Former US President Donald Trump arrived in New York, the Democratic Party’s stronghold, for a campaign rally at Madison Square Garden on Sunday, where dedicated supporters spent the night in sleeping bags to secure spots in the 20,000-seat arena. Meanwhile, protesters prepared to demonstrate against the event.
In light of two prior assassination attempts on Trump, police and the Secret Service established a tight security perimeter around Madison Square Garden, a venue known for major sports events, concerts, and a 2014 rally by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Despite the challenging odds—Trump garnered only 23 percent of New York City’s votes in the 2020 election, compared to Joe Biden’s 76 percent—he is choosing to hold the rally here rather than focusing on battleground states. For Trump, who thrives on symbolism and showmanship, the event represents a defiant stand in the heart of the nation’s media capital, where he was recently convicted in a criminal case.
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New York is also Trump’s hometown, where he built his real estate empire, valued in the billions, on an inheritance likely worth hundreds of millions from his father, Fred Trump. His presence in the city’s celebrity scene and frequent appearances in tabloids helped him craft a national image here.
Despite his low support in New York City in 2020, recent polls indicate a close national race. Surveys by The New York Times and CNN last week showed Trump in a tie with Democratic Party candidate Kamala Harris, while RealClear Polling’s aggregated data shows him with a narrow 0.1 percent lead.
Trump’s legal troubles, including his conviction in a hush money case and accusations of undermining democracy, have baffled Democrats as he maintains strong polling numbers. On Saturday, former First Lady Michelle Obama, campaigning alongside Harris in Michigan, questioned, “I gotta ask myself: why on earth is this race even close? I lay awake at night wondering: what in the world is going on?”
Trump’s supporters, more focused on issues like illegal immigration and inflation—up around 25 percent—appear undeterred by his legal challenges. In a Harvard poll by Harris, unrelated to the Vice President, 39 percent of registered voters cited inflation as their primary concern, followed by 35 percent who prioritized immigration.
Casting himself as a target of “political persecution,” Trump claimed, “These lawsuits are being run by the Department of Justice, the FBI. (President Joe) Biden is behind it all, believe it or not, and he proved that yesterday with his stupid statement,” referring to Biden’s rally remark, “Got to lock him up,” which the President later retracted.
To connect with working-class voters, Trump made appearances far removed from his usual elite circles, stopping by a barber shop in the Bronx to listen to local workers and even donning an apron to serve at a McDonald’s in Pennsylvania. He also held a rally of several thousand in May in South Bronx, one of the city’s poorest areas.
With the election just nine days away, Harris has made Trump’s character a focal point of her campaign, supported by Republicans like former Chief of Staff John Kelly, National Security Adviser John Bolton, and former Vice President Dick Cheney, who collectively stated he “lacks the character to lead the nation” and poses a “danger to democracy.”
Harris has chosen the Ellipse in Washington, DC, as the site for her campaign’s final argument on Tuesday. Her choice of the Ellipse, near the Capitol, recalls the January 6, 2021 rally where Trump supporters marched to the Capitol to disrupt the certification of Biden’s win.
“On Tuesday, October 29, with just one week until Election Day, Vice President Kamala Harris will deliver a major closing argument address in Washington on the Ellipse,” her campaign said in media guidance on Saturday.
The Ellipse will allow Harris to highlight her campaign’s key issue: that Trump threatens democracy and the Constitution. She recently labeled him a “fascist” during a CNN-hosted town hall.
