen quickly, too, very quickly."
He attacked Harris and the Biden administration on the southern border using inflammatory language while describing those seeking asylum in the United States and migrants as criminals and gang members.
She accused Harris of having "unleashed an army of migrant gangs who are waging a campaign of violence and terror against our citizens," despite undocumented immigrants commit crimes at a lower rate than U.S. born citizens.
"Kamala has imported criminal migrants from prisons and jails, insane asylums and mental institutions from all around the world," he falsely claimed.
"But the day I take the oath of office, the migrant invasion of our country ends and the restoration of our country begins."
He described the United States as an "occupied country" and the day he takes office as "liberation day" as it will coincide with the deporation of migrants.
The nearly three-hour-long event featured volatile speakers spewing hate as Trump begins to wrap up his third campaign for office.
As has been the case with many high-profile Trump rallies, including the Republican National Convention, the New York City event included speakers spewing increasingly inflammatory, caustic and often false rhetoric, leading up to a grand finale with Trump basking in the adulation of raucous supporters wearing MAGA hats, waving signs and sporting other Trump-themed accessories.
Harris, meanwhile, campaigned in Pennsylvania.
Comedian Tony Hinchcliffe, an early speaker at the New York City rally who goes by the name Kill Tony, was greeted with by a mixed reaction from the crowd when he attempted a denigrating joke about U.S. territory Puerto Rico.
"There's a lot going on. Like, I don't know if you know this but there's literally a floating island of garbage in the middle of the ocean right now. I think it's called Puerto Rico," Hinchcliffe said.
Hinchcliffe also joked that Latino's have a large number of children and don't use birth control, while using sexually suggestive terms.
"As a Puerto Rican, I am tempted to call Hinchcliffe racist garbage but doing so would be an insult to garbage," Rep. Ritchie Torres, D-N.Y., posted on the social platform X in response to Heathcliff's statements.
"When casting their ballots at the voting booth, Latinos should never forget the racism that Donald Trump seems all too willing to platform."
Hinchcliffe's remarks could backfire in Pennsylvania, an extremely important swing state critical to both candidates' trajectory to the White House. Its 579,000 eligible Latino voters -- who account for nearly 6% of its electorate -- could prove pivotal on Election Day, as the vote margin in Pennsylvania during the last two presidential election was thin.
Hinchcliffe's speech also included derogatory remarks about Latinos generally, Black people, Palestinians and Jews.
The comic's remarks were part of a stream of ugly, crass and often crude rhetoric that permeated Madison Square Garden on Sunday in the build up to Trump's remarks.
Harris "and her pimp handlers will destroy our country," businessman Grant Cardone told the raucous crowd.
David Rem, a childhood friend of Trump, called Harris "the anti-Christ."
Dressed in bright orange and flamboyant clothes, his hair and mustache dyed a stark white, sporting sunglasses and a bandana on his head, former WWE star Hulk Hogan exhorted the crowd by yelling and screaming before ripping off a layer of his clothing to reveal a Trump-themed tank top, much as he did months ago at the Republican National Convention.
"Usually when I'm in MSG, I'm bodyslamming giants and I'm cracking people over the heads with steel chairs. But the energy in MSG is off the scale. Today, the energy of all these Trump-a-maniacs is the most powerful force in the universe," Hogan growled.
SpaceX and Tesla CEO Elon Musk told the cheering crowd that he could save Americans money over the current Biden-Harris $6.5 billion spending plan.
"I think we could do a least a couple trillion," Musk quipped off the cuff. He then prompted a spontaneous "USA" chant in a rambling, directionless address, hooting and yelling at times.
"We're gonna get the government off your back and out of your pocketbook. America is not just going to be great, America's gonna reach height's it has never seen before. The future is gonna me amazing!" he yelled.
Trump has said that if elected, Musk could run a new department, specifically the department of government efficiency that would oversee agencies that regulate his own businesses.
Just days after being ordered by a federal judge to turn over his valuable possessions and his Manhattan penthouse to Georgia election workers he defamed, former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani received a standing ovation at the rally in the runup to remarks by vice-presidential candidate Sen. JD Vance of Ohio and Trump.
During his speech, Giuliani railed against Trump's four indictments and said, "If they indicted him one more time he would've been elected by acclamation."
"Every American should take an oath to make this country better than it was handed to him or her," Giuliani continued. "If I died now, I would break that oath because America is not better today than it was when it was handed to me or than it was four years ago. But in a few weeks, we get a chance to change that."
Former first lady Melania Trump also spoke at the Sunday rally, a rare public appearance for Trump's third wife.
Parts of Melania Trump's speech during the 2016 Republican National Convention are widely believed to have been plagiarized from a speech delivered by first lady Michelle Obama at the Democratic National Convention in 2008.
The Garden, which seats 19,500 people, opened its doors around noon EDT to Trump supporters, many of whom camped outside overnight Saturday. The event began around 5 p.m.
Meanwhile, Harris delivered remarks at a Black church, followed by a a visit to a barbershop.
She was also scheduled to visit a Puerto Rican restaurant and speak with families at a youth basketball center.
The Trump campaign has described the Madison Square Garden rally as "historic" with a star-studded list of speakers including Musk, former Fox News host Tucker Carlson and UFC chief executive Dana White.