Trump holds bombastic, incendiary rally at Madison Square Garden

Donald Trump speaks at a campaign rally Sunday at Madison Square Garden.

Oct. 27, 2024 Updated 8:24 PM PT

The rally represents a bookend to the launch of Trump’s presidential campaign in 2015, when he announced his White House bid after descending a gold escalator at Trump Tower.
One of the speakers, comedian Tony Hinchcliffe, made disparaging comments about Puerto Rico, a U.S. territory. The Trump campaign sought to distance itself from the comments.

NEW YORK — Days before the November election, when presidential candidates typically barnstorm battleground states, former President Trump delivered a fiery, bombastic closing argument that summed up years of grievances against his perceived enemies, including Democratic rival Kamala Harris, at a rally at Madison Square Garden in New York on Sunday.

Trump repeated attacks on Harris’ intellect, calling her a “very low-IQ individual” and “a vessel” who “can’t put two sentences together” during remarks that lasted well over an hour.

“She is grossly incompetent,” he told about 20,000 people in the packed historic arena. “She’s unfit for office. Everyone knows it. No one respects her, no one trusts her, no one takes her seriously. ... On issue after issue, Kamala broke it, but I will fix it.”

Harris’ campaign described the event as “fully off the rails” before Trump spoke.

“That is no surprise, unfortunately, if you have been watching Trump for the past few weeks. Trump has repeatedly trashed America, called his fellow Americans ‘the enemy from within,’ and even said he’d use the military against them,” Harris’ campaign said in a statement.

In foreboding remarks reminiscent of his 2017 inauguration speech, Trump described a nation in dire straits, overrun by criminals, and also warned of harrowing consequences if he loses.

He also lashed out at former top military advisors who worked closely with him in the White House and have since spoken out about his leadership and demeanor — retired Marine Corps Gen. James Mattis, who served as Trump’s Defense secretary, and retired Army Gen. Mark Milley, who served as his chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. He described them as “weak” and “stupid” days after retired Marine Gen. John F. Kelly, Trump’s longest-serving White House chief of staff, warned that Trump would govern like a dictator if elected in November.

Trump spoke after a long list of acolytes during the rally, which lasted about six hours and included a number of racist comments.

Comedian Tony Hinchcliffe made disparaging comments about Puerto Rico, a U.S. territory.

“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,” he said.

Earlier, as Harris visited a Puerto Rican restaurant in Philadelphia, she spoke about her newly announced plan to improve living conditions on the Caribbean island, including modernizing its energy grid, lowering the cost of housing and promoting economic opportunity and healthcare access. The plan was promoted on social media by well-known entertainers of Puerto Rican descent, including Bad Bunny, Jennifer Lopez and Ricky Martin.

The Trump campaign later sought to distance itself from Hinchcliffe’s remarks, according to the Washington Post. Campaign advisor Danielle Alvarez said in a statement, “This joke does not reflect the views of President Trump or the campaign,” the Post reported.

Later, conservative media personality Tucker Carlson mocked the idea of Trump critics touting a Harris win next week “because she’s just so impressive as the first Samoan Malaysian low-IQ former California prosecutor ever to be elected president.” (Harris’ parents are of Jamaican and Indian descent.)

David Rem, a childhood friend of Trump’s, called Harris “the devil” and “the anti-Christ.”

The event was held at the storied Manhattan arena that hosted the “Fight of the Century” between Muhammad Ali and Joe Frazier in 1971, two popes, multiple national political conventions and countless major musical and sports events. It was also the site where Marilyn Monroe infamously sang “Happy Birthday” to President Kennedy.

Former First Lady Melania Trump, who has rarely appeared on the campaign trail and broke with her husband over abortion rights in her recently published memoir, made a surprise appearance. While she did not speak about why her husband should be elected, she focused on the city where she met him when she was working as a model.

“New York City and America needs its magic back,” she said, calling it the “future that we deserve.”

The Garden is the type of venue that suits Trump, a New York City native who reveled in his reputation as the consummate Big Apple billionaire businessman and sought-after bachelor, long before he ran for office.

“The king of New York is back in the city that he built!” his eldest son, Donald Trump Jr., said shortly before the former president spoke.

It was a theme echoed by Trump’s supporters.

“I can’t think of a more iconic rally location than Madison Square Garden,” said Andrew Ollis, who drove up from Leesburg, Va., with his father to attend the event. Both wore yellow “Trumpamania” shirts. “I believe he’s operating from a position of strength by being here.”

The rally at the Garden represents a bookend to the start of his improbable presidential campaign in 2015. After descending down a gold escalator at Trump Tower, the site of his family’s penthouse that was their primary residence until 2019, Trump announced his White House bid. Trump’s campaign billed Sunday’s appearance as a marquee event in the closing days of the campaign.

The long list of introductory speakers included Ohio Sen. JD Vance, Trump’s running mate; sons Eric Trump and Donald Jr.; daughter-in-law Lara Trump, who is the co-chair of the Republican National Committee; House Speaker Mike Johnson of Louisiana; SpaceX and X Chief Executive Elon Musk, and former New York City Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani, who was disbarred after his attempts to overturn the 2020 election and recently ordered to turn over assets to two Georgia election workers who successfully sued him for defamation.

