Trump joins wife Melania as he closes out Madison Square Garden rally: Live

Donald Trump spent several minutes rambling about Elon Musk and how impressed he was by a Space X rocket. He claimed Musk’s “dark MAGA” hat was the top selling MAGA hat the week after he debuted it.

He then said he was going to let Robert F Kennedy “go wild” on health, but said he was going to keep him away from the “liquid gold” — the oil and gas industry.

Trump then praised former First Lady Melania Trump for having the “best-selling book in the universe,” and admitted that he was worried about what she might write about him in the book.

He continued praising his family, including his youngest son Barron, who he called the “king of the internet.”

Puerto Rican singer Ricky Martin told Americans to vote for Kamala Harris after Tony Hinchcliffe, a MAGA podcaster who opened Donald Trump’s rally on Sunday, called Puerto Rico a “floating island of garbage” and made vulgar and racist comments about Latinos.

“This is what they think of us,” he wrote in Spanish to his 18.6 million Instragram followers. “Vote for @kamalaharris.”

He wasn’t the only one upset by the podcaster’s remarks; two Republican lawmakers who represent Latinos also pushed back on his comments.

Representative Jenniffer González-Colón, Puerto Rico’s nonvoting member of Congress and a Republican, called the comments “despicable, ill-advised and disgusting.”

She went on to say that there was “no place for such abominable and racist comments like those.”

Senator Rick Scott and Representative Maria Salazar also criticized the remarks in a statement.

“This rhetoric does not reflect GOP values,” Salazar wrote. “Puerto Rico sent 48,000+ soldiers to Vietnam, with over 345 Purple Hearts awarded. This bravery deserves respect.”

Melania Trump took the stage at her husband’s New York City rally to “Paradise City” by Guns n’ Roses, then launched into a bleak, but misguided, diatribe about how bad things are in the Big Apple — and the rest of the country.

GnR frontman Axl Rose has spoken out against Donald Trump’s use of the band’s songs, without permission, at his public appearances.

“Hello Madison Square Garden!” the former first lady began, calling the metropolis “the world’s undisputed capital of industry, where titans of finance, fashion, and entertainment convene.” New York is an “unforgiving” city, Melania went on, apparently empathizing with the audience about how “our lives are complicated, even during the best of times.”

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Donald Trump has once again invoked the phrase “enemy from within” to describe a nameless, unknown group of political opponents who he claims secretly runs the Democratic Party.

He said that Vice President Kamala Harris was “merely a vessel” of the “radical left machine.”

Harris was largely opposed by progressive voters — a group that is generally considered further left than mainstream Democrats — during her presidential primary campaign, and spent much of her professional life as a prosecutor.

Donald Trump claimed that the US was “very close to World War III,” and said that Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and the October 7 Hamas attack on Israel would not have occurred if he had been president.

“All those people would be alive,” Trump claimed.

He then pivoted to inflation, claiming there would have been no inflation under his presidency. He said inflation was caused in part by government overspending on the “Green New Scam” — referencing the Green New Deal — which is incorrect.

Trump then insinuated that Kamala Harris would lead the US into another war, and baselessly suggested that the draft might be reintroduced under her leadership.

There is no evidence to believe that the draft will be reintroduced.

Trump said that he “got along” with the world leaders, and claimed he told Russian President Vladimir Putin “don’t go in” to Ukraine.

Donald Trump is blatant lying to the crowd at Madison Square Garden. He claimed thee was “nobody” doing hurricane relief work in North Carolina after Hurricane Helene.

Trump said that the federal government could not help in North Carolina because it spent all of its disaster relief funds flying illegal immigrants into the US on “jets.”

FEMA has been active in North Carolina following the hurriance, and no FEMA disaster relief funds were used to fly migrants into the US or house them at the southern border. Trump is repeating a long-debunked lie that he and other Republicans have been pushing since Hurricane Helene.

He claimed the response to Hurricane Helene was worse than the response to Hurricane Katrina.

Donald Trump said Kamala Harris has “orchestrated the most egregious betrayal” of any American leader, claiming she has unleashed “migrant gangs” into the US to terrorize Americans.

He falsely claimed that she, specifically, brought “criminal migrants” from “prisons and insane asylums” from “all over the world.”

There is no evidence of his claim.

“The day I take the oath of office, the migrant invasion of our country ends, and the restoration of our country begins,” Trump said.

He then alleged that a Venezuelan prison gang “took over” Times Square as well as apartment complexes across the country, and played a video collecting highlights of incidents in which migrants committed crimes.

“That’s who we’re allowing into our country. We’re not going to have a country any longer,” Trump said.

He called the US an “occupied country,” but said the day after he becomes president will be known as “liberation day,” during which he will enact the largest deportation program in US history.

Trump said in order to enact his deportation program, he would enact the “Alien Enemies Act of 1789,” and he would call for the death penalty for any illegal migrant who kills a US citizen or a law enforcement officer, which was met with “USA” chants.

Donald Trump said that his possible next term would usher in “America’s new golden age,” and said that it would happen “very quickly” once he takes office.

He said “Kamala Harris, you’re fired,” — invoking his Apprentice catch-phrase — to wild applause.

Trump accused Kamala Harris, specifically, of causing inflation, pushing for higher taxes, and killing jobs. Harris, even if she wanted to, has no such power to do any of what he claims.

The former president said he would “massively cut taxes,” including “no tax on tips, no tax on overtime, and no tax on Social Security benefits for our seniors.”

He also announced a tax credit program for caregivers who are taking care of a parent or family member, and said he’d make interest on car loans tax deductible, so long as the car is made in the US.

He provided no details as to how any of those programs would work.

Trump also said the US would achieve energy independence, and claimed that within one year he’d cut Americans’ energy prices in half — via “drill baby drill” policies.

Hundreds of Donald Trump fans have been standing in 50-degree New York City temperatures outside Madison Square Garden, watching the rally on an LED screen, according to The Independent’s Ariana Baio, who was on scene.

Those watching outside were unable to enter the venue because it was full.

Three women from Connectitcut told Baio that they had arrived at 1pm — and hour after the doors opened — and were turned away because the Garden was already full.

A large NYPD presence monitored the crowd.