Former President Donald Trump’s Madison Square Garden MAGA rally Sunday touched off a firestorm of controversy and condemnation because of a series of crude, racist and misogynistic remarks by some of the speakers.
The event was supposed to be an attention-grabbing opportunity for the Republican nominee to deliver an appealing closing message to voters — a message that included a host of superlative-laden Trumpian promises, including a pledge to usher in “the four greatest years in the history of our country,” and repeated attacks on Vice President Kamala Harris.
“I’m here today with a message of hope for all Americans,” Trump said. “With your vote in this election, I will end inflation, I will stop the invasion of criminals coming into our country and we will bring back the American dream.”
But Trump’s remarks — and a couple of fiscal plans announced during the rally — were largely overshadowed by the insults and attacks lobbed by many of the speakers who took the stage before him. A friend of Trump’s called Harris “the Antichrist” and “the devil.” Another speaker warned that Harris “and her pimp handlers will destroy our country.” Former Trump White House aide Stephen Miller declared that “America is for Americans and Americans only.” And comic Tony Hinchcliffe sparked perhaps the strongest backlash by calling Puerto Rico a “floating island of garbage,” among other insults aimed at Latinos, Jews and Black people.
That line quickly drew fierce criticism, including from some Republican officials. Puerto Rican megastar Bad Bunny responded by publicly throwing his support behind Harris, sharing a video of her to his 45 million Instagram followers. And the Harris campaign quickly released an ad Monday highlighting the “garbage” line and Trump’s response to Hurricane Maria.
The Trump campaign issued a statement distancing the candidate from the comic. “This joke does not reflect the views of President Trump or the campaign,” senior adviser Danielle Alvarez said in a statement. But the damage could be costly; there are nearly 500,000 Puerto Ricans living in Pennsylvania.
President Joe Biden on Monday called the Trump rally “simply embarrassing” and said it reinforces why this election is so important.
Trump floats a new tax break: As they have for much of Trump’s campaign, Sunday’s insults and attacks drew attention away from policy matters. Trump did, however, offer a new economic proposal to his list of proposed tax breaks, which includes an end to taxation of tips, Social Security benefits and overtime pay.
“I’m announcing a new policy today that I will support a tax credit for family caregivers who take care of a parent or a loved one,” Trump said. “It’s about time that they were recognized, right? They add so much to our country and are never spoken of, ever, ever, ever, but they’re going to be spoken of now.”
That proposal may be a response of sorts to Harris’s recently announced plan to have Medicare cover in-home care for seniors. Harris had pitched that plan to help the so-called “sandwich generation” of adults caring for both parents and children.
Musk says he could cut $2 trillion in spending: Billionaire Tesla founder Elon Musk, who Trump has said would lead a government efficiency commission if he’s elected to a second term, suggested at the rally that he could find ways to massively slash federal spending.
The federal government spent nearly $6.8 trillion in fiscal year 2024, but Musk predicted Sunday that he could cut that by at least $2 trillion going forward. “Your money is being wasted and the department of government efficiency is going to fix that,” Musk said.
Bloomberg’s Steven T. Dennis calls that “a lofty goal that would require a level of austerity unprecedented since the winding down of World War II.” Dennis notes that cuts that large would exceed federal spending on government agencies, including defense, and “would likely require making significant cuts to popular entitlement programs such as Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid and veterans’ benefits.”
Such a drastic reshaping of the federal budget would likely be difficult or impossible to get through Congress, though Trump has proposed using impoundment authority to block spending approved by Congress, an approach that would challenge a 1974 law limiting presidential power to withhold appropriated funds.
The bottom line: Trump’s New York event, a detour from campaigning in battleground states, was intended to draw national attention, and it certainly did that. But it’s not at all clear that the headlines coming out of the rally will help his campaign as he tries to boost turnout and convince any remaining persuadable voters to cast their ballots for him.
