New York | Donald Trump and his allies are full of bravado over his chances of victory in the closing days of the 2024 campaign. But there are signs, publicly and privately, that the former president and his team are worried their opponents’ descriptions of him as a racist and a fascist may be breaking through to segments of voters.

That anxiety was clear after Trump’s six-hour event at Madison Square Garden in New York City, where the inflammatory speeches on Sunday (Monday AEDT) included an opening act by a comedian known for a history of racist jokes who derided Puerto Rico as “a floating island of garbage” and talked about black people carving watermelons.