Donald Trump rallied thousands of supporters Sunday at New York’s Madison Square Garden, aiming to energise his base in the Democratic stronghold. Opening speakers at the 20,000-seat venue drew cheers with criticisms of rival Kamala Harris, Puerto Rico, and Latinos, marking a fiery campaign push ahead of the election.
decades, hoped to use the event at the iconic venue known for Knicks basketball games and Billy Joel concerts to deliver his closing argument against
Democratic candidate Kamala Harris, even though the state last backed a Republican presidential candidate in 1984.
“I’d like to begin by asking a very simple question. Are you better off now than you were four years ago?” Trump said at the start of his speech. The crowd shouted: “No
Donald Trump rallied thousands of supporters Sunday at New York’s Madison Square Garden, aiming to energise his base in the Democratic stronghold. Opening speakers at the 20,000-seat venue drew cheers with criticisms of rival Kamala Harris, Puerto Rico, and Latinos, marking a fiery campaign push ahead of the election.
Trump, a New York celebrity for decades, hoped to use the event at the iconic venue known for Knicks basketball games and Billy Joel concerts to deliver his closing argument against
Democratic candidate Kamala Harris, even though the state last backed a Republican presidential candidate in 1984.
“I’d like to begin by asking a very simple question. Are you better off now than you were four years ago?” Trump said at the start of his speech. The crowd shouted: “No.”
Donald Trump’s rally ended with a singer belting out New York, New York, an ode to the former president’s hometown – but a place where he is unlikely to win.
This speech was pretty similar to the one he delivers regularly on the campaign trail but he put on a show for supporters who came from all over to the country to hear him speak at Madison Square Garden, one of the country’s most vaunted venues.
By delivering his campaign closing argument in a safe Democratic area, Trump secured massive media attention – and ensured millions of people would see an arena full of his supporters who waited for hours on the streets of Manhattan to cheer him on.
For some voters, the message that could send is that it is “safe” to back Trump, amid claims by Kamala Harris and his former chief of staff that he and his policies are “fascist”.
However, the speakers who preceded Trump on stage could cast a shadow over the event.
Their dark rhetoric and offensive jokes that targeted Puerto Ricans, Latinos, black Americans and Jews may end up gaining more headlines than Trump’s speech – and cost him votes.
