Donald Trump filled New York’s Madison Square Garden on Sunday in a defiant rally that was overshadowed by accusations of racism.
A rapturous crowd greeted the Republican former president as he attacked his rival Kamala Harris and promised an economic “restoration” and a clampdown on the “migrant invasion of our country”.
But there was widespread condemnation by Trump’s critics of remarks earlier in the rally by comedian Tony Hinchcliffe, who described Puerto Rico as “a floating island of garbage”.
The Harris campaign was quick to circulate Hinchcliffe’s comments on social media. “Calling Puerto Rico, home to 3mn American citizens, ‘garbage’ isn’t a joke,” Austin Davis, lieutenant-governor of the battleground state of Pennsylvania, posted on X.
“This is who Trump is. Pennsylvanians of every race, religion and background are coming together to stop him and the racism he empowers,” he added.
Karoline Leavitt, the national press secretary for the Trump campaign, sought to distance herself from the slur against Puerto Rico but not the other disparaging comments by speakers throughout the night.
“Look, it was a comedian who made a joke in poor taste,” she told Fox News on Monday. “Obviously, that joke does not reflect the views of President Trump or our campaign. And I think it is sad that the media will pick up on one joke that was made by a comedian rather than the truths that were shared by the phenomenal list of speakers that we had,” she said.
Other speakers at the rally included Trump’s billionaire backers Elon Musk and Howard Lutnick, who presented him as the candidate of peace, prosperity and freedom.
They attacked Harris as a dangerous liberal who had failed to tame inflation or prevent the wars in Ukraine and the Middle East.
The crowd jeered Harris’s name as Trump said: “On issue after issue, Kamala broke it, but I will fix it.”
Supporters frequently interrupted Trump with chants of “We want you” and “We love you” as he mused that he might even win the knife-edge election by a big enough margin to turn New York, a solidly Democratic state, Republican.
The message was often dark. Trump emphasised his anti-immigrant themes, repeating allegations that illegal migrants were responsible for rapes and murders across the country. He accused the press of lying and warned that Democrats would cheat at the polls.
Grant Cardone, a property investor, claimed Harris and her “pimp handlers” would destroy the country, while talk-show host Tucker Carlson mocked Harris’s ethnicity.
The event marked an attention-grabbing return to the city, just five months after a New York jury found Trump guilty over the cover-up of a “hush money” payment to a porn actor.
Madison Square Garden, self-styled as the world’s most famous arena, has played host to Muhammad Ali, Pope John Paul II and Frank Sinatra.
But it has also hosted controversial political events including the German American Bund’s 1939 “pro-American rally”, in which Nazi armbands and swastikas were displayed in front of a giant portrait of George Washington.
Warm-up speakers made light of the notion that they were at a “Nazi rally” after Hillary Clinton, Trump’s defeated rival in 2016, this week accused him of seeking to “re-enact” that event.
A backdrop of screens in the arena told the crowd “Kamala is lying to you”, describing Harris as “weak, failed and dangerously liberal”. Signs handed to the audience read “Trump will fix it” and “Dream big again”.
The rally also featured a rare speech by Melania Trump, the candidate’s wife.
Trump’s address in Manhattan, where he won less than 38 per cent of the vote in 2020, came at a point in the campaign where candidates typically focus all their efforts on a few swing states.
“This is where Republicans are not supposed to come, which is why Donald Trump came here,” said Rudy Giuliani, the former New York mayor, who is facing criminal charges over alleged election interference in Georgia and Arizona in 2020, along with several civil cases.
The Financial Times poll tracker shows Trump and Harris in a statistical tie, with Harris narrowly ahead in national surveys and Trump marginally ahead in most swing states.
While Trump is not expected to beat Harris in New York, his campaign may be hoping to help nudge the fortunes of Republican candidates in a number of close congressional races in the state.
Mike Johnson, Speaker of the House of Representatives, underlined the importance of down-ballot battles in New York.
“There’s an energy out there that I have not seen before,” Johnson told the crowd, predicting that congressional races in the state would help Republicans expand their majority in the lower chamber.
Additional reporting by James Politi in Washington