It’s probably safe to say that most billionaires don’t have a very long bucket list — but there’s one thing that, until recently, sat at the very top of Donald Trump’s: Performing at Madison Square Garden in the heart of Manhattan: the greatest arena in the world in the greatest city in the world.
It was clear from the off that this wouldn’t be a traditional Trump rally. Comedian Tony Hinchcliffe opened proceedings, following a stirring rendition of the national anthem, with a series of sharp jokes that skewered cancel culture, wars in Ukraine and the Middle East, and, in one that sent liberal commentators into a frenzy, he let off a zinger about “a floating island of garbage in the middle of the ocean … I think it’s called Puerto Rico?”
The irony of the joke, which was totally lost on apoplectic Democrats, is that Puerto Rico has long-running and well-known trash and landfill problems. Also, Hinchcliffe is a roaster — he insults people with jokes. As Jon Stewart put it on Monday night, “Bringing that guy to a rally and having him not do roast jokes, that would be like bringing Beyonce to a rally and not having … oh.”
Hinchcliffe, who hosts a popular live comedy podcast called “Kill Tony,” also suggested that Israelis and Palestinians settle their differences with a game of Rock, Paper, Scissors. The problem, of course, was that the Palestinians would throw Rock while Jews would have trouble “throwing that paper.”
His overarching point, made by countless people over the night, was that freedom of speech was under attack, and the GOP was now the party with a sense of humor. It’s been 10 years, and the political press is still trying to apply the same old, stodgy rules to Trump’s world, where pushing the boundaries of “acceptable” is encouraged, not prohibited.
Hinchcliffe’s edgy set established a rowdy, rebellious tone that lasted for six straight hours on Sunday. A seemingly endless parade of speakers delivered the greatest hits to some 20,000 MAGA faithful — but it was a handful of folks new to the movement who truly impressed.
Most of the time at these events, the opening speakers (typically some local politicos and other time fillers) merely distract whilst the crowd waits for Trump to hit the stage; on Sunday, Trump almost seemed an afterthought. Some of the speakers could (and have) filled MSG on their own.
In an especially stirring run, former Democrats Tulsi Gabbard (“A vote for Kamala Harris is a vote for Dick Cheney. … A vote for Donald Trump is a vote for a man who wants to end wars, not start them.”) and RFK Jr. (“I didn’t leave the Democrat Party. The Democrat Party left me.”) went back to back to thunderous applause.
Then, surprise guest Dr. Phil McGraw brought down the house with an impassioned plea for Trump voters to support each other and to stand up against cancel culture and bullying.
“Have we lost our minds?” he said. “We have the First Amendment in America. … That’s the law, but we’re muzzling each other. What is going on? We have a law that protects free speech, so we start taking it away from each other? We can’t allow that to happen. We cannot encourage it.”
Echoing a comment that JD Vance made a few days ago, Dr. Phil said if your neighbor wants to vote for the other side, “love ’em anyway,” and that “no one should be alone, no one should feel abandoned and no one should get their business boycotted” because of who they choose to vote for.
The media coverage of the Madison Square Garden event has decried it as full of hateful vitriol and rhetoric, racism and sexism, anger and despair. But that’s not how it felt in the building. Inside, it was full of laughter and smiles and joy.
Perhaps it’s because New York Trump voters, who feel so outnumbered in this bastion of solid blue (despite several speakers proclaiming N.Y. to be a swing state, that seems unlikely to happen), finally could get together and celebrate the man who turned the Republican party from the land of Cheney into one that delivers thunderous applause to former Democrats proclaiming Donald Trump to be the candidate who will end wars and stand up to censorship.
A Kennedy, on stage at a GOP rally, delivered applause lines for his Uncle Ted’s writing of Title IX to protect women’s collegiate athletics. Ted Kennedy getting cheers from the Republican faithful while the Democrats deliver love to the Cheneys? Up is down. Cats are sleeping with dogs. Democrats are Republicans. Republicans are Democrats. And unity is on the ballot, in a little checkbox, right next to the name Donald J. Trump.
For six hours, a packed Madison Square Garden came together to celebrate the man they believe will be the 47th president of the United States. For Trump, it was an epic victory lap — the cherry on top of an epic comeback that could see him return to the White House in a few months, a tale fitting for a man from New York, New York.
The stage at MSG has hosted some of the biggest names in the world, and if Trump wins, this will add one more to its storied history. Unless, of course, come Tuesday and Trump loses. If that happens, the rally was perhaps the largest bit of political hubris America has ever seen. We’ll see.
