TOI correspondent from Washington: The rally was monumental — and raucous. Madison Sq. Gardens was stuffed to the rafters with 20,000 individuals, with 1000’s extra exterior. The speeches have been fierce, vitriolic, and in some cases, racially loaded. Elon Musk, the world’s richest man and MAGA’s social media megaphone, launched Melania Trump, making a uncommon marketing campaign rally look; and he or she in flip launched her husband, Donald Trump. For the MAGA devoted, the rally was a celebration of unity, the vitality indicative of imminent victory.
For a lot of liberals, Democrats, and even average Republicans, it was a neo-Nazi gathering, scarily evocative of a 1939 rally when greater than 20,000 supporters of Adolf Hitler packed into MSG for a so-called pro-America rally. Trump’s personal niece, Mary Trump, a fierce critic of the MAGA supremo, posted photos of the 1939 and 2024 rallies facet by facet on X, questioning, “So, we’re actually doing this once more. Eyes broad open.” Kamala Harris’ working mate Tim Walz famous: “There’s a direct parallel to a giant rally that occurred within the mid-Thirties at Madison Sq. Backyard… And don’t suppose that he doesn’t know for one second precisely what they’re doing there.”
Liberal media channels ran pictures of the 2 occasions in tandem. Different critics referred to as it a “freak present” “a complete embarrassment to the US” and a “hate rally.” Meghan McCain, daughter of late Republican Senator John McCain, puzzled: “I really suppose this rally may backfire…That is maga on steroids.”
MAGA principals pushed again, sneering on the comparability, stating that the rally included the group “Jews for Trump,” and Blacks, Latinos, and Hindus (together with Trump acolyte Vivek Ramaswamy) spoke on the occasion. They pointed to a Star of David, a logo of Jewish id and Judaism, draped contained in the auditorium. Elon Musk posted a meme on X with the caption, “If he is Hitler why did not he do Hitler issues within the first time period?”
Simply because he didn’t do it within the first time period doesn’t imply he won’t within the second, countered liberals, arguing that he’s now emboldened by the assist he has received for proposals like internment camps, mass incarceration, and use of Alien Enemies Act of 1798, a regulation crafted within the early years of the republic when girls and black had no voting rights. Trump himself ramped up his rhetoric, talking of “an eye fixed for an eye fixed” (close to tariffs) and chuckling a few journalist critic who was (metaphorically) “decapitated” by his supporter on faux information NBC.
Hours after the occasion, Elon Musk posted a photograph of a black MAGA cap with the phrases MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN. Critics famous that it used the Gothic-Fraktur typeface favored in Nazi Germany. “This font … is an homage to Nazi lettering. They don’t seem to be hiding their Nazi love, anymore,” learn one publish on X, amongst a number of that raised alarm.
