In the crowd, a few lost tourists with their suitcases took photos of the chaos. It's a busy Sunday in New York's famous Madison Square Gardens, but for an unusual event: a Donald Trump rally.
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“I've never seen a line like this before,” one bystander said as thousands of supporters of the Republican White House nominee gathered around the fence.
In the background of this gathering a few days before the US presidential election, the outcome of which is still uncertain, appear essential figures of the New York urban landscape: the Empire State Building and the “Naked Cowboy” in Times Square, one of the city’s tourist attractions. .
But for the audience, the real star is elsewhere. Seeing Donald Trump in New York City, who is deeply Democratic, is a real inspiration for Eric Milland, 65, who hails from the northern suburb of Yonkers.
mega/win
“It's great to see him here,” says the retiree, leaning on a cane. The man, wearing a Trump 2020 hat with the last zero crossed out to update it with the number 4, is counting on the former president to solve the country's “big problems”: “immigration” and “hospital backlogs,” he says. “.
It was in New York that Donald Trump was born and made his fortune in real estate – several skyscrapers there bear his name – before being convicted several times by civil and criminal courts.
Insults
But the presence of a sea of red-hatted supporters did not fail to cause some tension in the capital.
“I hope the terrorists kill you,” shouted a passerby at the vendor wearing red hats and T-shirts bearing the billionaire’s image. A woman shouts insults at Donald Trump supporters in a scene captured by a television crew.
A little further away, an anti-Trump protester waits for Trump supporters, holding a sign that reads: “Welcome to your Nazi rally.”
Agence France-Presse
In a campaign period in which the former president's rhetoric became increasingly authoritarian, some suggested that the choice of Madison Square Garden was not a simple matter.
In 1939, the hall, located north of Manhattan, was the scene of an impressive far-right rally, in front of more than 20,000 sympathizers who gave the Hitler salute amid American and Nazi flags.
This week, former White House Chief of Staff John Kelly estimated that his former boss met the definition of a fascist, an accusation echoed by Democratic nominee Kamala Harris.
According to John Kelly, the former president also said that Nazi dictator Adolf Hitler “did good things.”
Among onlookers, some families were more divided: like the family of Laura, a Democratic sympathizer who did not want to give her last name, who arrived with her son, who supports the Republican at the rally, “so we can talk about it and discuss it.” Later.
“I don't think all people who vote for Trump are bad,” she explains, before adding: “Actually, people are a lot more normal than I thought.”
