This story is syndicated from The Survey at Brooklyn Technical High School in Brooklyn, New York. The original version of the story ran here.
On Oct. 27, 2024, we attended former President, and now President-Elect, Donald Trump’s rally at Madison Square Garden in Midtown, Manhattan to report on the experience. This historic event was not only the first time a Republican presidential candidate has campaigned in New York City since Ronald Reagan in the 1980s, but it was also one of Trump’s largest rallies of this election cycle.
The speakers list included the now vice-president-elect JD Vance, billionaire entrepreneur (and new Head of the private Department of Government Efficiency) Elon Musk, former presidential candidate (and now appointee to the Department of Health and Human Services) Robert F. Kennedy Jr., and former Fox News host Tucker Carlson, among many others.
Prior to the event, many journalists and Democratic politicians, such as Hillary Clinton, drew connections between Trump’s rally and the infamous 1939 Nazi Rally in Madison Square Garden. The comparison may have been overstated, but several speakers did make misogynistic and racist comments on stage.
While invited entertainers like wrestler Hulk Hogan made few statements, instead flexing and brandishing an American flag, the headline moments from the six-hour event focused on several speakers’ offensive comments on stage. Most notable was warm-up act comedian Tony Hinchcliffe who sparked controversy by joking about Puerto Rico being a “floating island of trash.”
Choosing to end his campaign in an indisputably blue-leaning city and state was a controversial and unprecedented decision.
Throughout Trump’s campaign, he remained highly confident in his ability to “win big” and gain ground in Democrat-dominated regions. In September of 2024, Donald Trump visited Long Island for a major MAGA Rally and claimed that he would win New York in the presidential election.
When we attended the rally at MSG, such a result still seemed highly improbable to us, given New York’s past voting trends and seemingly decisive pre-election polling. Past elections show that in 2020, President Joe Biden won the state by over 23 points, and the most recent year that New York voted Republican in a presidential election was 1984. The post-election data, however, reveals that Trump was more than justified in his decision to campaign here.
He gained tremendous support in the state of New York, the surrounding Tri-State area, and throughout the rest of the nation. The former president not only won the Electoral College, sweeping all seven battleground states, but he also sealed the popular vote, which hadn’t been won by a Republican candidate since 2004. In New York City, Trump even won a district in the heart of Manhattan, one of the bluest boroughs in one of the bluest cities in America, becoming the first district in Manhattan to vote red in a decade. Biden won the nearby state of New Jersey in 2020 by over 15 points. In this election, Harris won by a comparatively narrow margin of 5.5%, cutting the Democratic lead by 60%. The results point not necessarily to great change in Republican campaigning, but perhaps to an array of disinformation and a larger failure in the Democratic party to create compelling policies and win over constituents.
Despite how extreme Trump’s speech seemed to us, both the massive crowds waiting hours to hear him speak in the heart of Manhattan and the larger statistical shift in ballots this November reveal that his rhetoric has only become more compelling in the last four years since he ran and lost against Biden. This election result was truly shocking, if not horrifying, to a great deal of Americans as in the last four years alone, Trump has undermined democratic processes by spreading misinformation about election fraud, encouraging a raid on the Capitol Building on Jan. 6, 2021, using racist speech referring towards both immigrants and Vice President Harris, and has been convicted on 30 felony counts and held liable for sexual assault and defamation.
In spite of it all, Trump succeeded. We have compiled our experience at one of the most influential events in his 2024 campaign in a photo essay that captures the atmosphere that led to that decisive victory.
Trump supporters gather outside in Midtown, Manhattan where they camped out the night before the rally. Many traveled from Staten Island, New Jersey and Long Island, Republican strongholds in the Tri-State area. We encountered attendees from as far away as California.
Trump supporters decorated local businesses with Trump flags in the blocks between the subway stations and the rally venue. Trump’s original campaign slogans, “Make America Great Again” in 2016, and “Keep America Great” in 2020, have given way to “Take America Back” in the 2024 election.
Tens of thousands of prospective attendees lined up for up to six hours hoping to gain entrance to the arena. Madison Square Garden, which holds up to 19,500 spectators, filled quickly as passionate crowds stretched along several avenues, and spilled into Times Square. In this photograph, a man stands on shoulders, pumping a fist in the air, leading chants of “USA! USA!”
