Madison Square Garden – Trump’s latest triumph

Yesterday Donald Trump – and a very large company – scored another triumphal event. To a sellout crowd at Madison Square Garden – with almost four times as many people waiting outside – Trump and his friends, relatives and associates laid out his second-term plan and the reasons for it. Pundits will puzzle over what Trump hopes to gain by venturing into “enemy territory.” After all, he can’t possibly carry New York – can he? But Donald Trump seeks not only to win an election, but to inspire. And his was a very inspiring performance and program.

Madison Square Garden – statistics and line-up

Madison Square Garden is the largest indoor arena in New York City. It seats 20,000 people – but rarely does it attract that many. This time, the venue sold out within a week of the announcement of Trump appearing there. Furthermore, as many as 75,000 people waited outside, to listen on their smartphones. This post dropped at 4:36 p.m. EDT:

https://twitter.com/shaneyyricch/status/1850635125945745615

As Jordan Conradson of The Gateway Pundit noted, the crowds started to gather and line up shortly after noon EDT.

https://twitter.com/ConradsonJordan/status/1850576747365794202

MASSIVE crowd for Trump’s second rally in NYC this cycle

The Dems could never do this. This is like the Dodgers filling Yankee stadium for the World Series pic.twitter.com/JTmLtR3PmW— Jordan Conradson🇺🇸 (@ConradsonJordan) October 27, 2024

That last is telling. To a New Yorker, the Los Angeles Dodgers, who used to be the Brooklyn Dodgers, are “Dem Bums.” If that weren’t bad enough, the Dodgers and the New York Yankees are this year’s opponents in the World Series.

But the views of the lines outside capture only a small portion of the outside crowd at a time. Conradson also shared video of the crowd inside, at about 6:00 p.m. EDT:

This illustrates that Donald Trump could appear in “enemy territory” and still triumph. How many of those people will actually vote for Trump is unclear and impossible to guess. But that he could draw such a crowd, shows that many are starting to question the lurid tales the Democratic Party – and the Biden administration, and the Intelligence Community – have been telling about Trump.

The speeches

Trump’s program ran for at least four hours, beginning at 5:00 p.m. EDT.

Twenty-eight people delivered remarks before the former President himself: Tony Hinchcliffe,

Sid Resenberg,

Aline Habba (one of his many lawyers),

Grant Cardone,

Michael Harris, Jr. (no relation to the Vice-President),

Sergio Gor,

Brooke Rollins,

Rudy Giuliani, former Mayor of New York,

David Rem,

Dan Scavino,

Stephen Miller, head of America First Legal,

Steve Witkoff,

Rep. Byron Donalds (R-Fla.),

Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-N.Y.), Chair of the House Republican Conference,

Rep. Mike Johnson (R-La.), Speaker of the House of Representatives,

Former Rep. Tulsi Gabbard (D-Hawaii), who recently became a Republican,

Vivek Ramaswamy, who briefly ran against Trump in the Presidential primaries and has since become his most staunch advocate,

Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., who suspended his campaign and endorsed Trump,

Tucker Carlson,

Wrestling star Hulk Hogan, whom Trump challenged to an arm-wrestling bout backstage,

Sen. J. D. Vance (R-Ohio), Vice-Presidential running mate,

Dr. Phil McGraw, “America’s No-nonsense Psychiatrist”,

Lara Trump, Co-Chair of the Republican National Committee, and her brother Eric,

Donald Trump, Junior, son of Donald and Ivana Trump,

Dana White, President and CEO of Ultimate Fighting Championship,

Elon Musk,

Howard Lutnick,

and Donald Trump’s wife Melania, who introduced him.

Finally, to the accompaniment of Lee Greenwood performing God Bless the USA live, Donald Trump took the stage.

What Donald Trump said

For an hour and eighteen minutes, Donald Trump sounded the themes he has been sounding lately during the campaign. He talked about illegal immigration, including one thing Vice-President Harris won’t admit – that the administration has brought in illegal immigrants. Brought them in, in fact, literally by the planeload. Trump also talked about inflation – in fact he began with Ronald Reagan’s iconic question:

Are you better off now than you were four years ago?

Of course the crowd roared back a resounding,

NO!

He talked about world peace, which is almost as big a failing of the incumbent administration as is domestic policy. And he offered a message of hope for the immediate future:

The day I take the oath of office, the migrant invasion of our country ends, and the restoration of our country begins. Donald Trump

He coined yet another “make America … again” phrase: to make America affordable again. To that end he promised:

I will massively cut taxes for workers and small businesses, and we will have no tax on tips, no tax on overtime, and no tax on Social Security benefits for our seniors. Donald Trump

Naturally he couldn’t resist telling the crowd to tell Vice-President Harris next Tuesday,

You’re fired!

But perhaps the most important thing Trump said last night was to encourage people to vote, if they haven’t already. And immediately after he ended his speech, a tenor with a near-operatic voice belted out New York City’s signature song New York, New York.

Reaction to the Madison Square Garden event

Some media voices, particularly on Fox News Channel, observed this morning that the legacy media don’t want to talk about what happened yesterday afternoon and evening in Madison Square Garden. One challenged Kamala Harris to try to “pack the house” in, say, Tulsa, Oklahoma. The point is as telling as it is salient: Kamala Harris has never carried the campaign into a Republican area. One expects both candidates to campaign heavily in “swing States.” But Donald Trump, continuing his strategy since before the attempt on his life, has carried the war to the Democrats.

So what might Trump have gained by appearing in Madison Square Garden? (And “packing the house” and having nearly four times the house capacity waiting outside?) His chances of “carrying” New York are still way less than even. But those New Yorkers who vote for Trump anyway, contribute to Trump’s tally in the national popular vote. If he wins that, that will silence critics like the National Popular Vote Compact organizers who believe Presidents should have to stand for straight popular election.

He will also distribute his victory more evenly. The most tangible local result he can gain, is to “flip” House districts in New York. Trump held a rally in Coachella, California for the identical reason.

Can he flip other States?

Finally, he can inspire other Republican Party State chapters in “non-battleground” States to fight harder. Recent poll results now suggest that Minnesota and Virginia have become toss-up States. Indeed the Petersburg, Va. Progress-Index carried speculation that Trump will make a campaign stop in Virginia in the coming week. CNAV repeats what it said last month: Virginia is in play. Especially if Trump holds his rally in the City of Richmond, which now has a Mayor’s race to determine who can come closest to building a Communist utopia in that city.

Kamala Harris, in contrast, continues to make unforced errors. Yesterday, according to Jim Hoft (The Gateway Pundit), Harris had the bad sense to campaign in a church. She came to the Church of Christian Compassion in West Philadelphia. With such a name, that church might give the impression of preaching that Jesus was a Socialist. But when Harris actually said it was God’s Will that people elect her President, someone in the congregation roared his contradiction for all to hear. Though the Worship Team (i.e., the band) drowned him out, some nearby heard him and signaled their agreement with him. Worse, she hypocritically said, “Every voice is important” – and of course that didn’t include the heckler’s voice.

Apart from “bad optics,” incidents like this might build support for a repeal of the notorious Johnson Amendment. Or they might support a legal case for its invalidation – on the basis of selective application of the law.

Summary

So Donald Trump did exactly the right thing by appearing in Madison Square Garden. Not only did he appear in triumph, but he gave heart to fellow Republicans in “Democratic” States. His message obviously resonates, or he wouldn’t have 20,000 people attending, 75,000 more waiting outside, and millions viewing his livestream. The more difficult task will be to convert those attendees, viewers, and listeners into voters. But that’s the more reason to vote early – to avoid the wraparoud lines likely to form at the polls.