Trump's MAGA MSG rally proves it was never about the Nov 5th.
It was always about November 5th to January 20th.
Daily Beast’s David Rothkopf called Donald Trump’s Madison Square Garden rally in NYC “political suicide.”
One week ago, on October 18th, after watching Donald Trump’s campaign spending, I wrote that it doesn’t look like the Trump campaign is spending to win; instead, it looks like a plan to lose by a little.
When you have a plan to steal by accusing the other side of cheating, it does open up a few options, right? And that plan came into full view over a span of six hours last night.
With 30 speakers, Team Trump chose Tony Hinchcliffe to give the opening speech. To set the tone, who better than a man dropped by his talent agency for hurling racist comments at fellow comedian and Asian American Peng Dang?
And he did set the tone, calling Puerto Rico a “floating island of garbage in the middle of the ocean.”
That was just the warm-up. Then came the zinger.
“These Latinos, they love making babies, too. Just know that they do,” Hinchcliffe said “There’s no pulling out. They don’t do that. They come inside, just like they did to our country.”
5.6 million Puerto Ricans call America home.
Florida Senator Rick Scott understands this. He rushed to Twitter, saying, “It’s not funny and it’s not true. Puerto Ricans are amazing people and amazing Americans!” More than a million Puerto Ricans live in Florida. In a Senate race where he leads the Democratic candidate, Mucarsel-Powell, by just 3 points, even a small swing could tip the balance.
It looks like GOP Senator Rick Scott wants to win his race. Team Trump, on the other hand, has no problem at all. Who cares about the half a million Puerto Ricans living in Pennsylvania? Trump is behind Harris by 3 points there anyway.
Since Harris accepted the Democratic nomination, Arizona has been the one state I was most concerned about. Recently, Nevada joined that list. Two days ago, I asked Lincoln Project co-founder Mike Madrid for his thoughts on Nevada and Arizona.
He told me this:
“NV is in trouble. Breaking away from AZ. We might see a measurable difference between the two states.
I’ll write more on this today and give you a big shoutout. Remember this though, when a candidate is losing base vote (Dems with Latinos) it’s more important to watch the movement to the opposition. Harris hitting 60% is meaningless when Trump is growing his support. Why?
Because this is base Dem support levels.
Incidentally, Harris hitting 60% with Latinos isn’t good. This is the bad metric Democratic consultants denied was happening after the 2020 election. That’s how bad it is”.
Democrats have a weakness with Latino voters. It’s real, and it has the potential to boost Donald Trump in Arizona, Nevada, and Pennsylvania. Every margin gained with this community is crucial, and the Trump campaign’s best chance to prevent Harris from pulling away in the election runs through Latino support.
Yet, speaker after speaker unleashed racist vitriol against as many communities as possible. GOP defections have started to pick up in the final stretch, and still, Donald Trump came out and said he wants to invoke the Alien and Enemies Act of 1798. He’s asked Speaker Johnson to be ready.
Under the Alien Enemies Act of 1798: The president had the authority to determine who was an "enemy alien"—essentially, any non-citizen from a nation with which the U.S. was at war. If the president believed certain individuals from that group posed a danger, they could be detained or deported.
The act did not require the president to go through the courts to justify detention or deportation. The decision to identify someone as a threat was at the president’s discretion, with minimal checks and balances. This meant the president could act quickly and unilaterally, without needing approval from other branches of government.
Does it look like consolidating power in the hands of one man? Oh, yes, it does. There’s no way Donald Trump knew the name of the act and the year; it was given to him by someone. The dark MAGA forces circling the United States are actively looking to establish a dictatorship. Trump chose to express his intentions to consolidate power in this hands with just 9 days left until the election.
What about independent voters?
What about women?
What about Latinos?
Who cares?
However you look at it, this rally was not meant to bring people together or rally those outside the Republican camp to come inside and help lift Donald Trump over the finish line to get to the White House.
It was a message to the base—one that is going to vote for him anyway.
Now, why on earth would Donald Trump and his team do this if they are trying to win the presidential race?
Very good question Shankar and your hypothesis of the answer truly scares the crap out of me!