By james art Donald Trump held a raucous rally at New York’s Madison Square Garden on Sunday to kick off the final full week of the presidential campaign, complete with celebrity guests and a new economic proposal.
But repeated insults and at times racist and misogynistic remarks from guest speakers threatened to attract the most attention.
The final weeks of the campaign are often when candidates present a unifying message to rally as many voters as possible. Instead, Trump’s rally at Madison Square Garden was marred by profanity, racist jokes about Latinos and misogynistic remarks.
The focus could help Trump grab headlines and mobilize some existing supporters, though it’s unlikely to bring in new voters already turned off by some of the Republican presidential nominee’s rhetoric.
The first speaker at the former president’s rally in Madison Square Garden, roast comedian and podcast host Tony Hinchcliffe, set the tone with a dismissive joke about welcoming Latinos to the US “with open arms” while doing a push-up motion.
He also disparaged Latinos with a crude joke about baby-making and illegal immigration, joked that Puerto Rico was a “floating island of garbage” and joked that Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce “could be the next O.J. Simpson,” referring to a football star who was accused and later acquitted for killing his ex-wife.
Kelce has a relationship with pop singer Taylor Swift, who earlier this year said she would vote for Vice President Kamala Harris.
Trump has made anti-immigrant rhetoric the centerpiece of his campaign. As president, he has also talked about ending automatic citizenship for babies born in the US to noncitizens — though many scholars agree that changing the law may require a constitutional amendment.
The Trump campaign is currently struggling to get votes from women and Latinos. Polls show the gender gap in this year’s election could be the largest in history. Harris’s campaign, in contrast, highlights stories of women whose lives have been threatened by strict abortion bans.
The Harris campaign immediately seized on Hinchcliffe’s remarks about Puerto Rico. In a tweet posted after his introduction, Hinchcliffe wrote back: “These people have no sense of humor.” He also added, “I love Puerto Rico and vacationing there. I was making fun of everyone… watch the whole set.”
Defining who is an American
The rally brought together high-profile Trump supporters, including Terry Bolea – better known as professional wrestler Hulk Hogan – TV personality Dr. Phil McGraw and singer-songwriter Lee Greenwood.
But other Trump allies called for an “us vs. them” mentality. Radio host Sid Rosenberg insulted former Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, as well as the Democratic Party as a whole.
“The whole party – a bunch of degenerates,” he added. “Jew-haters and scumbags, every one of them.”
Multiple speakers also slammed Harris, with private equity fund manager Grant Cardone calling her a “phony.” “She and her pimps will destroy our country,” he said.
Conservative commentator Tucker Carlson later mocked Harris’ mixed racial heritage.
“It will be quite difficult [for Democrats] to look at us and say, “You know what? Kamala Harris, she got 85 million votes because she’s so impressive. As the first low-IQ former California DA from Samoa and Malaysia to ever be elected president. It was just a wave of popular support.”
Carlson went beyond the insults by nodding to the racist “grand replacement theory” he has espoused in the past.
“People know that in a country that has been taken over by a leadership class that actually despises them and their values, their history, their culture and their customs, really hates them to the point of trying to replace them,” he said. “They know someone who really loves them and that’s Donald Trump. And it pays off.”
That sentiment was echoed later when former Trump White House aide Stephen Miller told the crowd, “America is for Americans and Americans alone.”
Tax credits and the “enemy from within”
After a more than four-hour preliminary program of speakers, Melania Trump made a rare appearance on the campaign trail, introducing her husband.
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In his speech, Trump began by laying out his economic message, emphasizing the inflation that hit the country under Biden and saying he would fix it.
He also announced a new policy, saying he would introduce a tax credit for people caring for family members at home.
Harris earlier this month announced his own plan to expand Medicare to cover this type of care.
Trump also devoted much of his speech, as he often does, to the topic of undocumented immigrants.
“Once I take office, the migrant invasion of our country ends and the rebuilding of our country begins,” he told the crowd.
Trump also took time to address a recent Fox News interview in which he characterized “radical left-wing lunatics” as the “enemy from within” and suggested using the military against them.
He stood by those comments at Sunday night’s rally.
“They are clever and vicious and we must defeat them,” he said. “And when I say ‘the enemy within,’ the other side goes crazy. There is a sound – “oh, how can he say” – no, they did very bad things to this country. They really are an enemy from within.”
However, Trump still tried to turn his speech into a message of unity.
“The Republican Party has really become the party of inclusion, and there’s something good about that,” he said at the end of his remarks.
NPR’s Stephen Fowler contributed to this report.
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