Donald Trump’s rally at Madison Square Garden brought out thousands of the former president’s supporters on Sunday morning hours before the doors were set to open.
A wave of red MAGA hats could be seen packed together along 7th Avenue, 32nd and 33rd Streets near “The World’s Most Famous Arena.” Not all of the Trump crowd were New Yorkers; some rallygoers came as far away as Australia, New England and New Jersey.
“I came just to be around this atmosphere, Donald Trump is great,” Jeremy from New Jersey said. “I am a first-time voter.”
The rally was set to feature what is being billed as Trump’s closing argument ahead of the Nov. 5 presidential election between Trump, the Republican nominee, and Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris.
While Harris has worked to appeal to Republican voters frustrated with the former president over his previous criminal cases, election lies and role in the Jan. 6, 2021 insurrection on the US Capitol, MAGA rallygoers at MSG on Sunday claimed the president had been building a coalition of his own.
“I came to see today RFK Jr, because him and Trump’s bringing the Democratic crowd and the Republican crowd together. It’s the Unity Party now,” Peter Myslinski said.
However, some New Yorkers don’t agree. In response a video posted to X by amNewYork Metro, some locals expressed their outrage by seeing the MAGA crowd flood into MSG.
The first round of Trump supporters rush into MSG for today’s rally. pic.twitter.com/jyvRV60SS1
— Dean_Moses (@Dean_Moses) October 27, 2024
“They will now befoul the place of so many memorable concerts and sporting events in order for Trump to get a narcissistic boner. Kamala should show up tomorrow with Springsteen and Taylor Swift,” one user wrote.
“I would rather jump off the Brooklyn Bridge than be part of this,” another person wrote.
A number of Trump rallygoers offered their reasons for being there, using verbiage and language similar to remarks Trump has made at previously rallies.
One man, who identified himself as George, a Teamster from Long Island, claimed that there was “zero growth” in the economy.
“I’m against zero growth. I’m against this green revolution madness. I think there are basic economic issues, apart from all the other stuff, working people have a laser beam aimed at them by Democratic Party politics, okay?” George said. “I’m for drill, drill, drill. I’m for pipelines and I’m for expansion of the economy. And Democrats are telling young people that’s all over.”
In fact, the US economy appears stronger that ever, even with inflation being brought under control. The Bureau of Economic Analysis reported that personal income rose in June 2024 by $50.4 billion, and that personal income minus personal taxes also went up $37.7 billion. America’s gross domestic product is also expected to grow by 2.1% this year, another sign of economic strength. Economists, meanwhile, have warned that Trump’s tariff plan could reignite inflation in America and cause other economic harm.
Other attendee members, such as Ted, a Massachusetts resident, said he believed Trump could “negotiate the peace” and end wars in Ukraine and the Middle East.
“I like the fact that he can negotiate the peace. I believe he can keep the peace. I believe he can sit down with Putin and Xi Jinping and Bibi Netanyahu or anyone else, Zelinskyy, and he can negotiate something that will potentially be the benefit of everyone: avoid nuclear war,” Ted said.
Yet Trump has said he would not support NATO nations if Russia attacked them, and critics are concerned another Trump presidency would diminish American power overseas — and lead to a cessation of support for Ukraine in its war for survival against Putin.
Counterprotesters heard
Several counter-protests occurred near MSG in the hours leading up to Trump’s speech, with several organizations and even elected officials expected to participate. Trump is scheduled to speak to the MSG crowd on or about 5 p.m. Sunday.
The NYPD heightened security details around MSG in advance of the Trump rally. Police brass say they are keeping a watchful eye over the proceedings.
“The police department and our federal partners couldn’t be more pleased right now. It’s orderly and peaceful, so far so good,” NYPD Chief of Patrol John Chell said midday Sunday, adding that the streets near the Garden were not expected to reopen until the evening. “We have got aviation in the air, we got transit police, our MTA partners down below. We have got our state partners up here.”
One of the counterprotesters in attendance at 8th Avenue and 33rd Street, Nadine Siler, expressed “embarrassment” over the Trump rally.
“I am embarrassed that 48% of the population in this country is willing to allow somebody who says that he wants to be a dictator only on day one, but he has told 30,000, 30,500 lies in four years, much less before and after,” Siler said. “I am embarrassed that with the access that we have, the information that our population is so gullible, so misinformed, and not using critical thinking, I am embarrassed.”
Siler also expressed concerns over Project 2025, a right-wing agenda pushed by The Heritage Foundation which Trump has publicly claimed to have disavowed — though some of his most loyal followers have crafted it.
“[Trump’s] name is mentioned over 300 times in Project 2025, and people need to look it up,” she added. “It is a blueprint to overhaul the American government as we know it. People keep saying all that can happen here because of checks and balances. They are going to gut the federal government of judges, doctors, lawyers, scientists, judges, whoever is going to tell Trump, ‘No.’ They’re going to gut the federal government of those people, and they’re going to put in loyalists to him who are going to tell him yes for anything that he wants.”
Another counterprotester, Ben Murphy, compared Trump’s rally at MSG to the infamous America First rally held in 1939, at a previous version of Madison Square Garden in Manhattan, held by the German American Bund — an organization that sympathized with Nazi Germany.
“It just rhymes too much with the rally that took place here in 1939, and there needs to be a light bulb off for people,” Murphy said. “This is getting kind of dangerous, and at least, if we can tell people like what his staff has been been saying, then hopefully it’ll resonate with some people — so that we don’t blindly walk into a fascist government.”
