Trump calls for America’s New Golden Age at Madison Square Garden

No one with an open mind — you can even scratch the adjective — no sentient sapiens period can have witnessed Donald Trump’s Madison Square Garden rally without a frisson of awe. Even the most tireless Trump supporter must be a little jaded with Trump’s rallies by now. Just as in 2016, they have been building to a crescendo in both size and frequency. And even avid politicos might be forgiven for thinking they had been there, done that. 

But Sunday’s rally at Madison Square Garden was something different. Perhaps other rallies were as large. We’re told that the MSG event boasted a capacity crowd of nearly 20,000 with more than 70,000 lined up to view the festivities on screens set up outside. I gather Trump’s second Butler, Pennsylvania, rally broke 100,000, as perhaps did a few others. 

But it wasn’t just the size of Sunday’s rally that made it special. It was also the location, the vibrancy of the speakers and that ineffable, electric feeling that follows closely on impending victory. The Democrats have tried fitfully to claim that Trump is “exhausted” and perhaps not up to the task of being president. Meanwhile, Harris abruptly departed a rally in Detroit after only six minutes while Trump’s daily regime would fell a man half his age.

Madison Square Garden is situated is the belly of the deep-blue beast. How many decades has it been since a Republican won New York in a presidential race?  (The answer is four: Reagan won New York in 1984.) Then why was Trump expending precious resources in the state? Why did he hold a rally in the Bronx this summer, on Long Island a month ago? Because the times they are a-changin’.  

In 2020, Joe Biden won New York by twenty-two points, 60.87 percent to 37.74 percent. A poll published on Sunday tells us that Harris led Trump by fourteen points. It will be interesting to watch that number diminish as the energy of Trump’s campaign makes its way outwards through the capillaries of the New York electorate.  

Will Trump take New York? I am assured that that is unlikely. I note, however, that many of the wise people who say that told me it was impossible only a couple of months ago. Reality does count for something, and the reality is that Trump speaks to a core constituency not only in New York but also across the country. Call it the constituency of normality, the non-trans, pro-capitalist, pro-American demographic that understands that men cannot be women, that you cannot have a country without a secure border and that big government is essentially at odds with individual liberty and general prosperity.

I say that “Trump speaks” to this population, but the red-pilled former Democrat investor Bill Ackman was right when he noted that he now supports Trump not just because of the man himself but also because of his “team” versus Team Harris. In the left corner we have Kamala Harris, “Tampon Tim” Walz, Liz Cheney and assorted other neocons and globalists. In the right corner we have Trump, his running mate J.D. Vance, Elon Musk, RFK Jr., Tulsi Gabbard, Vivek Ramaswamy and assorted former Democrats like Bill Ackman. Which is more impressive? Which is more likely to save the country? Take your time. 

Among my favorite moments in Sunday’s rally was J.D. Vance’s naughty suggestion that Kamala Harris’s new slogan ought to be “Nothing comes to mind,” after her response when a friendly newscaster asked her how her policy positions differed from those of Joe Biden. “Nothing comes to mind,” she said, a phrase that Trump deployed with stiletto-like efficacy in a brief video montage during his speech.  

A second favorite moment came in Tucker Carlson’s talk when he noted that: 1) Republicans were going to win and 2) the people would be forearmed against Dem claims that Kamala, a supremely unpopular candidate whom no one voted for had really won by garnering 88 million votes (or whatever). The Dems put that over in 2020 at the height of Covid. That ship has sailed.  

For its part, the propaganda press once again covered itself in ignominy. Picking up on the rancid meme that Trump is “literally Hitler,” a “fascist,” a clear and present danger to “our democracy,” pathetic networks like MSNBC and CNN ran chyrons over their coverage of the rally with such legends as “Trump Forgoes Prompter to Rant about Conspiracies,” “Trump Re-ups Vile Rhetoric about Migrants at MSG,” or (my favorite) “Trump’s MSG Rally Comes 85 Years After Pro-Nazi Rally at Famed Arena.” As I have been fond of observing, however much you detest the propaganda press, it is not nearly enough. 

Kamala Harris has been skirling about the need to “turn the page” on Trump’s “divisiveness.” But what we saw at his MSG rally was the opposite of divisive. It was a bold call to unity featuring a coalition of men and women, liberals and conservatives, recently matured Democrats, now Republicans and in general people who put a premium on working together to solve the country’s manifold problems, from the border and the economy to widespread chronic health issues and a war-mongering foreign policy. Trump invoked the advent of a second golden age for the country and he was right to do so. The energy, optimism and derring-do that was instantiated on the stage of MSG time and again on Sunday made it all seem within grasp. Back in April of this year, I wrote about an impending “vibe shift” I discerned in the zeitgeist. I was perhaps a little previous in my forecast. Today the signs are everywhere and inescapable.