’Kamala broke it, I will fix it’: Trump’s message of hope to New York rally

Donald Trump was joined on stage by his wife Melania for the first time at a campaign rally as he vowed to support family carers and promised a ‘new golden age’, at Madison Square Garden in New York.

Donald Trump speaks to thousands of supporters at Madison Square Gardens.

Donald Trump has vowed to support a family tax credit for family members who take care of a parent or loved one, and to make interest on car loans fully tax deductible – “but only for cars made in America” at a rally before thousands of supporters at Madison Square Garden in New York.

“It’s about time that they were recognized, right?” Mr Trump said in reference to care-givers. “They add so much to our country and are never spoken of, ever ever ever. But they are going to be spoken of now.”

The former president also promised to “massively” cut taxes for workers, repeating his promise for no tax on tips, overtime or social security benefits as he continued a blitz of attention in the final stretch of one of America’s closest ever White House races.

He accused Kamala Harris of destroying the United States, attacking his rival as the centrepiece of his headline-grabbing New York City rally.“You’ve destroyed our country. We’re not going to take it anymore, Kamala, you’re fired. Get out. Get out. You’re fired,” he said.

Near the end of his address, Mr Trump promised: “Kamala broke it, I will fix it.”

In his early remarks, Mr Trump, taking a page from former President Ronald Reagan, asked the crowd if they were “better off than you were four years ago,” prompting a loud “no!” response.

“This election is a choice between whether we will have four more years of gross incompetence and failure or whether we will begin the greatest years in the history of our country. We will achieve success that no one can imagine. We will have the strongest economy, the most secure borders, the safest cities, the most powerful military, the best deals that will dominate the frontiers of science, medicine, business, technology and space,” Mr Trump said.

“I’m asking you to be excited about the future of our country again. I am asking you to dream it again, (we) will dream big again, we have not been dreaming big at all. This will be America’s new golden age.

Donald Trump kisses Melania Trump on stage at the rally. Picture: AFP.

He accused Democratic frontrunner and US Vice-President Kamala Harris of costing American voters “$3,000 in a short period, but over $30,000 over the last three years”.

“Kamala Harris has shattered our middle class,” he said. “She cast the deciding votes and launched the worst inflation in the history of our country”.

“If Kamala Harris gets four more years, our economy can never recover. If I win, we will quickly build the greatest economy in the history of the world.

“We will very simply make America affordable again, we’re going to make it affordable.”

Mr Trump was introduced by former first lady Melania Trump, in her first appearance with Mr Trump at a campaign rally.

Mrs Trump introduced her husband as the future “commander-in-chief,” and appealed for a better future, using her brief remarks to say Americans had suffered under the Biden administration from a “declining quality of life combined with economic instability.”

Former US First Lady Melania Trump speaks at a rally for former US President and Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump at Madison Square Garden in New York.

The former president claimed Republicans were coming out in unusually strong numbers for voting early this year, but when he asked the audience how many of them had voted early, only a small minority of hands in the crowd appeared to go up.

However when he asked who was going to vote, the question elicited a far stronger response and many more hands.

“Republicans like to vote on a thing called election day. The old days we had election days. Today we have election day periods. They go on forever,” Mr Trump said.

A gleeful Elon Musk basked in the crowd’s energy during his remarks at Madison Square Garden, letting out a guttural yell when he began and pausing to allow chants of “USA” to echo around the arena.

He urged Trump supporters to vote early to prevent “you know what” from happening — in what appeared to be an oblique reference to election fraud — before introducing Mrs Trump.

Earlier in the rally, the crowd began chanting “tampon Tim” when JD Vance mentioned his opponent for vice president.

“You guys can say that,” Mr Vance said, pausing to laugh and let the crowd continue. “I probably shouldn’t say that.”

He closed his speech by describing Mr Trump as someone who “gave up the easy life to save the United States of America” and said efforts by Democrats to stop him have failed-and will fail again on Election Day.

He knocked Ms Harris for weakening the country and said Mr Trump would fix her mistakes.

JD Vance speaks at Madison Square Gardens. Picture: AFP.

The rally opened with controversial remarks from comedian and podcaster Tony Hinchcliffe, who hosts a podcast called “Kill Tony,” who made sometimes crass and offensive jokes about Latinos, black Americans, Arabs and Jews in his speech.

Hinchcliffe said that Latinos have many children, using a sexually explicit joke to make a point about illegal migration. The joke received mixed responses from the crowd of Trump supporters, many of whom brought their young children. He also referred to Puerto Rico as a “floating pile of garbage,” and mocked a black man whom he said “carved watermelons” for Halloween.

In a statement on X, Hinchcliffe said of critics including Harris running mate Tim Walz: “These people have no sense of humour. Wild that a vice presidential candidate would take time out of his ‘busy schedule’ to analyse a joke taken out of context to make it seem racist.”

Several of the opening speakers at the 20,000-seat Madison Square Garden venue drew cheers from the crowd with attacks on his rival Kamala Harris, Puerto Rico and Latinos.

“There’s literally a floating island of garbage in the middle of the ocean right now. I think it’s called Puerto Rico,” said comedian Tony Hinchcliffe, who also took aim at birthrates among Latinos.

Mr Trump spoke as he and Ms Harris make their closing pitches, with polls suggesting a dead heat in the November 5 vote.

His rally at “The World’s Most Famous Arena” included backers like billionaire Elon Musk, who has personally hit the campaign trail for the ex-president.

Ms Harris, 60, charged through a packed day of campaigning in the biggest city in must-win Pennsylvania, including stops at a black church and barbershop as well as a Puerto Rican restaurant.

“We must not wake up the day after the election and have any regrets,” she told a rally in Philadelphia.

“Let’s reach out to our family and our friends and our classmates and our neighbours, tell them about the stakes of this election and tell them about their power.”

Sunday’s visit was be the vice president’s 14th trip to Pennsylvania since she jumped to the top of the ticket after President Joe Biden’s shock withdrawal in July.

“This is the closest and the best opportunity we have to have a female in office who happens to be a black female,” Myrda Scott, from Philadelphia, told AFP at one of Harris’s rallies in the city.

Scott, a black woman herself, added: “We’re all rallying around to make that happen.” On Tuesday, Harris will hold a major rally in Washington near the White House in the park where Trump fired up his supporters before they stormed the US Capitol to try to overturn the 2020 election result.

Ms Harris told CBS on Sunday that “it is very important for the American people to see and think about who will be occupying” the president’s house next year.

“It’s either going to be Donald Trump or it’s going to be me sitting behind the Resolute Desk in the Oval Office,” she said.

Mr Trump got his own boost when some Arab and Muslim community leaders joined the former president on stage Saturday at a rally in Michigan – where the Muslim vote could be key to who wins the critical swing state.bur/jm/bgs