TOI correspondent from Washington: The rally was enormous — and raucous. Madison Square Gardens was filled to the rafters with 20,000 people, with thousands more outside. The speeches were fierce, vitriolic, and in some instances, racially loaded. Elon Musk, the world’s richest man and MAGA’s social media megaphone, introduced Melania Trump, making a rare campaign rally appearance; and she in turn introduced her husband, Donald Trump. For the MAGA faithful, the rally was a celebration of unity, the energy indicative of imminent victory.
For many liberals, Democrats, and even moderate Republicans, it was a neo-Nazi gathering, scarily evocative of a 1939 rally when more than 20,000 supporters of Adolf Hitler packed into MSG for a so-called pro-America rally. Trump’s own niece, Mary Trump, a fierce critic of the MAGA supremo, posted pictures of the 1939 and 2024 rallies side by side on X, wondering, “So, we’re really doing this again. Eyes wide open.” Kamala Harris’ running mate Tim Walz noted: “There’s a direct parallel to a big rally that happened in the mid-1930s at Madison Square Garden… And don’t think that he doesn’t know for one second exactly what they’re doing there.”
Liberal media channels ran images of the two events in tandem. Other critics called it a “freak show” “a total embarrassment to the US” and a “hate rally.” Meghan McCain, daughter of late Republican Senator John McCain, wondered: “I actually think this rally could backfire…This is maga on steroids.”
MAGA principals pushed back, sneering at the comparison, pointing out that the rally included the group “Jews for Trump,” and Blacks, Latinos, and Hindus (including Trump acolyte Vivek Ramaswamy) spoke at the event. They pointed to a Star of David, a symbol of Jewish identity and Judaism, draped inside the auditorium. Elon Musk posted a meme on X with the caption, “If he’s Hitler why didn’t he do Hitler things in the first term?”
Just because he didn’t do it in the first term does not mean he will not in the second, countered liberals, arguing that he is now emboldened by the support he has got for proposals like internment camps, mass incarceration, and use of Alien Enemies Act of 1798, a law crafted in the early years of the republic when women and black had no voting rights. Trump himself ramped up his rhetoric, speaking of “an eye for an eye” (with reference to tariffs) and chuckling about a journalist critic who was (metaphorically) “decapitated” by his supporter on fake news NBC.
Hours after the event, Elon Musk posted a photo of a black MAGA cap with the words MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN. Critics noted that it used the Gothic-Fraktur typeface favored in Nazi Germany. “This font … is an homage to Nazi lettering. They are not hiding their Nazi love, anymore,” read one post on X, among several that raised alarm.