Big Apple rotten to the core at Trump's Garden party

A 'surreal' return to New York saw 19,000 people cheer on crude insults and attacks nine days before the US election

- Alex Woodward

The crowd was beaming with optimism, shaking hands and embracing friends and strangers, all dressed head to toe in patriotic colors – then digested six hours of borderline racist, profanity-filled remarks and vulgar insults aimed at their political opponents.

A long list of Donald Trump’s high-profile allies at his massive Madison Square Garden rally labelled Kamala Harris “the antichrist” and “the devil” and lamented “fucking illegals.” Tucker Carlson joked that Trump’s Democratic rival – a Black and Indian-American woman – is “the first Samoan, Malaysian, low IQ” presidential nominee.

“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. I think it’s called Puerto Rico,” said comedian Tony Hinchliffe, who goes by the stage name Kill Tony.

The Manhattan arena, which seats roughly 19,500 people, was nearly filled to capacity on Sunday, with supporters filling the rafters and suites and lingering in hallways and stairwells. Hundreds of people who couldn’t get inside were glued to a large screen and speakers blasting his address towards the street from the steps.

A woman covered head to toe in red, white and blue sequins and “Maga” decals wore the outfit to celebrate her 20th rally since 2020. Thousands of others wore T-shirts saying they were “voting for the felon” and “fuck Joe Biden.”

More than nine years after he descended golden escalators from his Trump Tower on Fifth Avenue, and nearly five months to the day he was criminally convicted for conspiring to interfere in the 2016 election, Trump had his name in lights in one of the biggest marquees in town, sneering back at a city he claims is falling apart without him.