Sid Rosenberg, a pro-Trump New York radio personality, took to the podium at former President Donald Trump’s rally at Madison Square Garden on Sunday. He quickly noted that critics on the left had suggested ahead of time that the gathering, which drew about 20,000 people, would be a Nazi-like event.
“I just got back from Israel about two weeks ago,” said Rosenberg, who is Jewish. “I get back and they go, ‘Sid, you want to speak at this MSG thing?’ I go, ‘Sure.’ Out of character for me to speak at a Nazi rally when I was just in Israel, but I took the gig.”
In an expletive-laden monologue, Rosenberg went on to say that the Democratic Party consists of “degenerates,” “Jew-haters and low-lives, every one of them.”
Rosenberg and other speakers at Trump’s rally referred to claims from Hillary Clinton, Trump’s 2016 opponent, accusing the former president of “re-enacting” the pro-Nazi, German American Bund’s 1939 Madison Square Garden rally.
Some Democrats and liberal commentators have tried to link Trump’s rally to the 1939 rally.
“That jamboree happening right now, you see it there on your screen, in that place is particularly chilling, because in 1939 more than 20,000 supporters of a different fascist leader, Adolf Hitler, packed the garden for a so-called ‘pro-America’ rally—a rally where speakers voiced antisemitic rhetoric from a stage draped with Nazi banners,” MSNBC anchor Jonathan Capeheart said during a broadcast Sunday.
Capeheart added that Trump is “once again turning Madison Square Garden into a staging ground for extremism.”
Madison Square Garden—home of the New York Knicks and Rangers, and a frequent venue for other sporting events and pop-music concerts—has a long history of hosting political rallies across the left-right spectrum. It was the site of the 1924, 1976, 1980 and 1992 Democratic National Conventions and the 2004 Republican National Convention.
In 1943, Hollywood screenwriter Ben Hecht organized the “We Will Never Die” memorial pageant to advocate the rescue of Europe’s remaining Jews after news of the scale of the ongoing Holocaust was first reported to Americans months earlier.
The garden has also hosted events for foreign leaders, including India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi in 2014 and Pope Francis in 2015.
Former professional wrestler Hulk Hogan told the audience that he didn’t “see no stinking Nazis in here.” And Stephen Miller, a senior adviser to Trump who is Jewish, also spoke at the event. He wrote on Monday that Democrats engaged in Jew-hatred by comparing Republicans to Nazis.
“Kamala and her campaign are trying to rewrite history and minimize the Holocaust,” Miller wrote. “By using ‘Nazi’ as a synonym for ‘conservative American,’ they are doing PR for the Nazi party and the worst atrocities in history. This new messaging campaign from Kamala is monstrous and psychotic.”
Photos and videos that circulated on social media showed Orthodox Jews at the event, including Chabad rabbis helping attendees put on tefillin. “It featured Israeli flags in the rafters, people chanting ‘bring them home,’ and multiple speeches supporting Israel. Just like the Nazis would,” wrote Ben Shapiro, co-founder of the Daily Wire and host of an eponymous radio show.
‘Insult comic’
Tony Hinchcliffe, an insult comic and podcast host, performed a set at the rally that was laden with racial and ethnic tropes about Puerto Ricans, black people, Palestinians and Jews.
“I don’t know if you know this, but there’s literally a floating island of garbage in the middle of the ocean right now,” he said. “I think it’s called ‘Puerto Rico.’”
The comedian went on to refer to a black audience member carving watermelons for Halloween, made a sexual joke about Latinos and referred to the Israel-Palestinian conflict in terms of a game of rock-paper-scissors.
“You know the Palestinians are gonna throw ‘rock’ every time,” he said. “You also know the Jews have a hard time throwing that paper.”
Hinchcliffe made a gesture of doling out money—an apparent reference to antisemitic tropes about Jewish greed—as he made the latter comment.
“This joke does not reflect the views of President Trump or the campaign,” Danielle Alvarez, a senior adviser to the Trump campaign, stated about the joke about Puerto Rico. The campaign did not comment on the joke about Israel. (JNS sought comment from the Trump campaign about the reference to Jewish greed.)
The Anti-Defamation League stated on Monday that “political rallies should be about politics and policy, not offensive jokes that denigrate Jews, Palestinians, Puerto Ricans and other marginalized groups.”
“In a moment when hate has surged and when tensions are high, there’s no place for bigotry or intolerance on the campaign trail,” the ADL said. It didn’t mention Trump in its statement, but it linked to a Washington Post report about the rally.
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.), who refers to herself as a “Puerto Rican girl from the Bronx,” attacked the ADL for not naming the Republican candidate. The Jew-hatred watchdog “consistently bends over backwards to mollify Trump yet always finds a way to call out the only Palestinian in Congress by name,” she wrote.
The Harris campaign published clips of the comedian’s performance on Sunday, calling it a “racist tirade.”
The Trump campaign and some other Republicans subsequently backtracked. “I’m proud to be Puerto Rican,” Rep. Anthony D’Esposito (R-N.Y.) wrote. “The only thing that’s ‘garbage’ was a bad comedy set. Stay on message.”
Sen. Rick Scott (R-Fla.) also condemned Hinchcliffe’s performance. “This joke bombed for a reason. It’s not funny, and it’s not true,” Scott wrote. “Puerto Ricans are amazing people and amazing Americans. I’ve been to the island many times. It’s a beautiful place. Everyone should visit.”
Hinchcliffe defended the comedy set on social media, writing that his critics have “no sense of humor” and that the jokes were “taken out of context to make it seem racist.”
The controversy over Hinchcliffe’s Puerto Rico comments is potentially significant in the presidential election, given the large stateside Puerto Rican population in key swing states, like Pennsylvania and Michigan, where according to the 2020 census there were 456,589 and 50,209 Puerto Ricans, respectively.
Puerto Ricans are also a large voting bloc in New York, where Republicans are hoping to hold on to congressional gains that gave them a majority in the House after the 2022 midterms.
Trump’s electoral strategy includes winning a larger share of Latino and black voters than he did in 2020 or 2016, while Vice President Kamala Harris’s campaign has sought to portray Trump as a racist and a fascist.
Harris stated on Monday that Trump events like the Madison Square Garden rally are driving Americans to support her candidacy. “People are exhausted with him,” she said. “People are literally ready to turn the page. They’re tired of it.”