Talk show host Phil McGraw spoke immediately after professional wrestler Hulk Hogan, who wore his signature bandanna over his highlighter yellow hair, sunglasses and a muscle shirt.

“The last thing [Trump] needs is some celebrity endorsement,” said McGraw, host of “Dr. Phil.” “What the hell do I know?”

As Vance spoke about Harris’ running mate, Tim Walz, the crowd broke into chants of “Tampon Tim,” a reference to a law the Minnesota governor signed last year requiring public schools to provide sanitary pads and tampons to fourth- to 12th-grade students.

“You all can say that. I probably shouldn’t,” Vance said, shortly before Trump Jr. described Walz with the moniker.

Vance predicted that after a Trump victory next week, they could tell Harris, “You’re fired. Go back to San Francisco where you belong. Get the hell out of the White House.” [Harris has lived in Brentwood for a decade, and in Washington, D.C., she resides in the vice president’s residence on the grounds of the U.S. Naval Observatory.]

Both Trump and Harris have recently spent time in states that will almost certainly have no effect on the result of the 2024 presidential race because of their respective partisan tilts.

On Friday, Harris was endorsed by musical icon Beyoncé in the singer’s hometown of Houston. Texas last voted for a Democrat for president in 1976, and Trump is comfortably leading in all presidential polling in the state. However, as the state’s demographics and politics are evolving, incumbent GOP Sen. Ted Cruz appears to be facing a tougher challenge than expected from Democratic Rep. Colin Allred, a former professional football player.

“We cannot let Texas flip blue,” Cruz said in an emailed fundraising appeal on Saturday. “Texas is in jeopardy.”

Harris has an even stronger lead over Trump in polls of her home state of California, where the former president rallied supporters in the Coachella Valley this month.

While California and New York are overwhelmingly Democratic, because of their size, they are home to millions of Republican voters.

The former president reportedly wants to increase his share of the popular vote, a goal that New Jersey union plumber Bob Giusti described as strategically savvy even if Trump’s chances of turning New York from blue to red are scant. The rally attendee said he believes Trump needs to win the national popular vote as well as the electoral college in order to preserve the latter.

“If he can win the popular vote as well, it can almost shut [the Democrats] up for good, and they can stop talking about taking away the electoral college,” Giusti said. “The last thing we need is for them to get in power, abolish the electoral college and have New York and California control the presidential election.”

Additionally, California and New York are home to well over a dozen competitive congressional races that are likely to determine control of the U.S. House of Representatives, according to the nonpartisan Cook Political Report.

Embattled incumbent Rep. Ken Calvert, the longest-serving GOP member of California’s congressional delegation, was endorsed by Trump the same day the Corona Republican spoke at the former president’s Coachella Valley rally.

Even though Republicans consider Manhattan enemy territory, the scene outside the arena was civil.

Donna Ingrassia, who lives in the Republican stronghold of Suffolk County, N.Y., was handing out placards that read “New York Is Trump Country” to people waiting to enter the arena.

Miles Burton and Joe Burrow, both 18, asked her, “Can we have one that says 34 felony counts?”

“That’s according to the Democrat DOJ,” Ingrassia said.

“That’s according to the law,” Burton replied.

Ingrassia asked, “So, you don’t like Trump?”

They told her they were voting for Harris.

“All right,” Ingrassia said. “That’s good. I hope you will find a way to buy a home one day.”

But she shook their hands and said she was pleased to learn that they were both registered to vote.

“This is America,” she said. “We have freedom of choice, free speech. The fact you want to go to Kamala is your choice.”

On Sunday, Harris barnstormed Philadelphia, the largest city in the critical state of Pennsylvania. As part of Democrats’ “Souls to the Polls” effort, Harris spoke at a traditionally Black church in West Philadelphia.

“We were born for a time such as this,” Harris told parishioners at the Church of Christian Compassion as they rose to their feet. “In this moment, we do face a real question: What kind of country do we want to live in? A country of chaos, fear and hate, or a country of freedom, justice and compassion?”

Later she talked to local leaders and Black men — a voting bloc that some Democrats worry Harris is underperforming with — at Philly Cuts, a nearby barber shop. She also greeted voters at a Puerto Rican restaurant in North Philadelphia and held a rally at a youth basketball center in the Northwest part of the city.

Over the following days, the vice president is scheduled to campaign in Michigan, Washington, D.C., North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Nevada and Arizona. Harris is expected to deliver her closing argument Tuesday evening — one week before election day — at the Ellipse near the White House, the site where Trump spoke on Jan 6., 2021, as Congress was preparing to certify the 2020 election, before his supporters stormed the U.S. Capitol.

After Trump’s appearance in Manhattan, he is expected to hold rallies in Georgia, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Nevada and Virginia.

Mehta reported from Los Angeles, Battaglio from New York City.