Trump takes stage at Madison Square Garden after speakers open with racist remarks – live

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Puerto Rican leaders are infuriated over Tony Hinchcliffe’s comments about the U.S. territory, calling Puerto Rico a “floating island of garbage,” during Donald Trump’s rally in New York City.

Puerto Rico’s resident commissioner, Jenniffer González-Colón, called the remarks “despicable, inappropriate and disgusting.”

New York Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortés asked her Puerto Rican followers to share the clip with their families.

Donald Trump has finished delivering his remarks in New York’s Madison Square Garden.

He called Election Day “the most important day in the history of our country.”

“We will make America powerful again. We will make America wealthy again. We will make America healthy again. We will make America strong again. We will make America proud again. We will make America safe again, and we will make America great again,” he concluded.

Former president Donald Trump is over an hour into his speech at a rally in Madison Square Garden.

He has so far promised to cut taxes, raise wages, end the war in Ukraine and the war in the Middle East, rebuild the military, and remove critical race theory from schools.

He also proposed a bill to impose a one-year jail sentence for anyone who burns the American flag.

At his rally in New York, Donald Trump congratulated his wife, Melania Trump, on the release of her new memoir.

“I was nervous when I read it,” he confessed. “I said, ‘I wonder if she said some bad stuff about me.’ I was very nervous, but she’s great.”

He thanked several of the speakers who took the stage before him, as well as the chief executive officer of Madison Square Garden Sports and Madison Square Garden Entertainment, James Dolan, for providing the venue.

Donald Trump once again calls Democrats 'the enemy from within'

At a rally in New York City, Donald Trump referenced a report that stated the US would not win if a war were to break out against China.

“I said to myself, assuming that’s true, how stupid are you to put out a report like that?” Trump said, possibly referring to a report by The Brookings Institution. “You don’t put out reports like that, and it’s not true. We would kick their ass.”

Later, he once again called Democrats “the enemy from within.”

“They’ve done very bad things to this country,” he said. “They are indeed the enemy from within, but this is who we’re fighting. These are the people who are doing such harm to our country with their open border policies, record-setting inflation, the green new scam, and everything else that they’re doing.”

Donald Trump called Vice President Kamala Harris “grossly incompetent” and a candidate with “a very low IQ.”

“She’s unfit for office. Everyone knows it,” he said. “No one respects her, no one trusts her, no one takes her seriously.”

He later repeated misleading criticism of the Biden administration’s hurricane response in North Carolina, where Hurricane Helene ravaged the state, and then boasted about not using a teleprompter.

Donald Trump is repeating his usual anti-immigrant comments at a rally in Madison Square Garden.

He showed a video montage of television news snippets related to crimes committed by migrants in the US.

“The United States is now an occupied country,” he said. “On day one, I will launch the largest deportation program in American history, and get the criminals out.”

At his rally in New York City, Donald Trump said that, if elected, he would support a tax credit for family caregivers who take care of a parent or a loved one.

“They add so much to our country and are never spoken of,” he said.

Trump also said that he would make interest on car loans fully tax deductible, “but only for cars made in America.”

Donald Trump appeared at 7.11pm – introduced by Melania – to a cacophony of noise and Lee Greenwood singing his walkout song God Bless the USA.

Trump is essentially bringing back his happy place by recreating the RNC euphoria at this Madison Square Garden rally: the speakers copied his dark rhetoric again, Hulk Hogan ripped his shirt again, Melania spoke again and Trump has the opportunity to bask in his supporters adulation.

Donald Trump is delivering his speech at a rally in Madison Square Garden

Trump walked out to a live version of Lee Greenwood’s God Bless the USA, his usual walkout song.

“I’m thrilled to be back in the city I love,” Trump said. “I’d like to begin by asking a very simple question. Are you better off now than you were four years ago?” he asked.

The crowd screamed: “No!”

Melania Trump, the former president’s wife, makes remarks following Elon Musk’s speech.

“Our lives are complicated, even during the best of times, and sadly today, a declining quality of life, coupled with economic instability makes it difficult for business to thrive,” she said.

“New York City and America need their magic back,” she added, “a country of tomorrow that will shape our future and reset expectations for the generations.”

She introduced the next speaker: Donald Trump.

Elon Musk is delivering remarks at Donald Trump's campaign event in New York City

Elon Musk is scheduled late into the series of speakers taking the stage at Trump’s rally at Madison Square Garden, highlighting the influence the Tesla CEO holds in the campaign.

“We’re going to get the government off your back and out of your pocketbook,” Musk said. “America is going to reach heights that it has never seen before. The future is going to be amazing.”

During Donald Trump’s campaign rally in New York City, the CEO of the UFC, Dana White, said that Kamala Harris is “not an agent of change.”

“Change is needed, but change will not come from the status quo, and she is the status quo. If you want real change, you’ll vote for proven leadership,” he said.

Later, Howard Lutnick, the CEO of the Wall Street firm Cantor Fitzgerald, took the stage. He spoke about the firm’s history before expressing his support for the former president.

“Donald Trump loves this city, no matter how crappy they treat him. He is back because he loves you and he loves this city,” he said.

McDonald’s seems to be a recurring theme in the speeches at Donald Trump’s campaign event. Earlier, JD Vance questioned Kamala Harris’s stint at the fast food joint.

Now, the former president’s son Donald Trump Jr is on the stage and used McDonald’s as an example of rising food costs.

“Let me tell you, if Donald Trump Jr has sticker shock at McDonald’s, we have a serious problem,” he said.

Lara Trump called New York City “the greatest city on Earth in the greatest country on Earth,” pointing to her father’s contributions to the city’s development.

“New York City made Donald Trump, but Donald Trump also made New York City,” she said. “He changed the skyline of this city, rebuilt it.”

Former president Donald Trump’s son Eric Trump and his wife, Lara Trump, are speaking at the campaign rally in New York City.

“This is so much more than a political movement. This is the greatest family in the world. We are fighting for a country we love,” Eric said.

“Somebody tried to kill him, and despite that, every single time he stands up and he says ‘fight, fight, fight’,” he added.