Former President Donald Trump closed his Madison Square Garden rally on Sunday with an ominous 80-minute speech denouncing his political rivals, assailing immigrants and promising to invoke an 18th-century law to pave the way for mass deportations.
But it was the opening acts of the New York City rally — a hodgepodge of donors, entertainers and MAGA politicians — who unleashed an eleventh-hour campaign furore that prompted angry rebukes from Democrats and some Republicans who worried the vengeful show would hurt their standing with moderate voters.
WATCH THE VIDEO ABOVE: Harris and Trump make final pitches.
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Local Trump loyalists, who made up many of the speakers’ list ahead of the former president, took the opportunity to spew familiar grievances at some of Trump’s favourite targets.
One failed Republican House candidate labelled Harris “the antichrist”. He hardly stood out.
The rally began with Tony Hinchcliffe, a comedian and podcast host, assailing Puerto Rico — in the city that’s home to the largest Puerto Rican population on the US mainland.
About 500,000 Puerto Ricans also live in battleground Pennsylvania, where Harris campaigned on Sunday.
“There’s a lot going on, like, I don’t know if you know this but there’s literally a floating island of garbage in the middle of the ocean right now,” he said. “I think it’s called Puerto Rico.”
The line was well-received by Trump supporters who filled the historic arena in Midtown Manhattan. Trump has recently taken to calling the US “a garbage can for the world” when he rails against undocumented immigrants.
“These Latinos, they love making babies, too. Just know that they do,” Hinchcliffe continued.
After the rally, Trump’s campaign sought to distance itself from Hinchcliffe, who like the other speakers was an invited guest, and his comments about Puerto Rico.
“This joke does not reflect the views of President Trump or the campaign,” Trump campaign spokesperson Danielle Alvarez said in a statement to CNN.
But Harris’ campaign had already seized on the attacks on Puerto Rico, quickly clipping the video and posting it on social media channels.
The vice president on Sunday visited a Puerto Rican restaurant in North Philadelphia, where she discussed her vision for the island along with plans to lower costs and create opportunity in Puerto Rican communities on the mainland.
Puerto Rican superstar Bad Bunny, whose album Un Verano Sin Ti was the most-streamed album globally in 2023, posted a video of Harris spelling out her plan for Puerto Rico to his 45 million Instagram followers shortly after Hinchcliffe left the stage.
Republican Senator Rick Scott of Florida, whose reelection campaign depends on sizable support from the state’s Puerto Rican community, joined the backlash, writing of the “joke” on X, formerly Twitter: “It’s not funny and it’s not true. Puerto Ricans are amazing people and amazing Americans!”
Hinchcliffe, also on social media, addressed the furore, saying that his critics “have no sense of humour”.
“I love Puerto Rico and vacation there. I made fun of everyone … watch the whole set,” he wrote.
Trump — who was introduced by former first lady Melania Trump in her first speaking role at a rally this cycle — largely stuck to the script in his own remarks, including his now common assertion that his political rivals represent a traitorous “enemy within”.
“We’re running against a massive, crooked, malicious leftist machine that’s running the Democrat party,” the former president said. “They are smart and vicious, they are the enemy within, we must defeat them.”
Another warm-up act, former Fox News host Tucker Carlson, reprised his old attacks on Harris and the idea, as he described it, of Americans celebrating her possible election.
“It’s gonna be pretty hard to look at (the country after Harris wins) and say, you know what, Kamala Harris, she got 85 million votes because she’s so impressive – as the first Samoan, Malaysian, low IQ former California prosecutor ever to be elected president,” said Carlson, before exclaiming that anyone who is not impressed by Harris will be called a “freak” or a “criminal”.
Later, Republican politician David Rem took the microphone to call Harris “the devil” while waving around a cross.
“She is the antichrist,” Rem wailed, before saying he planned to run for mayor.
Another speaker, radio host Sid Rosenberg — who once occupied a plum seat beside Don Imus on WFAN, the area’s largest sports station — started off by attacking Clinton, the Democratic nominee from eight years ago.
“She is some sick b****, that Hillary Clinton, huh?,” he said, channelling Trump’s own past remarks. “What a sick son of a b****.”
Rosenberg then turned his attention to migrants now living in New York City and his fury over the local government’s attempts to feed and house them.
“You got homeless and veterans – Americans, Americans – sleeping on their own faeces on a bench in Central Park,” Rosenberg said. “But the f****** illegals, they get whatever they want, don’t they?”