Across the arena, the words “New York is Trump Country” displayed on television sets and jumbotrons. Although he didn’t win New York State, Trump cut the Democrat margin in half compared to Biden’s 2020 lead of 23.2 points.
As comedian Tony Hitchcliffe struggled to receive a response from the crowd, he pushed into hateful territory. “There’s actually a floating island of trash in the middle of the ocean,” Hitchcliffe teased. “Have you heard about it? It’s called Puerto Rico!” Although his brief speech contained other offensive passing comments and stereotypical jokes about Black people, Jews, Palestinians, Latinos and Democrats, this particular comment about Puerto Rico has received mass media attention.
Proud Puerto Rican Republicans, like Nassau County’s representative Anthony D’Esposito, have publicly condemned such insults to their heritage. Puerto Rican Americans are a key constituency in swing states like Pennsylvania where they make up 8% of the population. Many predicted that Hitchcliffe’s joke would tilt the vote towards Vice President Harris in these crucial states. Although the Trump campaign later publicly disavowed Hitchcliffe’s remarks, Trump himself has not publicly commented on it.
Despite this joke and other digs at Latino Americans, Trump won in Pennsylvania by nearly 2%. Many have suggested that Democrats had too much trust that racial equality would be a more important issue to people of color, compared to the more tangible issues such as improving the economy, which seemed to be a more important policy matter to these key constituents. Additionally, while many harsh remarks towards Latino people are directed at illegal immigrants, many Latino Americans don’t identify with or feel attacked by such speech.
Another notable speaker was television show host Dr. Phil McGraw. He spoke about his concern for the future of free speech, saying, “When someone is getting kicked out of their job and canceled for an opinion, that’s wrong.” Dr. Phil, whose appearance was a surprise, is one of a handful of Trump celebrity endorsements including Caitlyn Jenner, Jake Paul, Mel Gibson, Kanye West, Zachary Levi, Tom Brady, 50 Cent, and Hulk Hogan.
In this image, an introductory video played before Elon Musk took the stage, displaying SpaceX rockets. Musk, billionaire owner of Tesla, X (formerly Twitter), Starlink, and SpaceX, has become Trump’s most prominent campaign surrogate and funder. During his time on stage, Musk was somewhat incoherent, gesturing vaguely to the crowd to rapturous applause.
As Trump took the stage nearly two hours behind schedule, he was introduced by his wife Melania. Her appearance was unexpected, as she has been largely absent from campaign appearances. Melania has also recently disagreed with her husband on abortion policy, heightening the appearance of a struggling marriage. She greeted him at the podium with kisses, to a live performance of Lee Greenwood’s “Proud to be an American” with the words “Trump Will Fix It” above their heads.
Since the rally and the election, Melania has declined to meet with First Lady Dr. Jill Biden. Additionally, she has announced her plan to be fairly absent from the White House over the next four years. Both of these decisions depict her as a less traditional first lady.
Orthodox Jews and Israel supporters attended the rally in great numbers. In an interview with Beth Phillips, a Jewish New Yorker dressed in an Israel flag, she said that Trump is the better supporter of the Jewish people. Additionally, she explained how many Jews favor his policies regarding the Israel-Hamas war. Phillips and others we spoke to and others we spoke to disagreed with comparisons linking the event to the 1939 Nazi rally in the same arena.
Trump displayed a chart during his speech highlighting record low numbers of illegal immigrants in the United States during his term, with the Biden-Harris administration seemingly reaching a record high border crossings. He highlighted the red arrow, marking low immigration numbers at the end of his presidency. During his speech, Trump called immigration a “bigger [issue] than the economy” and vowed to address it the first day that he is in office.
Midway through this speech, Trump pointed to the news area in the back of the arena, saying, “Do you see the fakers back there? The fake news doesn’t want you to know this.” In this photo, you can see the crowd turning and pointing fingers at the press. Trump’s rhetoric surrounding fake news and casting doubt on media bias is now a common refrain in the Republican party, particularly regarding Trump’s false claims about the 2020 election being stolen.
The Trump rally at Madison Square Garden provided valuable insight into Trump’s supporters and the issues that matter to them, as well as the promises he is making to them. America looks toward seeing how his policies play out over the next four years, and we are grateful for this insight into our soon-to-be president.
