 "Just how racist and misogynist was Donald Trump’s New York City rally?")
With seven days to go, the campaign for the US presidential election has entered the final week. Donald Trump hosted a rally at Madison Square Garden on Sunday, which ended with an 80-minute long speech where he hit out at his rivals, criticised immigrants and spoke of mass deportation. Along with the Republican nominee, grabbing headlines was the opening act filled with racist insults, crude remarks and vitriol.
From donors to MAGA politicians and entertainers, everyone spoke the same language – it was coarse and vulgar.
Here’s what happened at New York’s Madison Square Garden on Sunday.
Puerto Rico, a ‘floating island of garbage”
The Madison Square Garden rally began with Tony Hinchcliffe, a stand-up comic and podcast host, who insulted Puerto Rico. “I don’t know if you guys 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. The set also included lewd and racist comments about Latinos, Jews and Black people, all key constituencies in the 5 November election .
The line was probably inspired by Trump who recently called the US “a garbage can for the world”, as he assailed illegal immigrants.
Hinchcliff’s joke was immediately criticised by Harris’ campaign as it competes with Trump to win over Puerto Rican communities in Pennsylvania and other swing states. Puerto Rican music superstar Bad Bunny backed Harris shortly after Hinchcliffe’s appearance.
The comic also assailed Latinos. “These Latinos, they love making babies, too. Just know that they do.”
The normally pugnacious 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.
The rally was held in New York, home to the largest Puerto Rican population on the US mainland, reports CNN.
Republican Senator Rick Scott, whose reelection campaign depends on sizable support from Florida’s Puerto Rican community, did not appreciate the “joke”. “It’s not funny and it’s not true. Puerto Ricans are amazing people and amazing Americans,” he wrote on X.
Likening Kamala Harris to a prostitute
Some speakers, who took to the stage before Trump, labelled Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris “the devil” and said the woman vying to become the first woman and Black woman president had begun her career as a prostitute.
Trump’s childhood friend and Republican politician David Rem also referred to the vice president as “the Antichrist” and “the devil.” Businessman Grant Cardone told the crowd that Harris ”and her pimp handlers will destroy our country.”
The views at the rally reflect those of Trump who has often used sexist and racist jibes to attack Harris. Though he refrained from doing so Sunday, throughout his campaign, the former president has torn into his opponent in offensive and personal terms, questioning in recent weeks her mental stability and her intelligence as well as calling her “lazy,” long a racist trope used against Black people.
Another warm-up act was by former Fox News host Tucker Carlon . He wrongly branded Harris as “Samoan-Malaysian”. “It’s gonna be pretty hard to look at (the country after Harris wins) and say, you know what, Kamala Harris, she got 85 million votes because she’s so impressive – as the first Samoan, Malaysian, low IQ former California prosecutor ever to be elected president,” he ranted.
“No fair system would elevate someone like Kamala Harris to a presidential nomination… She’s never been accused of doing anything useful. She has precisely no achievements. She’s a nominee without getting a single vote,” said the rabid right-winger.
Later, Trump too called Harris a “very low IQ individual” and drew cheers from his supporters.
‘America is for Americans only’
Carlson also spoke about the racist “great replacement theory”, which he had peddled in the past. “People know in a country that has been taken over by a leadership class that actually despises them and their values and their history and their culture and their customs, really hates them to the point that it’s trying to replace them,” he said, according to NPR. “They know someone who actually has affection for them and that’s Donald Trump. And it’s requited.”
A similar sentiment was echoed by former White House aide Stephen Miller. “America is for Americans and Americans only.”
Hillary Clinton, a ‘sick son of a b*tch’
Another speaker Sid Rosenberg attacked Hillary Clinton, the Democratic nominee who lost to Trump eight years ago. “She is some sick bastard, that Hillary Clinton, huh,” he said, repeating what Trump has said in the past. “What a sick son of a b*tch.”
The radio host then went on to attack the Democratic party. “The whole party — a bunch of degenerates… Jew-haters and lowlifes, every one of them.”
He then attacked migrants living in New York City. “You got homeless and veterans – Americans, Americans – sleeping on their own feces on a bench in Central Park,” Rosenberg said. “But the f**king illegals, they get whatever they want, don’t they?”
The other high-profiles who attended the rally were billionaire Elon Musk , Senator JD Vance, Donald Trump Jr, Robert F Kennedy Jr, Hulk Hogan and Speaker Mike Johnson.
Trump promises ‘largest deportation’ programme in US history
After a spectacle of speakers who delivered some shocking comments, Trump was introduced by his wife Melania Trump, in a rare appearance on the campaign trail.
On Sunday, the former president added a new proposal to his list of tax cuts aimed at winning over older adults and blue-collar workers, which already includes vows to end taxes on Social Security benefits, tips and overtime pay: A tax credit for family caregivers.
This comes after Harris has talked about the “sandwich generation” of adults caring for ageing parents while raising their children at the same time. Harris has proposed federal funding to cover home care costs for older Americans.
Trump otherwise repeated familiar lines about foreign policy and immigration, calling for the death penalty for any migrant who kills a US citizen. He said that the day he takes office, “The migrant invasion of our country ends”, calling the date of his possible election a “liberation day”.
He spoke repeatedly about his plans to halt illegal immigration and deport migrants he described as “vicious and bloodthirsty criminals” if he wins the election. “On day one I will launch the largest deportation program in American history… I will rescue every city and town that has been invaded and conquered.”
Democrats compare New York event to pro-Nazi rally
Some Democrats called Trump a fascist, comparing his Sunday event to a pro-Nazi rally at the Garden in February 1939. The biggest Nazi event in US history took place at the Madison Square Garden in 1939, just months before World War II.
Former US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has accused Trump of re-enacting the 1939 rally, calling him “more unhinged, more unstable” than when she faced him in 2016.
Trump’s opponents portray him as a dangerous authoritarian with some calling a possible second Trump term the Third Reich.
Recently, Trump’s former chief of staff John Kelly told The New York Times that Trump had said he wished his military personnel showed him the same deference Adolf Hitler’s Nazi generals showed the German dictator. The former president has denied the claim.
Speakers at the Trump rally did not let it pass. “Hey guys, they’re now scrambling and trying to call us Nazis and fascists,” said Alina Habba, one of Trump’s attorneys, who draped a sparkly “MAGA” jacket over the lectern as she spoke.
Declared Hogan in his raspy growl, “I don’t see no stinkin’ Nazis in here.”
Madison Square Garden was buzzing with MAGA energy. While Democrats criticised the rally it even left some Republicans wary.
With inputs from agencies
 "Russian drones over Poland: Trump’s tepid reaction a wake-up call for Nato?")
 "As Russia pushes east, Ukraine faces mounting pressure to defend its heartland")
 "Why Mossad was not on board with Israel’s strike on Hamas in Qatar")
 "Turkey: Erdogan's police arrest opposition mayor Hasan Mutlu, dozens officials in corruption probe")
 "Russian drones over Poland: Trump’s tepid reaction a wake-up call for Nato?")
 "As Russia pushes east, Ukraine faces mounting pressure to defend its heartland")
 "Why Mossad was not on board with Israel’s strike on Hamas in Qatar")
 "Turkey: Erdogan's police arrest opposition mayor Hasan Mutlu, dozens officials in corruption probe")
