Donald J. Trump’s closing rally at Madison Square Garden on the second-to-last Sunday before the election devolved into a shocking showcase of anger and divisiveness. With only nine days left in an increasingly tense race, the event, rather than projecting a hopeful campaign message, transformed into a vivid manifestation of the darker impulses that have fuelled the MAGA movement.
The rally commenced with a comic who set the tone for the evening with derogatory remarks about Puerto Rico, dismissively referring to it as a “floating island of garbage.” This jarring introduction paved the way for a litany of offensive jibes aimed at various groups. Hispanics were mocked for purportedly failing to use birth control, while Jews were caricatured as cheap, and Palestinians were reduced to “rock-throwers.” The atmosphere turned particularly uncomfortable when the comic made an allusion to a Black individual in the crowd, referencing a stereotype related to watermelon.
As the rally progressed, the hostility only intensified. One of the speakers drew harsh comparisons between Vice President Kamala Harris and a prostitute, employing disrespectful terms such as “pimp handlers” to demean her. Another speaker unleashed equally inflammatory rhetoric, calling her “the Antichrist,” underlining the rally’s tone of misogyny and contempt.
Even former Fox News host Tucker Carlson fuelled the fire of xenophobia with a fabricated and derogatory ethnic identity for Harris, describing her as a contender to be “the first Samoan-Malaysian, low IQ former California prosecutor ever to be elected president.” Such attacks epitomise the troubling narrative that has crept into parts of American political discourse.
By the time Trump took the stage, the atmosphere was charged with an unsettling energy; what was initially marketed as the closing message of his campaign quickly morphed into an extended rant of grievances, punctuated by blatant misogyny and racism. The rally served not only as a reflection of the former president’s response to his impeachment, indictments, and legal challenges but also as a resonance of a more profound discontent with the current political landscape.