Trump packs Madison Square Garden in campaign's final stretch

By Sarah Roderick-Fitch
The Center Square

With just over a week until Election Day, former President Donald Trump headlined a star-studded rally in a jammed-packed Madison Square Garden in New York City.

Supporters filled the arena, which can hold up to nearly 20,000 people, in the heart of a deep blue state that hasn’t voted for a Republican president since Ronald Reagan.

The former president was joined by an all-star line-up, including Elon Musk, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Tucker Carlson, Hulk Hogan, Dr. Phil McGraw, Dana White, running mate Sen. J.D.  Vance and former first lady Melania Trump.

Earlier in the week, the former president’s critics – including Hillary Clinton and Democratic vice president hopeful Tim Walz – likened the event to a Nazi rally organized by the German American Bund in 1939.

Vance drew a different comparison, recalling Muhammad Ali’s “fight of the century” against Joe Frazier in 1971 and Elvis Presley’s concert in 1972. Both events unfolded before a sold-out crowd, the latter four nights in a row.

“Now on the eve of the most important election of our history, the greatest champion of them all Donald J. Trump has come to Madison Square Garden,” Vance told the crowd.

Trump took the stage two hours into the rally and wasted no time dropping a new policy alert, saying he will support a tax credit for family caregivers “who take care of a parent or a loved one,” saying that it’s “about time that they were recognized.”

The speech hit all the familiar notes as Trump promised to control inflation, protect the border, reform the immigration system and bring back the American dream, claiming the country “will be bigger, better, bolder.”

He also called for giving the death penalty to migrants convicted of killing American citizens and law enforcement officers, as well as imprisoning flag burners for one year.

Attacks on Vice President Kamala Harris also abounded as Trump admonished her intelligence and called her “purely a vessel” for the Democratic party.

Criticism of the Biden administration and the party writ large aside, Trump extended an olive branch to New York City Democratic Mayor Eric Adams, who he said is being “treated pretty badly” for describing the influx of undocumented migrants into the city as “not sustainable.”

And while Trump’s immigration rhetoric has drawn plenty of critics since he first launched his political career in the 2016 presidential race, solving the border crisis appears to resonate across the country.

According to a recent Voter’s Voice Poll, 40% of respondents say “illegal immigration” is one of the top three issues facing the country. The numbers are more pronounced for Republican voters, 62% of whom consider it the most pressing concern. Forty-three percent of Democrats cite abortion as a leading issue, while half of independents think inflation is the country’s biggest problem.

Meanwhile, the race for the White House remains in a dead heat.

RealClear Polling averages place Trump 0.1 percentage points ahead of Harris nationally. In the seven swing states – Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin – the former president leads by an average of 0.9 percentage points.

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