In the final week of his campaign, former President Donald Trump will check off one item on his campaign bucket list on Sunday: a rally at the iconic Madison Square Garden. The rabid Broadway fan will host a matinee performance with musical guests and plenty of Republican allies.
Trump has long said he wanted to be the moment he built a business empire and later faced civil and criminal trials in the state, making it a punishable crime.
Trump says he wants to “make New York great again.”
“I think it’s going to be a great moment, and it’s really going to be a celebration of the whole thing, you know, because it’s ending in a few days. The campaign; I’m not going to campaign anymore. Then. I’m going to campaign to make America great,” Trump said at Madison Square Garden. about the upcoming rally in a local radio interview with Cats. & Cosby on Thursday.
The day before the much-anticipated rally, Trump called a “tele-rally” organized by the New York Republican Party, painting New York City as a city in decline and once again going to great lengths to win over the Democratic stronghold.
Trump railed against New York’s influx of migrant populations and highlighted crime rates, while lamenting that “rich people” are leaving the city.
“We’re going to have to do things to create an incentive for New Yorkers to stay. I mean, they’re going to leave New York… And the rich are leaving — people’s wealth is leaving. And that means hundreds of millions and millions of dollars in taxes, and we can’t let that happen,” Trump said.
The former president blamed Democratic politicians for what he called the city’s decline. Still, while complaining about the homeless population and vacant stores on Madison Avenue and Fifth Avenue, Trump said he would work with Democrats to “turn it around” and “make New York great again.”
In this May 23, 2024 file photo, former US President Donald Trump speaks during a campaign rally at Crotona Park in the South Bronx, New York.
James Devaney/GC Images via Getty Images, FILE
During the civil fraud trial, Trump chose to attend his trial voluntarily, splitting time between court and the campaign, as he used the charges to rally supporters over what he argued was government weaponry, charges prosecutors have vehemently denied.
During the seven-week criminal trial earlier this year he made several smaller stops, and held a rally. in the bronx and on Long Island trying to court Hispanic and black voters who make up the majority of the area’s population.
In this May 30, 2024 file photo, former U.S. President Donald Trump speaks after the verdict was read in Manhattan Criminal Court in New York, U.S.
Steven Hirsch/New York Post/Bloomberg via Getty Images, FILE
During his travels through the deep blue Democratic state, the former president has long said he could flip New York, a state that Democrats have won in the past nine elections.
In an arena format that symbolizes confidence and celebrity status, Trump’s appearance will serve as his closing argument. Conversely, Vice President Kamala Harris does hers at the Ellipse in Washington, DC, where Trump spoke on January 6, 2021. Attack on the US Capitol on January 6, 2021.
The former president, recalling the campaigns for the highest office in the territory in the last nine years, has invented the event as a “celebration of everything”.
“Well, it’s New York, but it’s also sort of, it’s the end of my campaign. When you think about it, I mean, I’ve been in it for nine years now, we’ve had two great elections. One was better than the other,” Trump said.
Fans arrive for the game between the New York Rangers and the Florida Panthers at Madison Square Garden on October 24, 2024 in New York City.
Bruce Bennett/Getty Images
On Sunday, Trump will meet with several surrogates who have appeared with him on the campaign trail, including North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum and Vivek Ramaswamy. Speaker of the House Mike Johnson, House Majority Leader Steve Scalise and Conference Chair Elise Stefanik will be in attendance, as well as several family members and donors.
Trump’s close friend and donor Steve Witkoff, who was golfing with Trump last month in the second attempt on his life in West Palm BeachIt is also planned to speak at the event.
Trump’s rally in New York, while not a battleground state, will allow him to capture a broad national audience given the area’s media market and location.
It’s a strategy campaign officials have deployed in the latter part of Trump’s campaign to help underscore a message that they see benefits in visiting places outside of battlegrounds.
For example, on Friday, Trump visited Texas to highlight immigration, creating a campaign split screen for Harris, who was meeting in Houston earlier in the day for an abortion rights event.
