NEW YORK – They camped out overnight, packed the subways, turned the skyscraper-enclosed streets into a river of red MAGA hats and paraded cars and trucks laden with Donald Trump flags through the heart of the Big Apple.
The Republican presidential nominee was in town and his “Make America Great Again” supporters were out in force to show that even in the bluest part of one of the bluest states they are a movement to be reckoned with.
Trump’s image blazed on the jumbotrons outside Madison Square Garden with the words “Dream Big Again!” and his supporters were dreaming about Trump back in the White House, propelled over the finish line by a rally Sunday at one of the world’s iconic arenas.
“Good, bad, whatever, it’s historical and something to witness,” said Mike Zarro, a 28-year-old tow truck driver from Long Island who told USA TODAY he’d set out for Manhattan in the pre-dawn hours to make it to the Trump rally.
Madison Square Garden has hosted some of the biggest celebrities, sports figures and musicians in the world across decades, noted radio show host Sid Rosenberg as he warmed up the crowd, calling it a “building made of champions and all-time greats” before anointing Trump “the greatest champion of all.”
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Trump’s rally in deep blue New York City with nine days to go before the Nov. 5 election drew head scratches from some political experts who wondered why he would take time away from the swing states. But in wrapping the former president in the aura of an iconic arena and creating a buzzy spectacle in the nation’s media capital, the Republican’s campaign hoped to manufacture a moment that would reverberate across the country and break through the noise in a close race for the White House.
With a speaker lineup of MAGA celebrities including Elon Musk, Tucker Carlson and Rudy Giuliani, the event also served as a bullhorn to bring Trump backers to the polls, with many attendees describing it as the ultimate Trump rally. It was loaded with more entertainment than the typical rally, from slickly produced videos to a comedian, artist and three singers.
“We gather here today in the middle of midtown Manhattan,” said Giuliani, the former mayor of New York and personal lawyer to Trump. “This is the most iconic venue of venues in the United States. This is where a Republican is not supposed to come, which is why Donald Trump came here. There’s no place in America the president shouldn’t be able to come!”
Trump backers flocked to the city early in anticipation.
North Carolina retiree Bill Robinson, 65, said he has been to 53 Trump rallies since 2015. As for Trump at Madison Square Garden, Robinson said that it would be “the granddaddy of them all” while camping out Saturday afternoon near the arena and the first person in a line that would stretch across a whole city block by the next morning.
“Fifty percent of the rally is Trump, the rest of it is hanging around like-minded people,” said Robinson.
Near Robinson, Pennsylvania truck driver Richard Everit, 59, waved a Trump flag and exchanged fist bumps with passersby who offered words of support for the former president.
Everit said he never voted until he cast his first ballot for Trump in 2020. The incumbent Republican president at the time “opened my eyes.” Now, he said he wears Trump gear wherever he goes.
His Trump flag, hat and shirt caused Brad James to stop as he walked past.
An immigrant from Jamaica who attends an Ivy League law school, James, 25, said he and his twin brother “came here the right way.” He resents that his family can’t afford to buy steak anymore for their weekend cookouts and believes Trump will tackle inflation.
By Sunday morning, the crowd of Trump supporters around Madison Square Garden had grown to the thousands as they funneled through police barricades down 33rd Avenue to the 19,500-seat arena.
Zarro, the tow truck driver, took the train from his home in Hampton Bays on Long Island at 5:30 a.m. He wanted to support Trump, but more “to be part of history” by seeing the celebrity former president at a venue known for hosting the biggest celebrities in the world.
Wearing a red MAGA hat, Zarro said he supports abortion rights and doesn’t mind some restrictions on guns. His support for Trump is less about his policies and more about the fact he relates to Trump as someone who “speaks his mind,” and who he views as less beholden to special interests.
The sea of Trump supporters broke into chants of “USA, USA” as they waited in line in jackets and sweatshirts on a cool, sunny fall day. Vendors sold Trump hats and shirts on every street corner and worked the lines. Trump pins went for $5. Trump hats sold for $10.
Steven Reid said he travels across the country to Trump rallies. He sold 7,000 Trump hats in the last three days, and a few hundred by noon on Sunday. The classic red MAGA hat is his best seller.
The crowd gathered for the Madison Square Garden rally was “more ethnic, more diverse” than the typical Trump rally, Reid said.
A man stopped and bought an “I was there” pin with Trump’s likeness, the date of the rally and the name of the venue. “That’s history right there,” he said.
Rallygoers marveled at the mass of red Trump supporters in blue New York, which Trump lost by big margins in both the 2016 and 2020 presidential elections.
“This is amazing,” said Pennsylvania resident Ryan O’Donnell, 39, as he looked around at the crowd. “There’s a lot of people supporting him. They’re more of what you would call a silent majority.”
Dorothy Purtill, 53, said she sees signs of support for Trump everywhere in her town of Wappingers Falls, New York – flags, vehicle parades, people waving signs on street corners.
“It feels like he has a lot of momentum behind him, and I think he can pull it off,” said Purtill, a legal secretary and mother of six who regularly feeds 12 people for dinner and has struggled with the cost of groceries.
Some New Yorkers weren’t enthused by the MAGA invasion, though. They muttered about the crowded streets and visible signs of Trump support everywhere. Passing a t-shirt vendor, one man said that he would buy a Trump shirt if he needed something to wipe his behind.
Along Eighth Street outside the arena, a woman with bright red hair dragged a cart with a banner saying “welcome to your Nazi rally.” Nearby, another woman with a “Stop Project 2025” headband waved a banner reading “Trump should be in prison on one side” and “Don the felon” on the other.
Some Trump critics even infiltrated the rally. Marty Nagel, an attorney who lives on the south shore of Long Island, is not a Trump fan, but he wore into the rally a red MAGA hat to blend in. He wanted to witness the scene in person.
“I’m concerned about the way the legal system is going to hold up to a Trump victory or a Trump loss and I’m here to bare witness,” Nagel said.
A large media contingent also flocked to the rally, with cameras everywhere on the streets. New York is also an entertainment mecca. Entertainer Robert Smigel worked the crowd with his puppet creation, Triumph the Insult Comic Dog.
A man in a white MAGA hat turned the interview around on Triumph and asked if he would be attending the rally. Triumph said no. He was told “they have way too many puppets already.”
