To all the Republicans who are shedding alligator tears because their feelings were so hurt that people were calling Donald Trump a fascist: stop.
To all the MAGA defenders who said it was too much to compare Trump's Madison Square Garden rally to the one held by the German-American Bund in the pre-installation of Madison Square Garden: shush.
For all those who once again fell for the bought and paid narrative that Trump somehow had momentum heading into the final week of the 2024 campaign: no.
On Sunday at MSG, Donald Trump did what will be seen by political analysts and later historians as coup de grace that forever killed his presidential hopes and may have put him on a post-election course where he may finally be held accountable for his actions.
This endless rally concluded with an endless, incoherent, incoherent and clearly bad speech of the former president, may have been praised by Trump's son Don Jr., one of the former president's warm-up acts, as “the returning king of New York.” to get his crown back.” But Trump has never been the king of New York. (Sorry, Lara, your father-in-law didn't “build” New York. Immigrants did. But we'll get to that in a minute.)
Trump has been loathed in New York City, especially in his Manhattan neighborhood where the vote against him was more than 80 percent. But if he was hated before, rest assured, he will be hated even more after tonight.
That was clear from the start when Tony Hinchcliffe, the man Trump invited to deliver one of the keynote speeches — who, in true MAGA fashion without giving the slightest hint that he was a comedian — served up a KKK buffet of offensive rhetoric. He called Puerto Rico “an island of floating garbage.”
“There's a lot going on. I don't know if you know this but there is a floating island of garbage in the middle of the ocean right now. I think it's called Puerto Rico” pic.twitter.com/IXbXqDijyU
– Acyn (@Acyn) October 27, 2024
The “joke” was as stupid as it was disgusting because there are about 600,000 Puerto Ricans in New York City and many more spread out in the most important areas of the upcoming election. It also happened on the day that Vice President Kamala Harris announced her detailed and thoughtful plan for Puerto Rico, the island Trump wanted to trade to Denmark for Greenland.
But this winner did not stop there. He offered a not-so-funny comment about his opinion that Latinos “like to make babies” and a reference to how his Black friends loved carving watermelons.
You might think that a few racist comments from another speaker might not warrant a comment that compared a Trump rally to a Nazi rally 85 years ago. But his words weren't too bad. And the racism and hate and violence and the promise of a growing empire continued from the beginning of the event to the end.
One speaker said Harris was being run by “pimp bosses” and said of Democrats that “we need to kill these other people.” Disgraced and demoralized former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani said, as did many others, that the Democrats were behind the assassination attempt on Donald Trump. Another speaker called Harris the “devil” and the “antichrist.”
Former Trump aide Stephen Miller as usual went straight to the Nazi playbook saying, “America is for Americans and Americans only.” Tucker Carlson came out to offer some racist remarks about Harris. Hulk Hogan tore his shirt off when he said he didn't see any Nazis in the audience (thus proving that drug abuse can not only shrink your junk but is also not good for your eyes).
Elon Musk was there acting weird and promising to reduce the size of government (except for the parts that support his businesses).
As an aside, it's worth noting the irony of Musk appearing at a rally condemning illegal immigration when recent revelations seem to confirm that he himself was an illegal immigrant. That is not just hypocrisy. If he lied about any aspect of his citizenship or travel status when filling out the forms required to obtain the Top Secret clearance that this phone friend of Vladimir Putin has, it's a crime and it wouldn't just cause his clearance to be revoked it would be bad. his business affairs and his ability to live in the United States. No wonder he is perfect for the only “politician” in America who can forgive his crimes in a heartbeat.
Trump attacked the media, inciting the crowd to anger reporters in the crowd. He said immigrants took over Times Square (9 blocks north of downtown where the meeting was held). He called the US an occupied country, which, while bad, is better than referring to it as a garbage dump one day. He called Harris “a person with a low IQ.” He told so many lies that the cable networks pulled him because it was impossible to keep looking at him for the truth. He returned to old themes like the strange idea that Harris would bring back the draft and start World War Three.
Most importantly from the point of view of confirming his fascism he reiterated that his opponents were “enemies of the people.” (You know the ones he promised to let the US war against.) He called them “the worst and most corrupt forces in the world.”
In other words the whole event despite its marathon length and hodgepodge of z-list speakers, repeatedly presented a very focused message. Trump's campaign is about revenge and revenge. It is about the white supremacy's desire to cleanse America of all its neighbors of different colors and creeds. It's about Trump's desire to seek out his enemies and punish them. And during its Wagnerian length (and resonances) it divides group by group that would otherwise be exiled or punished.
From a political point of view it is a suicidal strategy. This meeting is likely to alienate many voters who might have voted for Trump and it is hard to imagine him winning a single new vote. (Unless there's a Franz Liebkind somewhere who's been too busy writing “Springtime for Hitler” to pay attention to the campaign so far.) It was a base game where Trump's biggest problem in this election is piercing his campaign. solid stone roof about 47 percent of the voters.
But worse, unlike the Bund rally, Trump's was not an unusual story. It was led by a former president of the United States on behalf of nearly half of the American population.
Its threats to legitimize it are supported by attempts during Trump's first presidency to subvert the law and crimes involving coup attempts we all saw with our own eyes. Its future plans for US concentration camps and mass deportations and the use of the military against the American people are carefully crafted, and there is a plan to put them in place.
That's why Sunday's Trump rally at Madison Square Garden was, as it turned out, even worse than its predecessor. It should chill Americans to the bone. But, I expect it will do more than that. I believe it will rally many voters to take action on November 5th to stop the 21st century fascism of Trump and MAGA.
It's possible that Trump thinks that the meeting will help him mobilize the mob to turn violent if he opposes his loss and we should be wary of that. But on the eve of the election he gave the best case for why he should lose that has ever been presented. In the end, because what happened was dirty and very offensive and threatening to many of us, I believe that is why one day we will conclude that for all intents and purposes Trump's last political act took place in the largest arena in the largest American city, a few blocks from Broadway.
