Tourists carrying luggage collided with Donald Trump supporters excited to see their statue at Madison Square Garden – bringing New York’s sidewalks to a halt.
The Empire State Building and naked cowboy guitarist street performers – both staples of the Manhattan downtown scene – provided the backdrop for a Trump rally held just days before the election.
Eric Milland, 65, of suburban Yonkers, said the Republican candidate and former president deserved a warm welcome, even though the city is overwhelmingly Democratic.
“It’s great to see him in New York,” said the retiree carrying a cane, who had changed the date on his camouflage Trump hat from 2020 to 2024 with an orange pen.
Echoing Trump’s campaign message, he said, “We are in big trouble, it’s a crisis. Immigration is a crisis, our emergency rooms are full.”
New York is where Trump made his name as a playboy property developer, emblazoning skyscrapers with his name and infusing himself into popular culture through media appearances and stunts before running for office.
On Trump’s chances of carrying New York state with him in the presidential election, Milland said, “It would take a miracle – but miracles have happened.”
yelling and cursing
There was no less tension on the crowded roads near the venue on Sunday.
A woman wearing a green North Face puffer jacket shouted profanities at Trump supporters as a film crew captured the scene.
Nearby, a uniformed NYPD police officer haggled with a Trump T-shirt seller and sized up a “Trump is my Savior” shirt before deciding not to make the purchase.
An anti-Trump protestor held a banner that read, “Welcome to your Nazi rally”, reminiscent of a 1939 gathering held by an American Nazi group at “The Garden”.
Fearlessly, a Trump supporter in a stylish black and white American flag hooded sweater was photographed smiling with his arm around a partner in front of the banner.
“I hope the terrorists kill you,” one man yelled at a man selling a red Trump hat and T-shirt commemorating the former president’s narrow escape from a sniper’s bullet.
Police, Secret Service agents and plainclothes officers surrounded the area, a hub of activity that is home to a rail, subway and bus terminal as well as a 20,000-capacity “MSG” arena.
“We hope people will be happy on November 6” the day after the vote, Salvador, a 70-year-old retired university professor from Barcelona, said as he and his wife chatted among Trump supporters.
“We wanted to come and see, that’s interesting to me. Some people assume we’re against America – but that’s just left-wing politics in Europe,” he said before heading to the airport to return home.
Some tourists got caught in the melee and were checking map apps to find out how to get out of the spot while their children were inspecting the spot.
Fifty-five-year-old Democratic supporter Laura, who works in the lifestyle sector, brought her Trump-supporting son to the rally “and then we can talk about it and discuss it afterward,” she said.
“I don’t think all of Trump’s people are evil,” he said. “Actually people are more normal than I thought.”
(This story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
