As hordes of supporters gathered inside and outside the Madison Square Garden less than a week before the US election, former president Donald Trump returned to the city that established him as a flamboyant property developer, who found his place in popular culture through media appearances and stunts well before he ran for office in 2020.
Trump returned to New York with an armada of supporting speakers, even as political experts dubbed the chances of the rally flipping the blue state as a "miracle".
Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk, Republican vice presidential nominee JD Vance, four-time Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard, New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani, Ultimate Fighting Championship CEO Dana White, comedian and host of "Kill Tony" podcast Tony Hinchcliffe, former WWE wrestler Hulk Hogan and Robert F Kennedy Jr were among the 30 speakers apart from Trump.
Here are the key statements by speakers at the Make America Great again rally in New York:
- “Kamala (Harris), you're fired!” Mr. Trump said, returning to the line that he first made famous as host of “The Apprentice.”
- "You've destroyed our country. We're not going to take it anymore, Kamala," the 78-year-old Trump told rally attendees.
- "We will rapidly defeat inflation, and we will very simply make America affordable again," Trump said.
- In a confrontation with China, “we will kick their ass”, Trump said, asserting, “We have the greatest military in the world”.
- He said that if he were the president, Russia would not have invaded Ukraine or Hamas attacked Israel. “Ukraine was the apple of his (Putin's) eye, but I said, Vladimir, don't go in,” Trump said.
- “This is the city where I was born and raised, and this is the town that taught me that Americans can do anything,” he said, while talking about New York City.
- “We bleed the same blood. we share the same hope. we are one people, one family, and one glorious nation under God,” he said.
- Elon Musk claimed that he would cut $2 trillion from the current federal budget of $6.5 trillion. “Your money is being wasted,” Musk . “We're going to get the government off your back and out of your pocket book.”
- "There's literally a floating island of garbage in the middle of the ocean right now. I think it's called Puerto Rico," said Tony Hinchcliffe. He went on to mock Hispanics as failing to use birth control, Jews as cheap and Palestinians as rock-throwers.
- “I don't take a risk with people that are taught to kill Americans at 2,” Rudy Guiliani said. “I'm on the side of Israel.”
- Tucker Carlson, a former Fox News talk show host, ridiculed Harris, whose mother is Indian, as “a Samoan, Malaysian, low-IQ”.
An iconic venue with a dark history
Home to some of the biggest events in history, the 20,000-seat arena has seen iconic performances by the Rolling Stones, Madonna, Frank Sinatra, Marilyn Monroe and U2, apart from appearances by two popes and "the Greatest" Muhammad Ali. Its darker history though includes a far-right rally in 1939, complete with eagles, Nazi insignia and Hitler salutes. Around 20,000 US-based Nazi sympathizers gathered under the banner of "Americanization," denouncing Jewish "conspiracies" and then-president Franklin D. Roosevelt, sparking fierce counter-protests outside. A week later, tens of thousands attended a communist rally at the Garden.
The Garden has also Democratic and Republican National Conventions since the 1800s, while Marilyn Monroe took the stage in 1962 to sing “Happy Birthday” to President John F Kennedy.
This Garden was also the site of the 1976, 1980 and 1992 Democratic National Conventions and the 2004 Republican National Convention, according to New York Times. Jimmy Carter referred to the Vietnam War and the Watergate scandal as he accepted his nomination. Carter returned in 1980, bagging another nomination. As Democrats met again in 1992, Bill Clinton accepted his nomination. The only Republican Party convention held at Madison Square Garden convention was in 2004, when New York was reeling from the 9/11 attacks at the World Trade Center. “We will build a safer world and a more hopeful America, and nothing will hold us back,” President George W Bush had said.
The arena hosted both Herbert Hoover and Franklin Delano Roosevelt in their campaigns. Roosevelt beat Hoover, then spoke at the Garden again during his 1936 and 1940 campaigns. “Never before in all our history have these forces been so united against one candidate as they stand today,” Roosevelt said. “They are unanimous in their hate for me — and I welcome their hatred.”
However, among the most chaotic political events was the 1924 Democratic Convention, where the party took 16 days and 103 votes to pick a candidate.
